How's that for a grim subject line? Actually, it happened overnight, I went out yesterday morning to walk my dog and glanced over at my car. Since it is parked on a slight incline with the rear of the car lowest, I could see that a flow of something had happened from the passenger side engine bay, and the residue was green. No sign of overnight rain or anything else having flowed. My conclusion was it was from coolant. There was no indication of rain, if was coming from my car.

Under the hood, around the overflow tank, I could see nothing detached and nothing was wet there or showed any signs of having been wet. But when I squeezed the top hose it burped the near empty overflow tank.

What would be the most likely source of the failure? The Volvo shares parking under an awning and so bringing a floor jack in to raise the passenger side corner might be a problem, and the neighbors might not like it.

Any ideas? When I parked the car the night before, it was running beautifully.

Help Mister Wizard!!!

Hi Doug,

Likely your radiator or a radiator hose has failed.
You can fill it up from your garden hose and then look for the leak.
Check the overflow tank and heater hoses for leaking.
Assuming it's the radiator, you'll want to replace that and the two hoses.
Give the engine block a good flush before changing out the old parts.

Bill