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I was out for a drive and my engine overheated so I pulled over and it looked like I had some type of big leak develop in my rad hoses. One of them was bubbling and coolant was leaking all over the road. I let it cool off and drove it up on a flat bed and brought it home. When I got home, I checked the rad and the coolant looks strange, it's this foamy / milky almost white colour (I attached a pic). I had the water pump replaced and coolant (Dexcool) flushed about 2 years ago. The fill bottle coolant looked milky too, it was really light orange and clean, but not transparent at all. Could the colour change be from oxidation or something from the hose leak?
I'm hoping it's just the hoses leaking and there's nothing bigger going on but seeing the coolant like that freaks me out. I looked under the oil cap and everything looks good there. The power steering fluid looked a bit low but was the right colour. Do you guys think I could have a head gasket issue or leaking power steering cooler maybe, or something else? Or if I just replace the hoses and flush everything will be OK?
Last edited by silver98ws6; Oct 6, 2024 at 10:55 AM.
You think it might be leaking into the coolant? And if so do you think it's related to the big leak I'm having? That one is on the left side of engine and the PS cooler is more to the right.
Last edited by silver98ws6; Oct 6, 2024 at 08:56 PM.
The PS Cooler can cross-contaminate the coolant with power steering fluid. That may be happening, but I am guessing that you have several problems going on. The P/S contamination doesn't cause boil-overs.
It looks like you have a stock radiator cap. If so, that's good. Many people have had issues with aftermarket ones.
I would start with a pressure test and make sure your cooling system is holding pressure. (I assume that it is not, which is leading to your boil-over.) Fix that first and then you can solve the other stuff.
In the future, you should plan for:
- Deleting the power steering cooler. (There are many great threads on this here.)
- A full flush of your power steering fluid. (Mandatory when removing the power steering cooler and every few years running without the cooler.)
- A full flush of your coolant. (Not like the "mechanics" do it... Half of the coolant is stored in the block, so you can't flush the system by opening up the radiator.) The radiator and block need to be drained. (There are two plugs on the block that are removed to do this.)
That coolant is definitely contaminated with something. Two year old Dexcool wouldn't look like that on it's own. Could very well be power steering fluid if you still have the factory "cooler" (and especially if the fluid was low), or it could be engine oil.
I see that it's an M6 car (based on the radiator), so at least you know that it's not a leaking trans cooler.
How badly did the engine overheat?
I would guess that you either have engine oil or PS contamination in the coolant.
I don't think I was driving for more than 10 to 15 minutes before the "check gages" light came on. When I did as I was told the temp was all the way in the red so I pulled over immediately and the car shut itself off. I looked under the hood and where the hoses attach on the lower left of the engine, I could see smoke or steam coming up and coolant sputtering out. On the road was a big puddle of coolant. The hoses on that side are all wet and so is the AC compressor pulley.
if it's oil contamination would that be a head gasket?
Those Power Steering Coolers are known to crack and leak, why I asked if you had it. Plastic on the side of the Radiator could have cracked, they do that.
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Coolant Leak Issue 
