So my fiancee leaves for work in the morning, and I'm thinking "Maybe we'll get that carburetor rebuilt finally, it might be time." as she's warming it up in the driveway.

Half hour later, I get a call. She tells me the car overheated. Naturally, I ask, well how do you know that? "There's smoke coming from the engine." I pry further, and she says that the temp light came on, went off, then came on with all the other lights, it started making "a noise" (this could be anything from a screech of the brakes, to a thud-thud of Godzilla crushing the car...who knows but her) So she had to pull off the road.

So I go to get her, the car is sitting at a car wash. Check the radiator overflow, it's still 1/2 full. Never have gotten the radiator cap itself off...and it was too hot anyhow to try.

I open the oil filler cap, and there's oil smoke.

So I am pissed. The car was driving who knows how far with whatever the problem was. I drive her to work, thoroughly upset.

On the way home, I stop again and figure I better leave a note so it doesn't get towed, planning to come back at 4pm to try restarting it. I also had to push this 3,800 lb behemoth into a parking space. Power steering would have helped.

Just to see if I'm completely out, and the car had cooled a lot more, I got in and figured what the hell...it's got oil, see if it'll start.
After a bit of holding the key turned, holding the gas down and turning the key, it finally rumbles to life. Keep it idling a bit, then stab the gas some to see if it's making odd noises. Just the usual, so I turn it off, and am quite relieved.

So now with the car cooled, I figure, what the hell, get that damn radiator cap off, gotta see how much fluid it lost. So I bang on it some, and finally can get it to turn. Look down inside...wtf where's the fluid?! So it's all gone.
Having lost one car to a burst lower hose, I start grabbing the upper hose, can't feel anything in it, look down at the lower hose...poke it...it flops out of the way. It popped itself loose. That's where the coolant went. So I fit the hose back on, put the clamp in place, and tighten the screw by hand.

Call the property manager, let them know the car overheated, came back and it runs, but can't drive it away yet, it's in a parking spot, etc.

Came back before 4 with 2 bottles of coolant. I figured that'd be enough. Not quite. After those 2, I still couldn't see any in the radiator. So I needed more.
Drove my fiancee to her other job, then to my friend's house. Bum around a bit, and finally decide to go get some coolant and top it off, so I can drive it back so my fiancee can drive it home. It took another 2 bottles, plus the leftover water from a 3rd I brought.

Of course on the trip home, I'm watching the gas needle go down to E. Pull in to the cheapest station, and get 20.5 gallons of gas, and call it a day.

Cliff Notes:

 

All that for a '74 Century too. I would've just left it on the side of the road.

 

It still runs after driving an unknown distance with no coolant?

 

all that bullshit should've taken 15 minutes.

 

Sorry it isn't a collectible, Frank. I rather like the car though, and for the price it's done pretty good so far.

Yeah Jordan...I was surprised. It seems relatively unharmed. Of course, you should have seen the yellowish-brown the coolant was before. It needed a flush, but I prefer to do it on my own terms.

Probably if you take out all the time driving, and waiting at home/friend's house, actually getting the car going wouldn't have taken much more than 15 minutes. It's just where it was located wasn't convenient at ALL. Maybe next time a hose shakes loose it'll be in the driveway, but I wasn't that lucky this time.

 

Why is this surprising?

 

haha i like the cliff notes

 

Not if youre pushing it...

 

Pansy... my car hasn't had power steering in like 2 1/2 years.... namely because it's a $250.00 pump.

And I had a problem similar to that too... all the coolant was gone, overflow was completely full.. no loose hoses or anything though.. just... gone.

 

I just read it again and it wasn't driven without coolant. I thought it had been driven for a while with no coolant.