Looks to me that the thermostat housing has sprung a leak. They were redesigned to correct this problem. The heater hoses were changed also with the new part for the early(your) Avengers. YES it is serious if you keep driving as the motor is loosing its coolant and introducing air inside, not good for driving . The res. may still have coolant in it, but take the rad. cap off and I bet you will not see much if any coolant there.

Edit: REALLY 117 yrs old?

 

S

So would i need to replace a thermostat housing and all the hoses? Can i get a friend to do it or would your recomend me take it to a shop?

 

Depends on the skills of a friend, not hard to do but with proper "bleeding" of the coolant system when done should take no longer than 2 hours to complete. There are threads on this page of members having done this chore themselves.

 

The part, if dealer bought should include all the pieces needed due to the updated(revised) part.

 

If it is your housing, Dorman has replacement parts now:

http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-735...dge&model=Avenger&parttype=Coolant%20Thermostat%20Housing%20Assembly&origin=YMM
http://www.dormanproducts.com/p-663...009&make=Dodge&model=Avenger&parttype=Coolant%20Thermostat%20Housing&origin=YMM

The first things I would check are the hoses and clamps.

 

Yup! I kind "jumped the gun", I surmised that that may have already been done. One never knows for sure when communicating by print.

 

Hey im just headed to get the tstat housing repleacement from my local dodge dealer.

Any steps i should take before or during the replacement?

 

Should be a pretty straight forward R&R, Make sure you let the air bleed out of the cooling system by leaving the rad cap off while idling the motor, you may have some coolant bubble out but put the cap on and shut down and let it cool down then finish refilling thru the rad. cap. When all air is purged and the main system is full, then top up the res. as needed.

 

Cool i got thermostat housing and adaptor. Looks like it was leaking out where the adaptor and housing connect. Will only the coolant spill out when i detach the housing? Thanks again

 

YES. Make sure the mating surface of the motor is nice and smooth (clean) before installing the new unit.