I have been in CA for winter break visiting my family. I left my G back in ND parked in my appt parking lot... My neighbor just left me a voicemail telling me that he parked in front of my car last night and noticed " a green fluid in the front of the car and on the ground, its all frozen but its definetly coming from your car" I am assuming the coolant/antifreeze some how froze I dont return back to ND till thursday... What do you guys think? Before last winter I had the coolant flushed and I was told it would be good down to -30*F I know it has not been that cold or even close to those temps... I thought coolant was supose to last much longer than 12 months? What kind of damage am I looking at if the coolant froze inside the engine/radiator? Another thing that seems odd is if it was cold enough for it to freeze how did it leak all over the ground?

 

I can't really answer to much of this but, say if the coolant did freeze maybe one of the hoses busted.

 

if its on the floor... sounds like a leak in the colant system somewhere...


maybe someone took a leak in front of your car/on your car and it froze up?

probably some drunk guy over the holiday.... LOL

 

how does your neighbor know for sure its from you car? If under you car is there a chance it could have been there prior?

 

My bet is on the hose. Keep your fingers crossed, because if it's just a hose, then it would be a cheap fix (even cheaper, if you locate the hose and replace it yourself).

 

Bottom line, you won't know until you get back there to confirm and we sure can't tell you what the problem is. We migth be able to help after you determine where the leak is from

 

True, wont know until I get back and open the hood. Looks like I will be out there with a flash light since my flight lands at 10pm.


If the coolant did freeze what would be the worse case scenario? Cracked block or radiator? The one image that keeps going through my head is when you leave a soda can in the freezer... the soda begins to freeze and puts pressure on the can...until it explodes... except instead of a can...its my radiator... Ugh I wish he would have never said anything... next two days are going to be long and slow...

 

Usually the freeze plugs will pop out before cracking the block. Frozen coolant sounds odd though.

 

Yeah, for coolant to freeze its got to get REALLY cold.

 

Coolant won't freeze unless it's diluted too much with water or if it just gets THAT cold. Prestone won't freeze until -34 F if it's mixed 50/50 with water.

I think temperatures that low are fairly rare though.

 

I still don't know how he knows for sure it's from his car... It's likely that he'll get home and realize neighbor was wrong and its not even coolant and/or not from his car ~

 

I have been praying someone threw a can of mountain dew under my car...

 

I bet he your neighbor somehow got under the car and somehow made the coolant leak out lol

 

Chances that its your washer fluid? I just got back from Fargo over the new years and it got to -34 between the 1st and 2nd. The washer fluid container is just a plastic bottle, so depending on what color your washer fluid is, it might be that.

 

Not likely to be frozen coolant. My bet is its not from your car. Unless you live really far up north its not gonna freeze over.