2001 dodge Dakota v6 base model with about 215k on it
had radiator and water pump replaced last year due to coolant leak. Has been running fine until last week when it suddenly started saying it was overheating.
Antifreeze levels were good and after pulling over and checking I got back on the road and finished the hour drive with no problem.
Today I took a 10 minute drive, the gauge said it went hot for about 15-30 seconds before suddenly exploding antifreeze all over engine compartment and onto windshield. Pulled over and found the coolant line had ruptured. Towed back home, engine no longer turns over.
What could cause this sudden failure to happen? Every time the gauge read hot it seemed to fix itself and go right back to cold after which made me believe it was a misreading thermostat and I was going to replace that.
Any ideas? I’m not ready for her to go.

 

Wow. That had to build up some serious pressure to blow that out. Were the hoses replaced when the pump was done??

Pull the spark plugs, see if the engine will turn over. (and see if coolant blows out of any plug holes....)

 

No, the line was not replaced - my dad and brother replaced the radiator and water pump as a favor to me so they didn’t do thermostat or hose.
I’ll go out and pull the spark plugs now… what will that tell me? I don’t know anything about engines and I recently moved away from my mechanic (dad). So hopefully that’s not a dumb question on my part.
i think I can do the hose replacement, it looks fairly easy as I watched a few tutorials however I don’t want to risk it rupturing again if I haven’t found the root cause. Thanks for the response.

 

If you blow coolant out of one of the spark plug holes, you have a serious problem. Otherwise, the results will determine where we go next.

 

Looks like the filler neck busted. If one bears down on it every time you close the rad cap, it flexes, till it breaks. I had one break in the past and replaced it with a cheap aftermarket neck. Plastic was very thin and it proved unreliable. Got rid of it and went mopar.