Q: Car wont start just cranks after overheating because of no radiator cap on a 06 Toyota Camry LE.
I drove to work and about 3 miles into the freeway my car started to overheat. I barely made it off the freeway to park and inspect. When i opened the hood i noticed there was oil and coolant spilled everywhere, not to mention the radiator cap was missing! I'm not sure where the oil came from but the coolant seems to have spilled from the top of the radiator. I checked my oil dipstick and had no oil and barely any coolant and now my car wont start it just cranks. Also there seems to be no coolant in the oil when i drained it and the radiator shows no sign of oil, my spark plugs seems a little dirty but not wet. We had a mechanic quickly diagnose it where he said hes not sure but the 4 cylinders are only getting around 90 in the compression test. I had a mechanic do a compression check and found that all my cylinders only have around 90 psi. Also the engine shoots water from the two middle cylinders out of the spark plug hole and radiator top hole when doing a head gasket check.
My car has 180000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
Hi Michael. When a cylinder is losing pressure or specifically, "engine shoots water from the two middle cylinders out of the spark plug hole and radiator top hole when doing a head gasket check", that’s typically an indication of a major mechanical problem. In most cases, this could be due to a cracked engine block. If oil had been sprayed under the hood and there was nearly no oil inside the motor when you checked it, I would wager that the engine is damaged to the point of reasonable repair. Without being their to clarify what is working and what is not working, it’s hard to tell you for certain - so you might want to get a second onsite opinion on how to proceed.
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