Today on the way home from work the Check Gauges light came on.  So the first thing that went through my mind was, “Time to feed the beast again”.  But no, I still had around half a tank so I did a quick glance around and my temp was about to red line.  I quickly pull over and shut off, hop out and take a gander under the hood.  I see a couple spots of what might have been anti-freeze but it was difficult to tell since it’s been raining non-stop for about a week now and everything stays wet.  I do a quick feel of all the coolant hoses and they are hot so I know that there is liquid moving through them but they did feel a bit lacking.

I hop back in the car and the temp had already gone back down into the norm.  Thought to myself WTF.  So I start her back up and start heading back down the interstate again only to have the same thing happen again maybe a mile down the road.  The temp gauge would go wildly back and forth while driving sometimes so I was beginning to think it might either be the sensor or the gauge itself.

I limp into a gas station and go to relieve the pressure in the cooling system to see if it actually is fluid related.  It boils over but only between 1-2 ounces.  Well, there’s you’re problem!  The rad was pretty empty.  So I head inside and get extorted by the station for $15 for a gallon of coolant and a small funnel.  It chugs down the entire gallon and still looks thirsty.

I button it up and get her started again.  The temp holds at the norm.  Good, so I hop in soaked with freezing rain and head back to the house.  No more issues at that point.  At home I was able to squeeze in about another 1/3 qt of coolant and let it run for a bit, it looks to be happy now but I will have to look at it some before heading to work in the morning.

Now I just need to find out why I was missing around 1/3 of my total coolant.  I have not seen any coolant leaks on my garage floor or anywhere else lately, just the normal PS fluid that I am already aware of leaking out.  Here is hoping that I don’t find it in my engine oil where I go to change that this weekend.