Overheating Toad!

[OldBlackWater]

I had a puzzling experience with my Ford C-Max Energi toad on the last day of my return trip from Yellowstone to Texas yesterday. After five hours on the road through the Texas heat (mid-to-upper 90s), we parked in a cement (i.e., not blacktop) mall parking lot to walk to a Whataburger, since that's what Texans must do when almost home from a long trip. After getting our fast food burger fix and returning to the motor home, I notice fluid leaking from the engine compartment of my C-Max. After opening the hood and whispering a couple of expletives (the kids were within earshot) to make my burning hands feel better, I see the fluid inside the coolant reservoir boiling and bubbling out onto the ground.

Before approaching the car, I had noticed that the fan motor was running in an attempt to cool itself down. I also noticed after starting the car that 12 miles had been added to the odometer, as if maybe on the road somewhere it turned itself on to try to cool down (or maybe that's just a totally unrelated quirk of the car).

My guess is that the engine compartment took on a lot of heat from the hot roads and from my motorhome, then baked some more in the hot sun for 30 minutes while we enjoyed the deliciousness of oversized burger patties on buttery toasted buns.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

[Trackrig]

It sounds to me like the engine was turning over while being towed and the engine to heated up. Since you mentioned the additional 12 miles I'll assume your toad usually doesn't accumulate miles while being toad. It that's correct, then that's an additional clue that the engine was being turned over from being towed.

I don't think hot pavement would cause the problem or else people's cars would overheat from just being parked in a paved parking lot during the afternoon.

Bill