Coolant overflowing, but not overheating? (after short 4x4 trail)

[RoadBoss]

So I went up camping the other day for the first time of the season, definitely not the first time in this truck though.
I drove a couple hours on the highway, in 90 degree heat, with some stop and go traffic, stopped at a gas station, and then casually drove down a well maintained dirt road in 4H for about 15 minutes. I pulled to a trail and stopped, shut off the truck and got out. the temp now is about 70 degrees. After I shut it off, I could hear a bubbling sound coming from the dash/ engine bay. I realize now this is the coolant tank located next to the passenger side firewall. It stopped after a few minutes, and I continued on my way. I drove for about 30-45 minutes more, I switch to 4L, but wasn't mostly just cruising up some slightly bumpy roads around 10mph. I found a camp site and let the truck idle for several minutes while I walked around the area to check it out, and then pulled into its spot and shut the truck off. Again I heard the bubbling sound for a few minutes. This only happened AFTER I turned the truck off. I also made sure to keep an eye on the temperature gauge and it never went above half way up.

I camped for the night, and the next day I went exploring up a little bit more aggressive trail in 4L. nothing too crazy, but I was going slowly over lots of rocks and bumps for about an hour. I got to the top of the trail and again let it idle for a bit while I decided what to do. After a few minutes I decided to go on a hike, and parked the truck and shut it off, and it started bubbling even more aggressively than before, and then I smelled coolant. I opened the hood, and the coolant tank was bubbling like crazy, and it had overflowed/spit out some coolant from the overflow hose, it was all over the fender well and had run down to the ground, though it wasn't currently overflowing when I saw it, it looked like it just spit some out, and then stopped, but was still bubbling. I went on a hike and came back a couple hours later. the coolant level in the tank looked ok, maybe a little lower than before, but still at a safe level. So I started up, and drove home. Back down the 4x4 trail at low speed (I stopped and idled a couple times to take some pictures and look at the map, and also checked to make sure the cooling fan was running, and it was) back on the highway and into 90 degree heat, back through stop and go traffic, and finally home. I pulled into my driveway and let it idle for a couple minutes while I unloaded some gear and then shut it off. SILENCE. this time no bubbling, no coolant overflowing, everything seemed normal.

So now I'm trying to figure out what happened/changed. I've been up some seriously more rugged trails than this, in about the same amount of heat, or maybe worse. The truck itself has a lot more weight in it now, and a hidden winch that could potentially block some air, but I would expect those things to cause more trouble at higher speed/load, like climbing up a mountain pass, and it had no issues doing that, rather than at low speed and low load where all the air is being drawn through solely from the cooling fan.
Also the fact that it never seemed to actually get hot according to the temp gauge, and only bubbled/ overflowed AFTER I shut the engine off, leads me to think that it has nothing to do with extra load or worse airflow through the radiator.

The only other thing I can think of - I took it in for it's first oil change at the ford quick lube station about 500 miles/three months ago, and haven't driven it offroad since. Is it possible they could have just overfilled the coolant tank and it just had too much liquid in the system?


any suggestions/things to check? It's hard to take it into a dealer to fix a problem that it's not going to have while it's there.

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[olgzr]

So I went up camping the other day for the first time of the season, definitely not the first time in this truck though.
I drove a couple hours on the highway, in 90 degree heat, with some stop and go traffic, stopped at a gas station, and then casually drove down a well maintained dirt road in 4H for about 15 minutes. I pulled to a trail and stopped, shut off the truck and got out. the temp now is about 70 degrees. After I shut it off, I could hear a bubbling sound coming from the dash/ engine bay. I realize now this is the coolant tank located next to the passenger side firewall. It stopped after a few minutes, and I continued on my way. I drove for about 30-45 minutes more, I switch to 4L, but wasn't mostly just cruising up some slightly bumpy roads around 10mph. I found a camp site and let the truck idle for several minutes while I walked around the area to check it out, and then pulled into its spot and shut the truck off. Again I heard the bubbling sound for a few minutes. This only happened AFTER I turned the truck off. I also made sure to keep an eye on the temperature gauge and it never went above half way up.

