Overheating

[laving]

i have a rav4 1996, it had been sitting for 3 weeks. all of a sudden when i started driving it started overheating. the fan was not working and there was water on the left front passenger side. a pool of water was gathered on the carpet.

after it had cooled i checked the radiator and found it completly empty!

has anyone got any suggestions.

[Davrav]

i have a rav4 1996, it had been sitting for 3 weeks. all of a sudden when i started driving it started overheating. the fan was not working and there was water on the left front passenger side. a pool of water was gathered on the carpet.

after it had cooled i checked the radiator and found it completly empty!

has anyone got any suggestions.

Welcome to the club :)

Sounds like a catastrophic leak to me - have you checked to see if some East African rodent has chewed through some plumbing? Probably not much help but I am sure there will be someone along later with more technical suggestions and things to check.

[vivianM]

i have a rav4 1996, it had been sitting for 3 weeks. all of a sudden when i started driving it started overheating. the fan was not working and there was water on the left front passenger side. a pool of water was gathered on the carpet.

after it had cooled i checked the radiator and found it completly empty!

has anyone got any suggestions.

Looks like it could be the heater radiator - can you smell any anti freeze on the carpet? Any drips from the foot heater vents?

hope this helps

Guy

[anchorman]

My suggestion in the first place is to fill it up and test it again. Make sure the heater control is set to hot as this will allow air to escape from the heater.

When the system is full simply check for leaks. Do it first cold and then if there are no signs do it again hot when the system is under pressure. Take great care in removing the radiator cap when hot to avoid scalding.

Once the leak is identified you can see about getting it fixed. If it is the heater an interim measure can be to bypass the heater at the pipes near the bulkhead.

Good luck and welcome to the club.