My husband and I just purchased a 1998 S70 GLS looks great ran great the first 2 days while it was cold. Then on Tuesday on my way to work it overheated. My husband was with me and when we pulled in there was a trail of Yellow looking latex paint following us. So he cleaned everything up and let the engine cool down. He decided to try to drive it to work and take it to the dealer and have them tell us what was wrong with it. Well he got up the road maybe 2 miles and it overheated again. So he pulled into a Auto Parts store and they gave him regular coolant. So we were happy with this. He put this in and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then went on to work. This worked until this morning. On our way to work it overheated again 3 times. We put the rest of the coolant in and it was ok as long as we didn't make any stops for long periods until he dropped me off at work. As he was driving on his way to work it did it again and he had to pull off 3 more times. When he pulled into work 3 hours later and it is only 10 miles away. There was no coolant. But this morning there was a thinner version of the Yellow Latex paint looking coolant we got out yesterday. Please help. I have to drive 47 miles one way to work every day. And I need something that will last me for at least tax season.

Just guesses here - i've only had my V70 for a few days also...
any idea where the coolant is leaking from? it could be something as simple as a bad hose. It sounds to me like the culprit of the overheating is the loss of coolant, so then it would basically be a matter of determining where the loss is occurring. I suppose it could also be the water pump - i think these get replaced at a timing belt change as preventative maintenance - but to me that indicates that they could be a place of frequent failure. i'd try to look and see if you can figure out where the leak is coming from and proceed from there.

We don't know where it is going. But when it does overheat we pull over right away. But then when we open the hood there is that Yellow Latex Paint looking coolant stuff coming out at us. I am wondering it the system doesn't just need to be flush but I don't want to do that and then have this continue to happen. But It may still be that way even if we replace and put a bunch of money into this. So if anyone has any ideas we will happly take them to try.

There are no visible leaks, we are not getting any puddles under the car, nor is there any trace of any coolant in the oil.

is the coolant coming out of the radiator or the overflow reservoir or elsewhere? It could be a number of things, something as simple as a stuck thermostat could be preventing the coolant from circulating properly. Is the liquid coolant? it has a pretty distinctive smell and a neon-green color.

When the vehicle overheats the coolant is coming out of the reservoir. I updated my previous post to state that we don't have any puddles of coolant after sitting, I am not seeing anything coming out of the radiator. The liquid that is coming out is a white/yellowed pasty substance, it smells of antifreeze with no oily smell at all. In the puddle that it left when it overheated, it had the consitency of old latex paint that had been frozen. This morning when the car overheated again the consitency had changed to less of the paste with more antifreeze consitency.

i've never heard of antifreeze that wass like that. sounds like something is in there. have it flushed like now. i would like to welcome you to the forum and congrats on the 70, but have that checked out. it shouldn't have a thick consistency, not like paint. keep us posted as to what was found after the flush

Oil and water mixed will look like yellow pancake batter.........
Get it to a shop SOOOON (especially if it is under some kind of lemon law timeframe)

When you and your husband put more coolant in it did you use water as well and mix it? Without water the coolant turns into a paste and gels up because the heat can not be properly transported to the radiator.

We use a 50-50 mixture, after a few mechanics opinions, it appears that it is the transmission cooler in the radiator. We are going to be changing out the radiator this weekend and will repost to let everyone know the outcome.

Well, a similar problem to mine. It only happened when the air con was being used. We had to replace the water heat sensor in the radiator, which had to be especially made and is attached direct to the battery. All works well now.