I camped for the night, and the next day I went exploring up a little bit more aggressive trail in 4L. nothing too crazy, but I was going slowly over lots of rocks and bumps for about an hour. I got to the top of the trail and again let it idle for a bit while I decided what to do. After a few minutes I decided to go on a hike, and parked the truck and shut it off, and it started bubbling even more aggressively than before, and then I smelled coolant. I opened the hood, and the coolant tank was bubbling like crazy, and it had overflowed/spit out some coolant from the overflow hose, it was all over the fender well and had run down to the ground, though it wasn't currently overflowing when I saw it, it looked like it just spit some out, and then stopped, but was still bubbling. I went on a hike and came back a couple hours later. the coolant level in the tank looked ok, maybe a little lower than before, but still at a safe level. So I started up, and drove home. Back down the 4x4 trail at low speed (I stopped and idled a couple times to take some pictures and look at the map, and also checked to make sure the cooling fan was running, and it was) back on the highway and into 90 degree heat, back through stop and go traffic, and finally home. I pulled into my driveway and let it idle for a couple minutes while I unloaded some gear and then shut it off. SILENCE. this time no bubbling, no coolant overflowing, everything seemed normal.

So now I'm trying to figure out what happened/changed. I've been up some seriously more rugged trails than this, in about the same amount of heat, or maybe worse. The truck itself has a lot more weight in it now, and a hidden winch that could potentially block some air, but I would expect those things to cause more trouble at higher speed/load, like climbing up a mountain pass, and it had no issues doing that, rather than at low speed and low load where all the air is being drawn through solely from the cooling fan.
Also the fact that it never seemed to actually get hot according to the temp gauge, and only bubbled/ overflowed AFTER I shut the engine off, leads me to think that it has nothing to do with extra load or worse airflow through the radiator.

The only other thing I can think of - I took it in for it's first oil change at the ford quick lube station about 500 miles/three months ago, and haven't driven it offroad since. Is it possible they could have just overfilled the coolant tank and it just had too much liquid in the system?


any suggestions/things to check? It's hard to take it into a dealer to fix a problem that it's not going to have while it's there.

It’s possible that you had air bubbles somewhere in the cooling system that worked it’s way out while you were off-roading. That along with a coolant over flow tank that may have been slightly overfilled caused the problem. Has there been any maintenance done that could have introduced air into the cooling system?

 

[RoadBoss]

It’s possible that you had air bubbles somewhere in the cooling system that worked it’s way out while you were off-roading. That along with a coolant over flow tank that may have been slightly overfilled caused the problem. Has there been any maintenance done that could have introduced air into the cooling system?

hmm, the truck as 6500 miles on it, only maintenance done so far is it's first oil change. Unless they did something then to introduce air to the system, I have a hard time imagining it could take 6500 miles for air from the factory assembly to come out.

 

[doug910]

Man, I'm battling with this issue on my RX7...I hope I don't have to deal with it on my Ranger lol.

It's definitely odd that it starting out of nowhere, but if you're not overheating, there's not much you can do besides keep an eye on it to troubleshoot. Obviously taking it to the dealer and telling them it was spewing coolant in the engine bay will be an easy way to get a little bit of help. Who knows if they'll actually fix anything though.

The best thing for you to do is to return your coolant levels back to normal - both from the filler cap and the overflow bottle. Turkey basters are actually surprisingly handy to have around the garage to suck coolant (and other fluids) up. When topping off coolant from the filler cap, make sure to squeeze all the hoses around the engine bay to try to get of as many bubbles as you can. You can also keep the cap open while the engine warms up to burp the coolant as well.

Once you know that the coolant levels are perfect in the cooling system and the overflow bottle, keep an eye on it every time you drive. The fluid height in the overflow bottle will increase as coolant gets hot and expands. However, it should go back down after it cools. If it doesn't go back, you may have a pinhole leak in the overflow system that's allowing the cooling system to suck air back into the engine as opposed to coolant as it cools. Then, every time you drive, it's just filling up more and more and will eventually overflow. If it overflows while the engine is running, you may have a faulty rad cap that's allowing too much coolant to bypass into the overflow bottle. A faulty T-stat can cause wonky things too. Clogged radiator will overheat the coolant and overflow the bottle too.

Since your temps seem to be okay, I would drive the truck and keep an eye on things so that you have a better idea on what the issue is. After you do some troubleshooting, you can fix it yourself or take it to the dealer being armed with the info that you've learned from troubleshooting. Good luck!

 

[Frenchy]

It really sounds like an air pocket got loose or when you took it in they filled the coolant tank for no reason at all. I have been messing with the Rangers for about 9 months now and havent had an issue come up yet with the cooling systems. I have even gone on some fair trails where I am here in the high Rockies and have seen the collant temp get to 215 but the gauge would still show half or lower. Best i can say is keep an eye on it.

 

[RoadBoss]

It really sounds like an air pocket got loose or when you took it in they filled the coolant tank for no reason at all. I have been messing with the Rangers for about 9 months now and havent had an issue come up yet with the cooling systems. I have even gone on some fair trails where I am here in the high Rockies and have seen the collant temp get to 215 but the gauge would still show half or lower. Best i can say is keep an eye on it.

how are you reading the actual temp? I was looking in Forscan to try and find a way to add that gauge to the dash, but didn't see anything for it.

