Need help with a coolant leak

[armyzfinest]

Hey every1. I dont have a cobalt but my gf does and she has a coolant leak. Now i dnt have too much knowledge on her car and it looks so damn crowded in the engine area with all the damn covers and everything. I was looking for the radiator cap to put antifreeze back in but I couldnt find it so I put it in the resevior plastic tank. Was that correct place to fill it up? Anyways I stopped because once I started pouring the antifreeze into the platic tank the coolant started leaking somewhere from the bottom right hand corner of the radiator. Should I just replace the radiator? I checked allt he hoses I could see and it didnt look like any of them were leaking. and another thing question is all radiators i've seen are straight but her's has a curve backwards like she gt in an accident and it curved it backwards but the radiator itself looks fine. is that normal for this car or something entirely wrong with that. CAn some1 please get back to me on the correct way to fill this radiator with coolant and if i should replace the radiator? I would greatly appreciate it cause its been problem after problem with this car and we have no money to be replacing and engine from cracking cause the overheating.
Thank You,
Rich

 

[armyzfinest]

any1?

 

[outtamymind]

the radiator if it's curved as you say is cracked and needs to be replaced. and yes there is no actual rad cap as the cobalt coolant system is more or less a sealed system. the correct way to top it up is through the res cap. also make sure you are using a 50/50 mix of dexcool coolant. so pink stuff not green stuff, mixing will cause some nasty gunk to form up and potentially cause some damage

 

[Black_Dub]

are your hoses really tight when its running? could be a flow problem with thermostat.... but best bet if its curved probably is cracked like /\ he /\ said above...

 

[ff_drift_lol]

best thing to do is just run the car and keep adding coolant. is it orange? orange is dex cool, green is conventional. do not mix the 2. look for wet spots around the hoses first, then check the radiator end tanks. in the worst case scenario your water pump could be seeping but that's very unlikely. my guess is she hit something and broke an end tank. this can be fixed easily with jb weld or if you want to do it the right way just get a new rad.