I received a call from my wife yesterday on the way home from work that the
Durango was saying "Check gauges", smelled bad, and was
overheating.  I told her to just pull over and I would pick her up and look
at it on the way home.

Once I got to the truck, I saw something I had never seen before.  The
radiator hose that goes from the top of the radiator to the engine broke in
half.  That was only part of what happened.  There was a complete and total
mess all over the inside of the motor, hood, grill, etc of this brown milky
looking goo.  

My first instict was thinking it was oil in the antifreeze - so I checked
the oil dipstick.  Oil looked fine.

Turns out the radiator sprung a major leak between the transmission cooler
and the antifreeze (both in the radiator).  This caused a flood of
transmission fluid to entire the coolant - overflowing the overflow,
breaking the hose, and making a huge mess.  

I have yet to pick it up from the shop, but it got a new radiator - new
hoses, thermostat, and both the antifreeze system and transmission system
were completely flushed.  

I had no way of knowing this was going to happen or I would have replaced
the radiator myself.  It was too late by the time this all happened as
everything needed a flush.  

I should have taken pictures...  It was the oddest looking mess (and
smelly) that I have ever seen.  Nothing like loads of antifreeze and
transmission fluid all boiling and exploded all over the place.  

I'm just glad that it didn't ruin the engine or transmission.  Everything
was tested and is fine now.  Hard to believe after the mess that I saw
yesterday. We had to have it towed - since the hose was ripped in half and
no antifreeze (if you could call it that) could get into the engine.  It
sort of looked like a coffee with lots of cream in it - about 10 gallons of
it.

I have never seen or heard of a radiator failing like that.  You learn
something new everyday.

- Mark
  
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