First time poster here...
I have a 2002 supercab
I was up in the Lake Tahoe area camping, hadnt driven my truck for 3 days. Packed up my stuff, and was heading to another camp spot, when after driving about 25 miles, the power in truck was limited, I could see the coolant light came on, and "service truck soon" light, so I pulled off into parking lot.
After getting out, I could hear pressure in the radiator and could see some fluid flowing from the truck. I grabbed my dogs and went for a walk, and just let it sit for about 90 minutes.
When I got back, I opened up the cap to the overflow bottle, and looked inside and it was empty, and obvious the source of the fluid. I had water available and filled it up to level needed. I started the truck, coolant light was out, but "service soon" light stayed lit up.
I drove into the nearest town, and watching the gauge and never left the normal driving range of 1/3 up.
I wasn't using the AC at all during any of this.
Anyway, I ended up driving home over 100 miles without any other issues.
Besides "service soon" light staying lit. I even tried to remove neg battery cable thinking it might reset computer....Nope.....

But now Im wondering WTF would cause that out of the blue, and then give me no more trouble rest of way...
Anyone to help???

 

First have you flushed the radiator lately?Changed your radiator fluid?If its high mileage I would if you havent.
Could be a thermostat,I would get one and change it.(cheap enough)
Check your fluid levels and make sure they are correct before driving it.
As far as codes,leave them bring it to autozone and let them read the codes before erasing them!
Write em down and Google em/youtube em.


This weird scenario happened to us towing a trailer and my father changed the thermostat and all was fine.
The newer trucks go into "limp mode" to protect themselves from major engine damage.

 

Thanks man for your help. Going to follow up with this today and see how it goes. I didn't know Autozone will perform code checks, but then I can see how it would be good business for them to do so.
Thanks again

 

You can get a basic code reader on Amazon for $14.
Search for - OBDII Code Reader MS300 .
I carry one in each car, they work fine.

 

if you had a bad radiator cap.. and water instead of 50% glycol in your radiator, ....you might have escaped.

My first guess, is that your head gasket blew. And now you have mild misfire on a cyl which you dont notice, but he misfire monitor does.

If your head gasket didnt blow before you overheated to the point of boiling your coolant, it probably did because of it. It dont take much overheating.

To boil 50% glycol at 15 psig....without a doubt damaged the engine IF thats what happened. It takes 267F to do that. Even to boil water at 15 is about 227F. Still possibly hot enough to damage engine or warp head and cause hg leak most likely. And all it takes is once.

replacement engines have heat tabs that melt at 241 to show if they get overheated to ward off false warranty claims.

 

Thanks for the tip man!!

 

Okay, so I did a simple flush, filled it to spec, drove it once this morning to Starbucks 3 miles away, when I got back into truck and started it, the "service soon" light didn't illuminate again, and hasn't all day long after about 20 miles total, 4 stops.....
Im assuming thats a good thing??

 

Possibly good... you should monitor your coolant level/color and your oil for several weeks. Might also be worth picking up a hydrocarbon test and see if there's any exhaust gases in your coolant.

 

Maybe

Did it go off by itself or did you reset by disconnecting battery?

If you reset it, it may complete obdii requirements before it comes back on.

Lack of a engine light doesnt mean there isnt a problem. The count may just not trigger the threshold. Sometimes they come and go tor a while, but eventually get ad enough to be permanent.

Read the codes, it can show pending , autozone will do this. You have enough reason to be very concerned after what happened.. Whatever issue you have doesnt fix itself, it WILL be back. Guaranteed, and it will strand you. Intermittent problems are the hardest to diagnose, because cant diagnose them when they arent there.

 

^^^ Agreed, scan it for pending codes - you may prevent further damage.