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Engine Possibly Frozen...

14K views 34 replies 12 participants last post by  Thate46Life 
#1 ·
So the other day I posted that all my coolant flew out of my expansion tank on the way home the other night. I re bleed the system, but I didn't add any more antifreeze. Last night it was extremely cold with the wind chill, went to start my car and the alternator was struggling. I hooked it up to another car thinking the battery was low and let it charge, alternator slowly got healthier sounding until it turned over. Sounded forcible though. I think the water pump was not moving or something. Opened the expansion tank cap and there was slush around the edges, squeezed the upper rad. hose and it was pretty well frozen. Don't know it it is completely frozen and potential cracked block or its just the expansion tank and hoses. What do you guys think?
 
#2 ·
Maybe you were lucky???

Start the engine, let it warm up and see if there are any leaks.

Get some sort of antifreeze in the engine if you can, if not get the engine covered with some blankets, towels, tarps or something and get a heat source under the hood, even a drop light that you know will not catch anything on fire is better than nothing.

Antifreeze is cheap compared to engine damage, even if it is the wrong kind of antifreeze, even some moonshine would work!!
 
#3 ·
NONE OF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE.

There is no way to know that the alternator is struggling to start a car, indeed the alternator does nothing towards starting the car and has no affect until the engine is already started. The entire starting sequence of your car is handled by the battery, not the alternator. Your battery will be affected by cold.

The engine cannot freeze due to climate. The coolant can freeze, but the engine cannot. You said that coolant flew out, and that you bled the system but did not add coolant. That's absurd. If the coolant came out, then you did not bleed anything if you did not put more coolant/water into the car. And, if it is cold enough for the engine to freeze then adding water is a bad thing to do.

Frozen coolant/water will not damage the block. It will push out a freeze plug, but not damage the block. The whole point of the freeze plugs is to be pushed out by the expansion of frozen coolant.
 
#5 ·
Frozen coolant/water will not damage the block. It will push out a freeze plug, but not damage the block. The whole point of the freeze plugs is to be pushed out by the expansion of frozen coolant.
Sorry, but I have to laugh at the statement that frozen coolant/water will not damage an engine block or cylinder head and they "freeze plugs" will relieve all the of the pressure of freezing coolant/water.

I have seen PLENTY of engines and cylinder heads cracked due to freezing, sometimes freeze plugs were pushed out, often times not. You cannot rely on freeze plugs to save and engine or a cylinder head.

Maybe you have spend too much time in SoCal and have not really seen a frozen engine, but I have seen all sorts of both aluminum and cast iron blocks and heads damaged due to freezing/expanding coolant/water.

Heck it was 9F here this morning and never made it above 20F today.
 
#6 ·
Then the starter was struggling, it was not turning over and making a whining noise. My car overheated and I was on the side of the road when the I unscrewed the bleed screw and it flew off and all my water flew back into the air. I did not put any antifreeze in it mainly because my car overheats on a weekly tradition. You took most of what I said out of context jdstrickland
 
#8 ·
Your car is overheating on a weekly basis because something is wrong. Continuing to drive the car with severe cooling systems issues is just asking for serious problems. You likely need a complete cooling system overhaul, as all e46s do at some point, and a proper bleed performed. You are best off doing the overhaul before driving the car again. Better to spend $800 on the cooling system than having to end up swapping the motor because you neglected it. That is if you haven't already done serious damage which very well could be the case by now.
 
#9 ·
Maybe I'm a high-functioning retard but ---

HOW IN GODS NAME DO YOU GET YOURSELF IN THE SITUATION WHERE YOUR COOLANT IS FREEZING WITHOUT LIVING ON MARS!?

Its called Anti-Freeze for a reason. This is something you should have done in like November -- make sure and check your coolant. God it only got down it 20° F here this year, I was 5° away from purchasing block heaters.
 
