Hey everyone,

I'm not a car guy, but after a laundry list of awful experiences getting my vehicles worked on, I'm very strongly considering it, so please bare with the ignorance.

My Mazda2 was in an accident a few months ago which required the radiator and most of the front body to be replaced. Well, today while driving home, I noticed an extremely strong smell of maple syrup (which I'm very familiar with being coolant outside of it's natural habitat). Luckily I was seconds from my driveway, so I just pulled in and parked as the overheated indicator came on. After opening the hood, I saw a massive amount of wetness everywhere! It was coolant, but I can't seem to pinpoint exactly what caused this "explosion" under the hood. All the hoses look good (that I see, I only counted 3 attached to the radiator), but I can't get a good look at the radiator itself. I need some help!

A bit more information about what happened; it seems to have been pressure related? The smell came on after having to punch it turning onto a blind curve, 55 MPH stretch of road that another vehicle was rounding. At the same time that the smell came on, the vehicle got up much quicker than it had been after the repairs were made to it.

 

Let it cool down, top up the cooling system with water ( temporary only) pressure test the cooling system & look for leaks. Also pressure test the radiator cap.