My son was on the interstate tonight and ran over a large section of truck tire which suddenly appeared when the car in front swerved at the last moment.

Good news is on first inspect it doesn't seem to have done any body damage up front. Bad news is he could see coolant spraying from behind the car in the mirror. He pulled over and appears coolant leaking from underneath but dark so cant really tell. He had the car flatbedded and will get it checked tomorrow.

I'm wondering where the leak may be from. Assume the coolant lines from right front radiator get routed underneath the car and maybe they are exposed and got cut or a connection broken. Assume the radiator didn't get destroyed since there was no obvious bumper/grill damage.

Any thoughts?

 

Is the coollant puddling beneath the parked car? If so that tells you where to look. If not, is there still coolant in the expansion tank? If so I think I'd start it for a few minutes to see where it drips or sprays from. If a line got punctured you'll need to make sure nothing else was damaged. That means jack stands or a lift.

 

proper inspection... period...

 

My guess would be at or near radiator[s] as it is all plastic. Conversely, the actual piping that goes from front to rear i.e. radiators to engine are hard pipes i.e. aluminum.

 

Bummer but as long as the car hasn't been overheated nothing to worry about.

My guess is if he ran OVER the tire but didn't break the front bumper is that one of the lower hoses from one of the side radiators can have ripped off, apart, or pulled and damaged a lower radiator pipe (aluminum/plastic radiator housing and hose connectors). The side radiators have the lower hose in a pretty vulnerable location. Radiators are reasonably cheap and is a straightforward replacement.

Bleeding the air out after refill the most important operation.

However, +1 to lift up and check underneath just so the truck tire hasn't ripped any thing else. The car is flat underbody so pretty well protected but there are a couple of lines that run a bit sort of unprotected.

 

it'll be easy to spot the problem after it's jacked on a lift

a gt3 rs once did the same. it ripped the hose between front and back of the car. the underbody panel was mangled.