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The coolant situation was fine until the deep freeze. My theory is that the coolant that was in it was not capable of being liquid at -20C, and when the vehicle was started, the heat couldn't move because the coolant in the rad was frozen. Causing it to exceed the maximum temperature and vaporize. As the hot vapor penetrated the system, the rad slowly melted, causing the now liquid coolant to flow into the engine. But the engine was so hot that the coolant vaporized on contact.

This process continued until all the coolant was vapor and that vapor exceeded the pressure limits of the system and that caused it all to escape the system through the pressure cap on the rad.

I believe that the continual vaporization of the coolant was the only thing that kept the engine from overheating to the point of a complete failure.

I swear, it had coolant in it before the deep freeze.

I would and have actually. I have the basics of how a washing machine works and even how to properly clean it and the broad strokes of various components in the machine and what those components do. It goes the same for everything. This is my mantra. If I use it, and rely on it, I want to know how it works and how to fix it when it stops working. I go to vendor support only when I know I'm still covered by support (it hasn't expired), and it's a clear warranty issue. If not, I'll usually make the attempt to fix it myself, failing that, I will call a support person, and if they can't fix it, I'll buy a replacement. In the case of a washing machine it's not urgent enough to push for calling someone right away, who can fix it faster than I have time to. I'm somewhat unique in that, since my home has two washing machines (only one is connected right now because I'm still working at getting power, ventilation, water, drain/downpipe, and everything set up for the second set), so in a pinch, I can simply swap to the working one and move on, getting to repairing the broken one when I have the time. In this case, not a good example, but I gather your point.

To speak to the point: I'll likely go through the same process above, and depending on how important it is for me to get up and working again quickly, will factor in to how quickly I progress from trying to fix it myself, to paying someone to do it, to replacement. Another factor is the cost involved with the item or a replacement, if it's very cheap and readily available, I may simply replace it and move on because it's not worth the time/effort to try. With appliances like washing machines, oven/ranges, even the furnace and air conditioning, I'll usually give it a try. Last year over summer, the air conditioning at my home failed and I performed diagnostics and found the issue to be related to the electrical systems in the outdoor unit, it needed a new contactor and capacitor, which I replaced and we enjoyed air conditioning all summer on about $50 of parts and a bit of effort.

This is simply my own personal philosophy. The fact is, very few people tend to subscribe to this, sticking to a fairly old philosophy of, you earn money doing the thing you're specialized at, and pay people who are specialized at other things (like mechanics, appliance repair people, HVAC technicians) to do whatever else you need.

Simply put, I've never made enough money as a working adult to indulge myself in this manner of thinking. I've reaped so many benefits from it that even though I'm making more money as time goes on, I continue to return to this philosophy.

The thing I don't get is why people continue to accept the older know-nothing philosophy that seems to common. The only explanation I can imagine for this is that my philosophy requires significant mental work to understand enough about the things you use, to be effective. As simply put as I can, most people are too mentally lazy to try. I don't really hold this against anyone, especially considering it's so common.

The risk, to me, is if you're entirely reliant on others to maintain the things you use all the time, then you're entirely at their mercy for what they tell you needs to be done and what they think that's worth. You're also working at whatever pace they choose, and on whatever timetable they want. Simply, it is much quicker to reach a solution if you have the ability to fix things yourself, and you can obtain the parts needed in a timely fashion. It's generally a lot cheaper as a benefit.

I work IT by day and I've given people scripts with commands they don't understand to fix common repeating problems that I can't find a way to permanently repair. One such example is a client ended up in a situation where if a program didn't exit correctly (a fault of the software that I have no way to fix), and they tried to use a plug in to view a specific file type as a preview, it would not work. The solution was to close all of the running instances of the program and the functionality would work again. The script, which I think was only a single line, basically just ran a command that would tell the OS, to close all running versions of that program. The client running that application didn't need any specifics, just run this and it should fix the problem. It was really basic. They were able to fix their issue without waiting for me to remotely log in to their PC to do the same thing by hand, and it worked really well. I empowered them to fix it themselves. Of course, if that didn't fix the problem, they could call, but I can't recall them calling about it again after that.

With vehicles, there's a basic knowledge set to know when performing the most basic maintenance on the motor. Does it have oil? Is the oil black or have a bad smell, indicating it may be burned or starting to break down. Does it have coolant? Brake fluid? Power steering fluid? Fuel? Are there any obvious leaks, or broken piping or parts that appear mangled and/or have holes where there shouldn't be holes?

This is obviously regarding an ICE engine more than anything though diesel may also be applicable. Regarding diesel, when it gets too cold, the knowledge of what temperature the fuel starts to gel up and become unusable.... That sort of thing. Just the basics.

The same basics can be applied to EVs, like charge level, the correct process to start and warm up the car in extreme cold (keeping it plugged in and getting the battery system heaters working), how much the cold will affect expected range. How the features of the vehicle affect range and power use. Also, importantly, how to recover the vehicle from a complete power loss (dead main battery). Most of this is surely in the owners manual, which people neither read, nor look to when things go wrong.

It's a compounding problem of willful ignorance and my disconnect is how people are okay with being willfully ignorant in a golden age of information. The knowledge is at your fingertips, accessible from any device that can show you this text, and yet, there's not only no desire for that information, but there also seems to be an active effort to reject it.

I am a child of the digital age. Cellphones, marketed as "PCS" phones became available when I was partway through highschool. The internet has existed since before I was a teen. I want the information. I actively seek it out. I work in technology and I use that technology in every way I can to improve my life and the lives of those around me. I can't imagine not wanting to help yourself and the people you care for by using that technology and vast information to your advantage. Yet, that's exactly what people are doing. I just don't get it.

I'm not sure, but if you draw the ven diagram of people that can recognize an issue with their cars heater core (and know what that is) stop and fill the radiator with coolant and the ven diagram of people that would understand what's wrong with their washing machine and attempt a repair themselves is just a circle.

I know the people outside that circle exist, but they really should spend a few minutes learning how things they depend on work, to save a few dollars in their spreadsheet.

You seriously can't even fix your washing machine?