[accelerus]

Little background -- about 2-ish weeks ago, was on my way to dinner with some friends, as I'm turning in to park my "engine temperature" gauge comes on for like 10 seconds... then goes off. Weird but didn't think anything TOO major (hot ass texas anyways right?)


Same night, on the way home, it comes on and stays on (not good) after a minute I hear an increasing "rattle" that varies with throttle input. Pulled into the first gas station I could find off the highway, engine fan is running for about 10 minutes after the car was turned off, can tell the car is hot as hell. Also noticed before I turned off the engine i had NO heat out of my heater when turned on.

So I pretty much know that I have no coolant at this point - I add about a gallon of water to tide me over for the 5 mile trip home, soon as I add it I can see it dripping out from "somewhere" in the car.

Long story short I limped it home, took a look and saw that it was the "heater/hot return line" coming off the firewall that had fallen off. Retainer clip was still there... easy fix, refilled the system with a 50/50 mix and thought I was good to go. Problem seemed to be solved for about a week until I was sitting in stop and go traffic -- temp light comes on again. Sadly I'm STUCK in traffic so to buy me some time I crank the heater, and after a minute or two the temp light goes off. Car definetly has coolant and NO leaks as I have full heat in the HVAC system.

Took it to a Kia dealership yesterday -- they said it might be an air pocket, they fiddle with it for an hour. Sadly I didn't get back into town early enough to let them have it all day. And they didn't have any loaners. Problem seemed fixed -- alas on the ride home in any sort of sit and go traffic or running without motion... the temp light comes on after 10 or 15 minutes.

Noticed that the radiator overflow tank was FULL - and looks like it barfed out some coolant as well. (the Kia guy saw this, and also heard the fans spinning at full force for a good while after I'd parked at the service area.

Will see what happens -- trying to drop it off tomorrow only bad part is neither dealerships close to my house had any loaners. (i refuse to sit down there for 5 hours, and I have things I have to do (work errands) so a loaner is expected. Moritz Kia in Hurst (DFW) seemed very nice and receptive, just a bit frusturating because after 11K perfect miles this happens.


GRRR

 

[accelerus]

I was told they topped off the coolant - but didn't have time to tear into it, and I'd need to leave it for a few days (not a problem) but I gotta get a car in return. And they are fresh out of loaners for a few days.

Personally I think there is something wrong with the water pump itself, I think when the hot return line fell off and it was running without coolant for a few miles there might have been some sort of heat damage. The car runs flawlessly as long as you are doing highway speeds, soon as you slow down the heat light will come on super quick. At that point you eithier have to shut the car down or turn on the heater in the cabin to dump some of the system heat.

The fact I have plenty of heat in the cabin is telling me the pump isn't circulating coolant to the front of the engine/radiator.

 

[Wry 'Cuda]

So I pretty much know that I have no coolant at this point - I add about a gallon of water to tide me over for the 5 mile trip home, soon as I add it I can see it dripping out from "somewhere" in the car.

Adding (cold?) water to the hot engine may not have been a good idea.

 

[accelerus]

Well it wasn't "cold" it was ambient, and I had already let the engine cool for a bit sitting (stranded) in the gas station parking lot.

Update: dropped off the car at Moritz Kia - got a loaner, pretty painless process, of courser my luck is that it DIDNT overheat on the way over there, and we just had a super big cold front come through. (Was 90F yesterday, tomorrow it will be 50F) so even if they take it out on the road and drive it around I doubt they will be able to replicate.

Showed the service manager a pic i snapped on the drive home yesterday of the coolant light on.

We will see - I'm not really worried because 1) it's a new car and 2) it's going to get fixed one way or another. Sad that a lose coolant hose was the start of all this trouble.

 

[LA-Foal]

I had the issue with my Rio even twice. First time I was told by a dealer in he Chicago area that it was a switch that controls the coolant flow and on top of it a fuse.

Two weeks later, the same happened again and the dealer I purchased he car from in he first place replaced the engine fan.

Ever since I haven't seen he issue anymore.

 

[PLP]

It is too late to do anything, but better late than never.

Lesson 1 - NEVER drive with overheated engine. Pull over right away and keep the engine running while you check what is going on.

Lesson 2 - NEVER add so much cold water at once. As you said - ambient - ambient what? Inside the building? It is about +22C. Outside? +27C in Texas now? Comparing to +105C in your engine it is DAMN cold.

Lesson 3 - after you add more than 0.5L of coolant/water - you MUST bleed the system.

And now results - if you heard some nice rattling - you simply overheated the engine. Best scenario - nothing really happened, some heavy air locks that will go away with good bleeding.
Worst scenario - head cracked/warped and you get exhaust gas leaks what creates air locks, what in turn lets the engine overheat.


By the way. It would be great to know what you drive.
I can only assume it is Rio, but many people post in wrong sections...


Oh, and one more thing - the FANS will spin as long as the engine temp is too high (unless the fans spin because coolant in radiator is above threshold - the old school). But as I said - nowadays fans kick in when engine reaches more than whatever temp they are set to: anywhere from +95C to +105C.
Therefore, in your case engine was hot as hell, and YOU let it stay hot...
The only thing I do not get is why the fans were running after you shut down the engine.

 

[accelerus]

It's a 2012 Kia Rio.

It's sitting at the dealership since last Thursday -- got a nice Sorento loaner.

The first time the coolant issue happened it was due to the return hose basically falling off the firewall. Nobody to blame but maybe a slip at the factory, it's an easy enough fix anyway.

When it overheated in traffic -- I got off the road as soon as possible. Not sure if you are familiar with some of the traffic and construction we have in Fort Worth Texas but I was at a dead standstill in the left hand lane in rush hour traffic. Outside of turning on the heater to dump as much heat as possible the only other thing I could have done was literally turn my car off and block 1/3rd of the lanes (no shoulder on the left hand side on this stretch of highway) I took the next possible exit and stopped ASAP... since this issue only seems to pop up in traffic I of course turned the engine off. When I'm moving on the highway doing 60-80mph I can drive for hours with no temperature lights or anything of that nature.

Funny enough we just had a a major cold snap here in texas, part of me is thinking even if they do go out and try to replicate the issue, they will not see it because it's 40F instead of the 95F+ on the week it happened.

The only thing that sucks when you think about it, is that one lose hot return line that fell off, if whoever was assembling the car just pressed a few pounds harder it would have been properly seated and secured and none of this mess would have happened.

I did find it odd that when the dealership took it's initial quick look at it on Tuesday, they left the coolant overflow tank 100% full. It was my understanding that (since it's overflow) it should be kept at or near the "E" mark just in case the system becomes over pressurized and needs a place to burb.