Troubleshooting: Cooling system issue? Options

[saleeka]

After getting to work this morning, I noticed while shutting my car off a faint sizzling noise coming from what seemed to be the passenger side foot well. After a more through investigation, the sound was indeed coming from underneath the dash area on the passenger side of the car. It sounded like water droplets hitting a hot pan, and I'm assuming that it's coolant (once the temp gauge in the car went down, the sound dissipated). I did not notice any particular odor coming from the car, nor did I find any coolant leaking... Should I be concerned, and what price range am I looking at to fix if need be?

This post has been edited by saleeka: Apr 11, 2008 - 9:44 AM

[GriffGirl]

Just make sure that once you find the problem, you let your car cool COMPLETELY (like overnight even!) before you delve into that hose replacement action, or else you could get burned pretty bad. And you'll probably need to drain the radiator a fair amount before you remove the bad hose.

Rule of thumb, at least as per my own experience with this stuff - check all your hoses BEFORE you go to buy new hose. If one's going, it's very likely others are close to going too. They were probably all put on at the same time. Ya might as well replace any questionable hoses while you're doing it. I failed to do this when I had this problem w/my 4Runner when I had it; within 3 months every single coolant hose had gone out and had to be replaced.