 

[Frenchy]

how are you reading the actual temp? I was looking in Forscan to try and find a way to add that gauge to the dash, but didn't see anything for it.

I have the my touch calibrator from Livernois

 

[RoadBoss]

Well, I'm sure nobody cares but I'm giving this thread an update. I visually checked my coolant a couple times since this happened, while cold and after driving around, and it looked fine. I never added any, so I assumed it had just been overfilled.

Then I went camping again last week. I was cruising up highway 285, everything seemed normal. Then suddenly just a couple miles from the pass summit (after driving for over an hour) the engine overheat light came on and I could smell coolant. I pulled off into the next stopping area, shut off the truck, and opened the hood. Coolant had bubble out all over the right side of engine bay and the coolant tank was nearly empty. I went ahead and began to loosen the coolant cap slowly so I could add some water and hopefully limp home, but then it became very apparent what the problem was.
The cap was only on about 1/2 turn, creating no seal at all in the system! So since there was no pressure in the system, there was no risk of pulling it off while hot. Luckily I was carrying a ton of water for camping, so I went head and began to fill the tank. It took nearly 2 gallons before it was back at the full line. I tightened the cap back on all the way until it was fully seated, started it up, and everything was good. I let it run for a few minutes to make sure no air bubbles would come up, and nothing did. Went ahead and continued on my trip, and had no issues for the next 6 days!

So, the ford tech who checked my cooling system several months ago when I had my oil change done, never tightened the cap on the system. I drove around for nearly 3 months, and 600 ish miles (I don't drive much right now) with no cooling system pressure, and never had any issues. I think that says a lot about the ranger's cooling system.

 

[ParkerAzJeff]

I'm not trying to alarm you, but according to the owners manual the cooling system capacity is 11.6 quarts. If you had to add 2 gallons it only had 1/3 of the coolant in it. I'd recommend you drain it and replace with a 50/50 mixture of the correct fluid. I'd also suggest you inform the servicing dealer of your findings incase anything comes up in the future.

 

[RoadBoss]

I'm not trying to alarm you, but according to the owners manual the cooling system capacity is 11.6 quarts. If you had to add 2 gallons it only had 1/3 of the coolant in it. I'd recommend you drain it and replace with a 50/50 mixture of the correct fluid. I'd also suggest you inform the servicing dealer of your findings incase anything comes up in the future.

very interesting... the water mixture turned deep pink/orange as soon as I started the engine back up, so I assumed there was quite a bit left in there. but I was using my 32 oz water bottle to fill it up, and I had to fill the water bottle from my 5 gallon jug at least 6 times, though I think it was 7 or 8 times... so somewhere between 1.5 and 2 gallons is what I added. It's crazy the total capacity is not that much more...

thanks for the info, I'll definitely be calling the ford dealer and at least have them refill the cooling system with the appropriate mix.

 

[RoadBoss]

i guess the lesson to be learned is to have a better look at your vehicle after the service is completed.

i generally take it for granted that my dealers mechanics are competent...but the more i hear of these incidents, the more weary i get

yeah... unfortunately I think that's true. I normally don't trust anyone else working on my vehicles, and I worked as a mechanic for nearly 8 years, with 3 years of school.

But with the ford pass rewards it's hard to not accept free oil changes.

I guess next time I'll ask them not to touch anything besides just doing to the oil change.

 

[doug910]

yeah... unfortunately I think that's true. I normally don't trust anyone else working on my vehicles, and I worked as a mechanic for nearly 8 years, with 3 years of school.

But with the ford pass rewards it's hard to not accept free oil changes.

I guess next time I'll ask them not to touch anything besides just doing to the oil change.

Even oil changes I don't like others doing on my vehicles for two reasons: 1) You never know if they actually took their time to drain all the oil out, and 2) I guarantee myself that the filter will come off without hassle if I change it out every time.

 

[Frenchy]

Even oil changes I don't like others doing on my vehicles for two reasons: 1) You never know if they actually took their time to drain all the oil out, and 2) I guarantee myself that the filter will come off without hassle if I change it out every time.

Of course they never drain all the oil out, if they did that an oil change would take 1 hour to do so. That is why you have all the quick lube shops doing oil changes in 15 minutes or less.

 

[doug910]

Of course they never drain all the oil out, if they did that an oil change would take 1 hour to do so. That is why you have all the quick lube shops doing oil changes in 15 minutes or less.

Lol, once I started doing my own oil changes and saw advertisements for quick oil changes, I was so confused why someone would want a quick oil change.

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