I noticed it needed new coolant so i put some in yesterday Today it started smoking out of the driver side of the hood so i pulled over There was no fire and after the car cooled down i checked the coolant and seen it was mostly empty Is this likely a inverter, coolant pump issue or blown gasket head? Maybe the radiator? I can't drive it now so will need to have it towed but if its a major issue i won't bother and will just scrap it as its only work about 2 or 3k, so not worth spending thousands to repair it
The smoke is probably from the inexpensive little inverter coolant pump. Once the magic smoke escapes, what's left of the pump tends to blow your AM2 fuse for you, which makes the car inoperable. You can unplug this connector to the pump, so it won't blow the next good fuse you put in for AM2, and then you can (gently) drive the car while waiting for your new pump to arrive.
But is there likely going to be anything needing repaired or replaced besides the coolant pump, you think? Almost all the coolant was gone that i just put in. Maybe a leak?
An inverter coolant water pump electrical failure can result in smoke, but DOES NOT result in the loss of coolant. It DOES result in a very acrid smell, because the smoke is from the pump and potting material smoldering. 50/50 chance an electrical failure will pop the AM2, which will electrically kill the car dash, completely. You would know it if that happened because the car would turn off, you wouldn't have any dash lights and no response when trying to start the car. But again, ICWP failure should not cause a loss of coolant.
Typically, no. The pump fails, you change the pump, good to go. But the failed pump doesn't make coolant go away, so whatever leak you have is just a different thing you also need to fix. Conveniently, you'd be refilling the coolant after changing the pump anyway.
Not often anyway. Surely there must be at least some instances when the pump gets so hot that it results in leaks in its case or one of the hoses attached to it.
I didn't make it, I may have even forgotten who deserves the original credit, but somebody posted it here once and I'm happy to repost it whenever the topic comes up. I dunno—armchair surely-there-musting works out sometimes, but if I'd ever seen a post about it, then I'd say surely there is.
If I assume that a large amount of coolant was lost, then that would require a major leak. But I doubt it. Looking into the radiator cap really doesn't tell you much except your at least low. Lost of engine coolant can occur if one of two things happen: a leak in the system, or the engine driven pump somehow failed causing an overheat that resulted in coolant lost (that you can see) thru boiling some off. The pump failure can occur if the belt fails. As for fast lost of coolant this could occur if a coolant hose/line split open, or the radiator developed a major leak. But then you'd have to know the system was empty. Again, strange you didn't get a red triangle due to overheating. It is possible you are just low and it is a mechanical pump issue or a small leak somewhere in the system. The inverter pump/system, as others pointed out, has nothing to do with primary lost of coolant in the engine system.
