Shannix11

Hello, I purchased a used 2009 Dodge Journey in March with only 93,000 miles on it and it really seemed to work great!! Love how it drives, although the cooling isn't all that great...but maybe that is an issue or just the way it is. At any rate, about a month ago after a trip into the City, about 40 miles I noticed the the distinct smell of overheating, the burning of antifreeze on a hot ..but I couldn't see anything wrong at all...and no smoke/steam or anything. This happened a few times, but nothing major and the coolant only seemed to be down a bit so topped it off. This past Sunday my husband came home from work and the area around the radiator was steaming like crazy, it really smelled bad of antifreeze and it was almost empty, so my husband topped it off and about an hour later checked to make sure there wasn't any leaking on the ground, and there wasn't, so we went to the movies...about 5 mile drive, it was cold so the heater was on, but only cold air for the first 5 minutes (odd it usually kicks in within 60 seconds), then it slowly got hot...again when we parked it was steaming and smelled bad, but no leaking. My husband picked up some more antifreeze and it was low again so he filled it up. Next morning we dropped it at the Dodge Dealership near us. Mechanic calls later that day and says it's the freeze plugs and it's 10 hrs labor...$1500. I have insurance for major issues, but these are not covered...but said of course go ahead. Got a call today that they discovered that the radiator is cracked and needs to be replaced...after asking if we saw fluid on the ground or if we were overheating at all...which we were not according to the internal sensors. So now we have to wait for the inspector to come by to approve the repair. My question is this...would the freeze plugs have ruptured (not sure if that is exactly the right term) because of the cracked radiator, or would the cracked radiator be a result of the ruptured freeze plugs? I ask because the whole repair will be covered by the insurance if the cracked radiator caused the freeze plug problem. Thanks Shannix11