so it was 9:00pm and i come walking out of a restaraunt. i get into my 8 and start her up. Everything was normal. I sat there for about 3 minutes talking to my gf when i noticed steam coming from the enigine. I look down at the guage and it looks normal. I looked back up and see more steam . looked back at the guage and i watched it go from normal to hot in less then a second. i turn the car off and get out. before i get out i see a puddle of radiator fluid under my car. When i opened the hood the whole engine bay was covered in fluid. there was never a noise or anything. Not even an indicator lite. It was dark so i cant see where exactly the fluid was coming from. the car has 41.5k miles on it and it is always current with its oil changes and tune-ups and recalls.

anyone else ever have this problem or can help me out. I wont be able to look at the engine until the morning but i would like to know what im up against. if anyone can help it would be very much appreciated

 

Probably a hose. After they get three or four years old, they can fail at unpredictable times. Since the temperature guage went up quickly after you saw steam, I'd expect to see one with a pretty good split in it.

If the guage had gone up first, then steam, it would likely be the thermostat. Those can also fail randomly.

Ken