Just a few minutes ago I was going out to get something to eat. I turned on my car and let it warm up for a few second. I drove the car down maybe 4 blocks and heard a loud pop like the sound of a blown tire and seen a plume of white smoke . I pulled over, turned off the car, and opened the hood. It look like the incredible hulk got cut under my hood. There was coolant everywhere. Two metal pipes leading from the radiator ruptured. I retained all the gaskets, put the two tubes back, and limped the car home . I'm guessing the heat caused this to happen and I'm trying to figure out now if I can fix it myself or will i have to take this somewhere to get done. I've taken some pics with my phone to show you what happened. If anyone has any theories or ways I can fix this please chime in. Warning... it can happen to you. I circled in red the busted pipes. I glad I close to home when this happened and now this gives me something to do for the rest of the afternoon .

-Jon

 

Those look like the AC lines going to the condensor, not coolant.

 

Could be there was coolant all in the inside of the engine bay. What do u think caused this?

Edit: Just confirmed though looking at my service manual it's the one-touch joint. Reading up now on how to fix it.

 

Coolant, or green liquid? It's likely the oil and dye from the refrigerant system, just went everywhere because of the pressure in the lines.

Ever had your AC serviced, lines or condensor replaced?

 

+1 on AC lines, cant explain the coolant though.

 

Yeah I just looked in the manual and its talking about a one touch joint. It was a neon green colored substance. I though it was coolant since when I looked at my coolant level it was tapped out. No i didnt have anything to do with my a/c worked on recently.

 

Neon green is AC dye, coolant doesn't really appear neon at all. Easy solution for the daring, taste it. A little amount won't hurt you.

Sometimes freak accidents just happen

So you said the o-rings were still there, and the lines snapped back together properly?

 

No none of the lines just snapped back, I just placed them back the best way I could which u can see in the pics. As I'm reading the service manual I have in from of me it says that this can be fixed by hand. Going to go look at at it in a min and see whats really going on. Does this mean i will have to get my ac serviced on now?

 

There goes your 3 days of vacation.

 

You'll have to see if there's any damage to the connectors, not sure why they'd just pop off like that.

Yep, you'll need to have the system recovered, evac'ed, and recharged.

 

See that $h!t huh!! Man I was so amped to bolt some of my stuff on and the ac hoses explode on me.

 

Does that mean I'm going to have to take it to dealership or somewhere else?

 

No, just any shop that can do AC work; most places can, like Midas, gas station shops, regular service shops. You could do it at the dealer, but...I wouldn't.

 

Right.. and you can always go to Altered.

 

Is the car drivable? I can stick some coolant in it and move it to the local gas station to get it serviced or jiffy lube. Kinda scared though wouldnt want it to overheat or anything. If the only thing I have to worry about is having no a/c i have a convertible

 

Seeing as how he's in VA, and it's ~100F outside, I'd be taking myself to the closest damn shop that did AC work, personally. We don't really do much with AC anyway (we could do it, but it'd be a lot easier for him to go somewhere local).

Then again, if you want us to throw your parts on...

 

It's driveable, yea. I still don't believe that's coolant everywhere. Check the level in the radiator, if it's up at the fill neck (and assuming the overflow has some in it) then you're good. I'm betting that green crap everywhere is dye for the refrigerant system.

Don't bother trying to use the AC, the compressor won't kick on if there's no refrigerant charge in the system.

 

If your coolant's leaking bad, probably not... It'll overheat in no time. Especially when the car's running, the pressure of the coolant will increase due to the heat. Trust me the last thing you want is to overheat your car. Mine went into limp mode on the highway due to a coolant leak a few months back. I seriously thought I was gonna die having the car dying on me in the middle of the highway. Good thing I was able to pull over while the car still had some momentum.

 

Good lookin' !! What i'm going to do is take it down to jiffy lube and ride with the top down. I know i'm going to catch a quick charge but it happens. Man I wish i knew what caused that to happen. As I drove the car back i didnt notice any overheating going on.

 

This happend to me also on thursday afternoon. i just got the A/C recharged. And that aint coolant its the A/C refrigerant liquid.