HELP: Coolant temps hit the notch below max
 

So, driving home today, as I pulled in my neighborhood, I noticed my A/C was blowing warm. I looked down at my gauges and saw my coolant gauge was sitting on the notch that's at the 3/4th range just below the max. This is the first time I've ever seen that in my life so naturally I stopped in the street and immediately shut off the car. I sat for about 15-20 minutes and was inspecting under the hood and I found my radiator leaking fluid from the center, really strange but oh well. I already ordered a new radiator as well. My car only has 70k miles on it too so this is a real bummer.

Anyway, my question is, is this extremely bad? I know boxers have a habit of destroying head gaskets so should I be concerned at all about having to change them soon due to this wonderful event that just took place? Or is it not too much of a concern since I didn't let it go too crazy? This is also the first boxer driven car that I've owned as well as the first time I've ever had to deal with tis situation so I am still learning.

These cars don't have head gasket problems.

Your coolant level was probably low. You said it yourself the radiator was leaking. Your car probably had a load of aftermarket stuff on it and was shoddily put back to stock. You probably didn't hurt anything as long as you didn't keep driving it around with the temp gauge maxed out.

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Yep, fix/replace the radiator, fill with the proper coolant, run the car and keep an eye on the heat gauge. Hopefully you will get off lucky - :thumbsup:

Did exactly that, haven't had any weird issues with the engine so far. Hopefully it didn't do any damage that I'll see later down the line.

Hopefully so.

Back in the day, on the farm, when we would get a cooling system leak, we would add a cup of Quacker Oats to the radiator. And, if you were using alcohol as an antifreeze, when the car warmed up - it would small sooooo good - ;)

That was when radiators was made of cooper

Yep, copper and brass.

If that was still the case, wouldn't copper thieves have a ball today - :eyebulge: