Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

Jimmy

Jimmy

Banned
I was heading to work in the 100 degree weather yesterday,and noticed the temp gauge was almost to the halfway mark.No biggie,it is freaking hot out,right?

I pull into a store to pick up a newspaper,and as soon as I get out of the truck it pukes all the coolant out from the front drivers side. I'm like WTF?

Upon inspection (and a NICE burn/blister on my forearm) I find the knob for the petcock valve lying on the steering box.Apparently it just decided to break in two. The threads and little plastic housing were still attached to the radiator. :roll:


Anyhow,I got it flatbedded home,removed the rad and put a new $6 petcock valve in it.It's back on the road now good as ever. :tup:


Believe it or not,I was extremely happy with this incident. If it hadn't puked after I turned it off,it might have done it cruising down the road,and that would have had the potential for some serious damage.

Oh yeah, FWIW I had never touched the petcock valve in the 7 years since my engine was rebuilt. I don't have a clue why it failed.
 
M

MikeRenz

not stock
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

Jimmy said:
I had never touched the petcock
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uh huh...suuuuure.


Prolly just hit the plastic heat cycle limit for that crappy little part. Def. much better than cracking the metal.
 
mattw

mattw

Active member
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

Jimmy said:
I had never touched the petcock valve in the 7 years since my engine was rebuilt.
Click to expand...


If I had to bet I would say that you probably touch it all the time just because you like the name of it.


-Matt
 
Maxtor

Maxtor

New member
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

My wife gave birth to our son two weeks ago on the 1st at 11:30pm on Wednesday night. Due to several reasons I didn't get any sleep on Wednesday night, and by 2am on Thursday night/Friday morning I was nearly ready to drop. I headed home to get some rest and was way out in the country (at 2am) when the check engine, skid control, and traction control warning lights all came on at the same time on our Toyota Sequoia. No underhood light (?) and no flashlight so I couldn't see anything. I thought it may be a computer glitch with a wheel sensor. All other gauges (temp/oil pressure/battery output) looked good. I drove a while longer when it started to detonate BAD. I was very close to home so I slowly limped it on in thinking it may have slipped a tooth on the timing belt and was just running too far advanced and was in a "limp" mode. I just parked it when I got home since I didn't have time to deal with it and called a friend the next day who owns a tow truck/service shop to come get it.

Long story short - He found a 2" rip in the lower radiator hose where ALL the coolant had dumped out probably very rapidly. I guess since there was no coolant touching the temp gauge it wasn't showing it as being hot. Thankfully it was a Toyota and not a GM, all seems to be ok with it after replacing the hose and coolant. Hopefully I dodged a bullet and didn't do any long term damage to it :roll: . I still can't believe it happened.

Jimmy - You're lucky you caught it when you did. I doubt the Ty would have done as well being ran with no coolant as my Toyota.
 
SY1616

SY1616

Donating Member
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

Maxtor said:
My wife gave birth to our son two weeks ago on the 1st at 11:30pm on Wednesday night. Due to several reasons I didn't get any sleep on Wednesday night, and by 2am on Thursday night/Friday morning I was nearly ready to drop. I headed home to get some rest and was way out in the country (at 2am) when the check engine, skid control, and traction control warning lights all came on at the same time on our Toyota Sequoia. No underhood light (?) and no flashlight so I couldn't see anything. I thought it may be a computer glitch with a wheel sensor. All other gauges (temp/oil pressure/battery output) looked good. I drove a while longer when it started to detonate BAD. I was very close to home so I slowly limped it on in thinking it may have slipped a tooth on the timing belt and was just running too far advanced and was in a "limp" mode. I just parked it when I got home since I didn't have time to deal with it and called a friend the next day who owns a tow truck/service shop to come get it.

Long story short - He found a 2" rip in the lower radiator hose where ALL the coolant had dumped out probably very rapidly. I guess since there was no coolant touching the temp gauge it wasn't showing it as being hot. Thankfully it was a Toyota and not a GM, all seems to be ok with it after replacing the hose and coolant. Hopefully I dodged a bullet and didn't do any long term damage to it :roll: . I still can't believe it happened.

Jimmy - You're lucky you caught it when you did. I doubt the Ty would have done as well being ran with no coolant as my Toyota.
Click to expand...

What, so you're saying your Toyota engine is made better than a Typhoons?....:)
 
S

socalblue

New member
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

I have plenty of toyota stories...one of my friends trucks, almost all the coolant seeped into his oil pan due to a cracked block turned his oil into frappy cappucino mocha foam that started gushin out the oil dipstick pan...and it still ran solid even though it sounded like it was gonna blow up any second. Even drove her to the auto shop after it was already driven a few miles with the frothy goodness
 
Jimmy

Jimmy

Banned
Re: Close call! Lost ALL of my coolant.

mattw said:
If I had to bet I would say that you probably touch it all the time just because you like the name of it.


-Matt
Click to expand...
Wrong. I hate the name,I just call it "Matt"
 
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