Cross Your Fingers And Do A Compression Test

Dear Car Talk:

What should I do? I put water in the radiator of my 2000 Ford Ranger, then headed to the next town over (about 13 miles). I was flying along at about 60 mph, listening to Pink Floyd, and I suddenly lost power.

I immediately pulled over and shut off my truck. White smoke came out from under the hood. At that very moment, I knew I had forgotten to put the dang radiator cap back on.

I called for help, which arrived about 20-30 minutes later. I lifted the hood and my truck was already cooled down. The tow truck guy and I added water -- lots of water -- not realizing it was running right back out underneath the car.

Luckily, the radiator cap was still sitting there on the motor where I had left it, but it doesn't look good, does it? I tried to start my truck but couldn't.

Can you help me? -- Terrie

With what, Terrie? A new car loan?

I think your primary problem was not that you left off the radiator cap. Your primary problem was the reason you were adding water in the first place. You had a coolant leak. Whatever was causing it -- a bad water pump, a loose hose clamp, a cracked hose, a cracked cylinder head, a blown freeze plug -- during that 13-mile drive, or perhaps even shortly before that -- the leak went from moderate to catastrophic.

While you were driving along, rocking out to "Dark Side of the Moon," I'm guessing every drop of your coolant leaked out and your engine was suddenly on the hot side of the moon. At this point, my guess is that you overheated and possibly melted the engine. When an engine gets badly overheated, you can actually melt the valves. Without working valves, you have no compression. And without compression, the engine is, as my bread-maker friends like to say -- toast.

So, before you even worry about how to fix the leak, I'd ask a mechanic to do a compression test and figure out why the engine won't start. If you've led a good, clean life, and it turns out to be something fixable, then you'll -- obviously -- want to take care of the coolant leak, too, before you get back on the road.

But it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep turning the pages until you find the car ads, Terrie. Hey, you can get an upgraded stereo, too.

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