My car just 'expolded'
 

So i recently spent around 1.5k in repairs if you have followed my other thread. Changed my rear brakes and top radiator hose with coolant flush.

I thought my car was good for another 5 years but as I was parking just now, like 10meters from my stall i heard a muffled POP and the engine bay started smoking. I initially stopped but thought it was best to just park in my stall and turn off the car.

Noticed sweet smell from the fumes and opened my hood, found a small puddle of green liquid on top of my engine where the logo is and I look to the ground and its leaking green liquid. Quick google tells me its anti freeze.

What do I do now? Obviously tow to dealership and get it fixed but do you guys think its a problem that arose from dealership performing the top radiator hose/coolant flush replacement? From quick glance the top radiator hose looked fine. I dont even know how the liquid made it on top of the engine. fuck.

attached is picture minutes after it happened.
https://imgur.com/a/8zJcXAt

the radiator hose/coolant was fixed last sat. maybe 50km of driving since then. Also a few minutes after this happened, I turned the car electrical back on(without starting the engine) to check the engine temp and it was at normal.

Watching a coolant flush video now on a previous generation of g35 and it looks like theres a good chance my bleeder valve blew off, i havent gone down to check it but just by the direction I heard the POP, and the coolant on top of the engine bay, i think its the case.

What now? blame dealer and tell them to fix? buy some coolant and bleeder valve cap and just fill up?

Call the dealer and tell them.

Yes, it's to do with the cooling system. Maybe they removed a hose, to flush it and didn't clamp it back on or tight enough.

yea I’d def phone the dealer ASAP since they were messing with the radiator hoses I feel like it’s too much of a coincidence to happen suddenly.

I think I was looking at my bleeder valve on my 3.7 and mine was above on the top left I think? Was there coolant on the underside of the hood?

I think the clamp wasn't put in the proper place and clamping at the edge of the opening.

Kinda pissed. Just went back to my car and took a closer look. Found the culprit. it looks like a rip or is there a piece missing there?
https://imgur.com/a/SjqgANB


But i also found two other worrisome things.

https://imgur.com/a/7QWK14c

The coolant reservoir wasnt screwed securely all the way on both sides. Which worries me what other things they didnt do properly.

I also noticed that even with all the coolant I leaked, https://imgur.com/a/msmcXhx
the liquid in the reservoir is still above MAX line level, WTF? maybe its because its warm?

I also just noticed that im missing my Infiniti logo badge on my engine bay lol.

Call the place that fixed it.


The resevoir won’t empty if there is a leak in the system. It uses vacuum to pull from the resevoir back to the system. If leak, no vacuum.

I see but shouldnt the reservoir still have less coolant despite no pull from system??

yeah teh place that fixed it is the dealership which is why im even more pissed too, i pay that premium labor rate which is justified in my mind that they know what they are doing.

The cars currently in my condo garage, should i ask them to pay for towing? dont even know if towing car can fit in my underground lot.

When the system gets warm it will fill the resevoir above the level when it’s cold. When it cools down it would draw it back in.... but you have a leak.

Call the dealership and explain the situation. Mistakes happen even for a place where you "pay a premium" to have stuff done correctly so I'd at least give them a chance to right their wrongs.

From your culprit photo, that looks like the bleeder housing broke. It seems to be a common failure point on the 350/g35.

Was that photo taken by the passenger side firewall? The damaged part looks like it could be the same as the one on the flowing video.

bet people will say 'should've left it to a professional' if this happened outside of dealership's labour

the loose bolts on the res tells a lot

yeah its the bleeder hose by the passenger/battery area. the video is on a g that is one generation before mine but i guess same problem. funny how it was fine for 12 years and doing a coolant flush,replacement fucked it up.

They are not taking responsibility. They said its a common problem and fixing the radiator hose leak couldve restored the pressure and the part finally gave way given the age of the car. Part of me understands but I still think its bullshit, maybe the coolant was overfilled or the water flush wasnt done properly, not hard to think this way given the loose bolts on the reservoir and the carelessness that represents but whatever, its my word against the mechanic/service advisor. they did offer a 10%ish discount, 50$ off a 450 job.

Did you mention the resovioir bolts loose etc?

Was the $450 for the initial work or the estimate to fix this issue?

yeah i mentioned that im frustrated because the bolts were loose but to them its just a mistake that is unrelated.

initial work was a upper radiator hose replacement which was around 200.


the new problem is a hose in the back that leads the coolant into the firewall. its two hoses thats clamped together to a plastic tube and that plastic blew in half or something as i posted in the picture couple comments above

quote 450 for the parts and labour of fixing the problem but i will pay 400.

already out 120 for towing.

What's the breakdown on that? Skimming the video boibuddha posted it's literally just 2 clamps to swap the part so $450 to do that and bump the coolant seems really steep to me.

part was like 80. probably charging me 2 hours of labor to do the coolant flush

You should learn how to do it yourself or ask RS members for assistance,we are on a automotive forum afterall.No way in hell would I have paid that kind of money to fix something this simple.

Automotive repair is not as difficult as the shops make it seem like it is.

^ I’d have to disagree.

A dealership especially has pre determined rates for specific jobs. Only
someone familiar with the job, and someone who does it often would be able to complete the job in the criteria quoted. The fact it’s rated at 2 hours probably means there is a shit ton of things to remove to get to that part. It may be “simple”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not time consuming nor, “easy”. I’m all for doing things on my own but I’d say your underrating the difficulty of the job.

My dad was a mechanic. Specialized in electrical wizardry by the end of his career. The last year he moved cities and got stuck on the bottom of the totem poll doing brake jobs and other dirty jobs. He had trouble keeping to the pre determined time on the jobs. Just sayin.

But yeah, if he has the space, tools and everything else, go for it. But cleaning up your underground parking isn’t always that much fun.

OP might not have the space to perform any repairs since he lives in an apartment. Even a simple oil change can be more cost effective to get a shop to do it compared to driving to a friend's house and using their garage.

Yeah i dont have the space nor the time. I understand systems well and how they work, I knew nothing of the coolant circulation system today but now I can tell you that even if i replaced the part myself(i took the picture, its only a few more steps in replacing the actual pipe that the hoses are clamped to) there is no way I am going to perform a proper coolant flush and then bleed/burp in my underground garage with no proper catch pan and jack.

yep, I can do the spark plugs myself and follow this guide which is extremely detailed and would most likely take me a day

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...eplacement.pdf

or just pay 1.5 hours shop time @ merc and not worry if I messed up or not