How Much Coolant

[whs]

My wife had the car out over the weekend. When she parked it, steam started pouring from the engine compartment and she was sure she had just destroyed my car. Recently I had some coolant dump out of the overflow, so I figured it was the same thing after some questioning over the phone. I have a MY 996 Cab with the original coolant tank cap, so I knew it needed to be replaced. When this happened to me it took maybe a quart of coolant to refill the tank. This time it took over 3 1/2 gallons of coolant/water mix. The wife said it spit out a lot of fluid, but I figured it just looked like more than it really was. Is this normal with the cap issue? It took me several heat cycles of tank fills to finally get the air out and the fluid through the system, but it now seems to have settled. I'm going to keep an eye out to make sure I don't have a tank issue, but is there anything else I should look for. If I had known it was going to take so much coolant, I would have done a full system flush!

Will

[demosan]

My wife had the car out over the weekend. When she parked it, steam started pouring from the engine compartment and she was sure she had just destroyed my car. Recently I had some coolant dump out of the overflow, so I figured it was the same thing after some questioning over the phone. I have a MY 996 Cab with the original coolant tank cap, so I knew it needed to be replaced. When this happened to me it took maybe a quart of coolant to refill the tank. This time it took over 3 1/2 gallons of coolant/water mix. The wife said it spit out a lot of fluid, but I figured it just looked like more than it really was. Is this normal with the cap issue? It took me several heat cycles of tank fills to finally get the air out and the fluid through the system, but it now seems to have settled. I'm going to keep an eye out to make sure I don't have a tank issue, but is there anything else I should look for. If I had known it was going to take so much coolant, I would have done a full system flush!

Will

Will, if you had to refill the cooling system with 3 1/2 gallons you were more than half empty. YOur wife must have had a warning indicator come on to inform coolant was low?? If not, a sensor in the cooling resevoir tank must be bad for one and more imprtantly there must have been a catastrophic leak somewhere to lose 3+ gallons ?? Hopefully, there has been no engine damage, i.e warping of cylinder heads, etc as a result of overheating. I would get the cooling system pressure tested to diagnose if the reservoir tank or one the many hoses has failed.

Good Luck!! :cheers: demosan