Rep Power: 0

Hello everyone, Have an issue that's got me a bit stumped.

Short story is I was traveling down the freeway when my 98 DX started to overheat. Pulled over and no coolant in the overflow, there was coolant sprayed all over the back of the engine on the passenger side. I figured it was something simple like a busted hose or something but nope, everything is intact. I towed it home and refilled the cooling system and have driven the car 50 miles now and it's been fine.

Any ideas? I thought maybe it might be a head gasket but it shows no signs of that and I don't see why it would blow coolant out the back of the engine. I honestly have no idea where it came out from!

Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 210

Did you check the heater hose directly under the distributor for leaks?
Your car may or may not be fine: keep monitoring coolent level in radiator and reservoir for the next few days. If it's losing coolant in radiator and gaining coolant in reservoir..then most likely blown head gasket.

Is the radiator fan working properly?
Leaks near water pump? A partially failing waterpump may not leak but, may not spin properly and cause intermittent over-heating. Inspect radiator cap too (youtube vid).

 
Rep Power: 0

Yes I checked all of the hoses. None are leaking.

Been driving the car around and no change in coolant level..

Fan works properly, comes on/off like normal. The only reason the car overheated in the first place was no coolant.

No leaks that I can see, water pump sounds probable and I was planning on replacing it with my timing belt change in a few thousand miles but as of right now it's working flawlessly.

I hate this car sometimes

 
Rep Power: 209

it still could be,

its not overheating now because you just filled it up with coolant,

give it some time, the same thing might happen again

 
Rep Power: 0

I'm failing to see how a head gasket could be an intermittent problem.

 
Rep Power: 210

Might want to consider bumping up the timing belt, tensioner, waterpump change a bit sooner to rule out a possible failing water pump. If, the waterpump is the reason it overheated, you don't want to risk the possibilty of another overheating and possible head gasket replacement on your hands as well.

 
Rep Power: 209

the blown head gasket is not intermittent, the symptoms of it are,

the overheating is a symptom of the blown head gasket, by filling up the coolant you are masking the problem, basically putting a band aid on it

 
Rep Power: 0

I figured it out, looks just a heater hose. Found it leaking today, had a nice hole in it right on the clamp. Have no idea how it didn't leak significantly the past couple days as I was test driving it but I'll take it.

 
Rep Power: 210

Which heater hose location?