Or does AC fluid look similar to coolant?

 

The A/C freon is actually a form of gas - no real liquid to it. The only way to check for an A/C leak is to have dye put in the system, run it, and look for the dye under a UV (I believe) light. It shows up purple under the light on any part of the hoses, etc. near the leak. Other than that the freon is invisible.

What ya got going on??

 

well last time i had my oil changed apparently the guy filled up the coolant overflow tank to almost as high as the reservoir tank would go.

Sure enough sitting in rush hour with some light AC on, something happened and white smoke was happening under the hood.

Pulled over, popped the hood and there was what looked like coolant all over the intake side of the car. There was no visible leak area around the radiator. It looked like one of the radiator hoses or something down underneath the intake leaked out some coolant and it was boiling on the headers creating the smoke and I could hear it boiling. I couldn't actually see a source of leaking though


I started the car and gave it a little gas in neutral and it seemed like when I turned the AC on the boiling sound got louder from what I remember.

anyway I figured there wasn't anything seriously wrong - was just smoke from coolant boiling that dripped on the headers. Turned the heater on full blast and drove home. I drained the excess coolant to bring it down to the normal MAX level

Since then I've had no AC at all - no cold air anyway.

 

when you turn the ac on does the compressor clutch engage?

 

I see you said you saw smoke near your headers. I remember reading that some of the headers are too close to the A/C lines. I am afraid one of your AC lines melted. They are only aluminum and cannot take much direct heat.

 

yeah that could be it I suppose.

Gotta heat wrap those suckers when I get them fixed then


hmm I think it does but am not sure - will find out later today

 

Sounds like a couple things going on......if the overfill tank was filled to the top, it's definitely going to throw out some coolant as your engine warms up. The fill markings on the tank are pretty low near the bottom. The excess coolant will spew out and pretty much go all over your bay (including headers). You should go ahead and clean up the bay after that - the coolant will dry green all over. Also, you mentioned down low on the intake side - check your lower radiator hose.

As for the A/C, one thing to remember....when a car radiator overheats, the A/C will begin to slowly stop blowing cold air. If your Z somehow lost a bunch of coolant, the A/C will start to blow warmer. Seems strange, however, that if your overfill tank was full the radiator would be low, unless a heater hose went out. Regardless, if your A/C line somewhere had a leak, the freon would not cause steam to come from headers, engine, etc. It's a gas and dissipates (sp?) in the air. With the radiator filled to the correct level, no coolant leak & the A/C on, if there's no cold air it's either a leak in an A/C line or the compressor isn't functioning. Let us know how it goes.........

 

thanks, guess I gotta get down to the dealer sometime to have them take care of it hopefully under warrenty