smoke from radiator

[ChaosSaber]

I was driving to work last night and my car overheated so I parked it and then drove it home, this morning I check and it was out of coolant, so I filled it and now theres smoke coming from the radiator but the car isn't overheating and my heat works fine, any idea?, its a 2007 Aveo LT

[xintersecty]

Well let's talk science. The reason they use a mixture of antifreeze and water is to increase the boiling point of the radiator fluid. So you filled it, what what? Most likely you have a pin hole leak. Once you stop driving you should be able to identify the the source of the leak.

[steelerdude99]

I was driving to work last night and my car overheated so I parked it and then drove it home, this morning I check and it was out of coolant, so I filled it and now there is smoke coming from the radiator but the car isn't overheating and my heat works fine, any idea? It's a 2007 Aveo LT

Although I have not replaced a radiator on an Aveo, I have replaced 3 of them (2 x Honda and 1 Toyota) from that same symptom. The pinhole leak, as xintersecty mentioned, has to be located first. On my Aveo, I have had a coolant at leak from a heater hose that was hard to fix as it was under the fuel injection. If it’s from in front of the engine a radiator OR the hose to and/from it is a possibility.

If it ends up being the radiator, they are not even all that expensive anymore as they are aluminum. Many years ago, they were copper and were repaired by soldering. Nowadays, replace if bad radiator.

On what I have worked on in the past ... You pull the whole radiator unit with fan and all misc parts. Then pull parts from the original radiator and place on the new one. Lastly, install it all in car. I would expect Aveo to be the same

Good luck
chuck