#16 ·
Just be sure to watch the temp gauge VERY closely when warming it up for the first time after it thaws...like stated above, it would be a miracle if the water pump survived. If the impeller is broken off, it will overheat very quickly. If all that checks out and it warms up normally...monitor for coolant loss into the crankcase for the first few drives. A crack may not show up in catastrophic form...it may slowly fill the crankcase with coolant. If the coolant level slowly drops and your oil level slowly rises...its done. It can do this without looking very "milkshakey" at first as well...so don't rely on that. Good luck :thumbup:
 
#21 ·
The week after I bought my ZHP we had a night in the mid teens in Georgia and I was nervous as hell because I knew it had a lot of maintenance neglect and I couldn't tell what (if any) coolant was in it. I was doing a full cooling system replacement the next week so I didn't want to flush it...I got lucky though no ice in the tank in the morning :D
 
#23 ·
The bigger question that you haven't explained is why is the car overheating on a weekly basis and why haven't you done anything about it? If you aren't willing to maintain your car correctly then go buy something that you can just change the oil every 5k miles and drive it. Seriously man, I'm not at all joking. These cars aren't for everyone and if you don't want to do the maintenance then just find something else so you don't have to mess with it. Everyone knows how easily these cars destroy an engine from overheating and here you just let it go and it actually got to this point after having weeks and weeks, if not months and months, of warnings from the car telling you that it needs some attention.
 
#24 ·
Needs a cooling fan, could be underlying issues. I have no absolute idea why it overheats. This engine could have been toast for awhile. Put an estimated 2500 into it so far and it was getting better until the other night. I also don't make a lot of money and can't send it to garages all the time.
 
#25 ·
If the engine is good then all you need is $800 to refresh every part associated with the cooling system on the car. Installing those parts and bleeding the system properly will fix all your issues. Again that's if the engine doesn't have a bad head gasket or other damage because of running hot. You really need to not drive this car until you figure this out. If it's not a bad motor and you start driving it again while its overheating on you frequently you will do some major damage eventually and instead of costing $800 to refresh the cooling system it's gonna run you thousands to replace the motor.
 
#26 · (Edited)
I really dont understand that bit if you drove car regurally with overheating. Why you dont found out which was causing it?
Waterpump & thermostat cost maybe 100$ and then 50/50 coolant 10$ more. Correct bleeding and i am quite sure you dont have any more overheating problems.

In this morning we had -14fahrenheit (-26celsius).. we have to take extra care here with antifreeze mix. My cars do have -40celsius fluids. I do recommend optical model antifreeze mix tester.

 
#28 ·
OP, I think you said your fan wasn't working. It could be the fan clutch instead of the whole fan. If that needs replacing, I would go ahead and do the belts, pulleys and tensioners while you are in there.

I live in Springfield (not very far from you) and I believe it got down to 15 degrees F Saturday night. Perhaps you had enough coolant in the system to your fluid mix from freezing. I would definitely keep a jug of 50/50 or straight anti-freeze in the car until you stop the leaks/overheating.

I bet your battery was a bit weak when you tried to start the car yesterday.

Get this stuff fixed my friend!
 
#31 ·
So if any one wants a little update on the life of my car, here it is. My car sat in my friends drive way for a month and a half or so and 2 weeks ago I had it towed to my house. I topped off the coolant with water before it got towed to see how vad and if there were any water leaks, and when it got home there was a puddle of water on the bed of the tow truck. So at this point I know there is a water leak and that was about it. So the next day I attempt to jump start the car and viola, it turns over. So I top off the coolant and drive to my friends garage. We did a compression test and all the cylinders have good compression (at least from what I read on some website).
Every cylinder is between 149 and 153 if I recall correctly, I have them written down but am to lazy to get up and read them. Now my car is sitting in my driveway again, waiting for my new expansion tank as that's were it's leaving from. All I need now is a new fan, to solve my squeaky belt, put in my new expansion tank, that is if it ever gets here :( , and re bleed the cooling system with more antifreeze than last time. I'll post another update when something else happens, if people are interested of course.
 
#35 ·
Today I put on my ne expansion tank and found that the drain plug thing that the expansion tank goes on is got a little leak, and the upper radiator hose has a leak. I ordered those parts and am going to do a quick k repair for today to see if the car can drive for a little while without overheating.
 
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