On 270 coming home from work today, I first notice that I don't seem to feel much heat coming out. I don't think much of it and keep driving. A few minutes later, I'm cruising along and my display goes nuts, coolant temp light comes on, and OH CRAP, temp is approaching the red. So I pull over and let it cool off for 15 minutes, then managed to limp it to my exit (luckily only a mile away). It was still heating up, and had I not shut it off and coasted down the exit ramp, it would have been back up to the red. I also noticed that as I was limping it with the heater cranked all the way up to try to expel some engine heat, it was blowing ice cold air. Soo, any ideas?
The facts:
- 2004 jetta (1.8t engine)
- Pretty sure it lost all or most coolant (MID said "check coolant level immediately)
- Overheating, and blowing ice cold air
My thoughts are that either the heater core, or a coolant hose just before the heater core cracked from all the cold weather and puked my coolant out. I'm going to limp it home later tonight and hopefully tomorrow I'll have a chance to get under it. Anything I'm not thinking of that I should look for? Any other thoughts?