I have a 2006 s40 t5 volvo it had been runnung fine until my son was using it to go to a friends house. On the way there the top heater coil hose blew. I couldn't really get any information from him as to what happened all I got from him was the check engine light came on and he saw steam after he got to his friends house. Long story short towed car back to house, replaced upper QD hose, ran car, lower qd hose broke replaced hose bypassed heater coil (coolent scent in car). I put coolent in car, after a few days of waiting for part to come in. Coolant started leaking from somewhere under the passendger side of car, ran car for a bit, it stopped leaking until it cooled off. I put some stop leak in the system, now after a few months of sitting and trying to figure out what next, I started the car and now the coolant will fill up the tank after it gets to regular tempature then the tempature will start to rise. I put some K-seal in the system (recommedned by a mechanicwho looked at it) ran it, coolant filled the tank again after getting up to regular tempature. Left it alone for a few days tried it with the cap off, it ran normal for at least 15 to 20 min and then the fluid just rapidly filled the tank and gushed out all over the place. Do I have a head gasket issue or a bad thermostat? Volvo had about 230,000 miles on it.

 

I'd start by checking/replacing the thermostat as that's a cheap part (always a good idea to replace that plus the reservoir cap whenever the car overheats) but does the car overheat pretty much immediately upon warm up (ie no circulation = bad water pump)? Any sign of coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant (head gasket)?

 

Hey mt6127, Thanks for your reply back then. I had a mobile mechanic friend of my brother in law come and look at it . He was all over the place with a diagnosis anyway turns out after it having to sit for a minute that it was the water pump.
Now I have new problems, my relatives were using the car because the Camry they own needs a new head gasket. The heater core clamp came off of the connection pipe under the dash board so needless to say the carpet is wet but because they don't know much about cars they kept putting fluid in it thinking it was an outside leak. The fuse panel/ecu got wet which caused the car to act crazy the head lights high beams stayed on , the blower motor and the red light for the mobile emitter alarm stayed on and the check engine light flickers like a neon sign. I pulled the ecu fuse panel and let it dry, I found a pin on the board that was corroded and it broke when I was trying to clean the moisture out now the blower motor didn't come on. When I put everything back together the same symptoms still existed. The panel used to make a clicking sound when power was applied now it doesn't make a sound at all, could the relays be stuck open or blown? I checked all the regular fuses and they are fine/