Antifreeze shooting out the top of the reservoir

CRUZE1097

MEMBER
2011 CHEVROLET CRUZE
1.8L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
120,000 MILES

Almost a month with this problem already. For some reason my car somehow heats up causing my antifreeze to be shot out along with steam through what I believe is the breather on top of the reservoir. I do keep an eye out on the temperature gauge inside while it happening and it is at normal which is a line less than half ways. I do smell antifreeze most of the time when I have my AC on but I am guessing that is because of it being shot out already. I might be wrong. My thermostat was replace because I thought that would have been the problem since it had a small crack on the plastic of it. I do not want to keep driving it but it is my only way of transportation. So every time I fill it back up by the the I get to work or get back home I have lost all the antifreeze in the reservoir. No engine light has come on at all either. They did give me a code saying something like “coolant performance low”, or something like that. Please help because as I see parts for this car are not cheap!

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,572 POSTS

Your description sounds like a blown head gasket. The pressure and heat are from the combustion gasses displacing the coolant. There are a couple tests that can be done to determine if this is the case. One is a coolant system pressure test using a special pump and adapter to put pressure into the system. You then watch the pressure gauge to see if it drops, which indicates a leak. The other test is a combustion gas test. It uses a fluid in a cylinder which changes color if there are combustion gasses in the cooling system. There should be none as the cooling system should be sealed.

The tools for both tests are usually available as loaner tools from some of the auto parts stores like AutoZone, Advance and others.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test