Car throwing up coolant?

smell the coolant in the radiator and you see if it smell exhaust with it. no? change the radiator cap and see if it continues.

The problem could be as simple as filling the reservoir higher than the "FULL" line. Coolant goes in and out of the reservoir, so there needs to be some room or it will overflow. Or it could be an overheat. 95% of the time that means a bad thermostat. You can tell because the radiator will stay cool or lukewarm rather than burning hot (painful to leave your hand on it), because the bad thermostat is stopping the coolant from reaching the radiator. Or if you know where the thermostat is you can see if it feels burning hot on one side and not nearly as hot on the side towards the radiator.

To check for a blown head gasket, first let your car cool off for several hours. Then remove the radiator cap or other cap in the cooling system (not the reservoir) and start the car. Let it fully warm up. If it bubbles like soda or champagne you have a blown head gasket. This is not common, but if you keep overheating it and don't fix the problem it could happen. Then you need over $1000 in engine repairs.

There are lots of other possibilities but start with checking the reservoir and thermostat and go from there. Those are easy and usually it's the thermostat. Other possibilities include a leak (check for puddles), or a busted/slowed/blocked fan (feel for air flow far stronger than any household fan)

First of all, the coolant level needs checked weekly. When there were full service gas stations the oil level and coolant level was checked every time you bought gas if the pump jockey was on the ball.

Second- the most common failure is that of the water pump. With a car ten years old this would not be surprising if it needed replacement.

Failure to replace the water pump is often the root cause of a head gasket going bad. On cars with dual overhead cams this job is often done with the timing belt. Some cars have OEM water pumps that will last two changes of the timing belt.

Other things to check- the belt that drives the water pump and the system that turns the fans on.

If you have been low on coolant- this can cause a perking type action.

So watch the coolant, oil levels and smell the exhaust. If there is a problem with the head gasket it will show up either in the oil, the exhaust or both.

The very best way to determine the extent of any damage that may have been done is to perform a cooling system diagnostic.

Follow the instructions in the attached tutorial to resolve this issue:

could be that since you had coolant with you, your overfilling, could be a small leak, could be a pressure cap, or a bad rubber allowing coolant to push out, but sucking in air.

you are right to be concerned, watch it like a hawk! i just gave a couple obvious reasons, there are more.

is your cooling fan working?