Coolant boiling over not good

There are certain things you only do once..

For me, locking the keys in the car - with the car running (and my wallet inside), running out of gas (I think I was ~16 - this was in WI) - thankfully this occurred while rolling into the gas station.

Well today it was realizing it's been too long since I've had the oil changed in the Mazda (oops!)

Took a day trip to a new (to me) bike trail near Nederland. It's a nice climb to the trailhead. Heading up the hill, the Mazda is just not producing power. I'm thinking, darn, the old power issue is back.

Pull into the parking lot, park in the shade, get out, and I hear not good sounds coming from under the hood. Some kind of "churning". Huh.

Decide I better open the hood before it stops so I actually have a clue what's causing it. Open the hood and the coolant is boiling violently and running out the overflow hose. Uh Oh.

I decide to leave things be for a bit, change my shorts (into bike shorts - no other accidents), get my bike down... bla bla bla. 10-15 minutes pass, the coolant is still boiling, but not quite so violently. I decide I better check the oil. Huh... pretty much none left - like slight wetness at the end of the stick. Uh Oh. The smell of the burning coolant isn't so great either.

Now, I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The good part is that it's basically a coast back down into Boulder. Worse comes to worse, I could bike to town, get oil, and bike back.

Good part #2 is that the car has not yet seized up. Yeah!

I decide, since the car is hot, I might as well bike. The ride was nice. Need to head back to this area. Didn't get as far in as I'd have liked b/c mid-afternoon storms were moving in. I was on the Switzerland trail, which is essentially a jeep trail that takes you down to an old little mining town (I'm guessing that's its origin) and back up another mountain. There are great views of the Indian Peaks mountains as well. Snow capped. Super pretty.

After about 1 1/2 hrs I'm back at the car. Boiling has stopped. Engine is still a little warm. The coolant has all but boiled out. So, I added water from my camelbak.

Drove almost the entire way back to Boulder (~15-16 miles) in neutral. Yeah for downhill! I kept an eye on the engine temp too - it seemed to stay stable in a safe zone. Good thing. Also turned the A/C off and just had the windows open.

Stopped at the first gas station. Added 2 quarts of oil - to a nearly dry reservoir. And headed back to Loveland, where I stopped right away to have the oil changed. They also sucked out all the water I added and re-added coolant. We also had a little chuckle about the adventure.

Good part is that it appears I didn't do anything too bad to the car. I'd waited a bit over 6000 miles to do the oil. I generally let it go longer than 3k, but didn't intend to wait this long. I'm blaming it on the window reminder sticker that fell off some time back.

This is making me think I should carry some spare oil in the trunk, just in case. I was lucky at when this happened. It could have happened while driving somewhere longer and me not know anything is wrong until the engine seized up - which definitely would have been worse!

That's the story! Perhaps it is a good idea to check the oil from time to time.