OldsmoBeast Posted June 21, 2003 Report Posted June 21, 2003 Umm so yeah after my exam today i came home and popped out my spark plugs (yes i rotated the engine) to see what kind of condition they were in and when i put everything back and tightened it all up i looked and there was my heater core coolant line all eroded in one spot under the tank and broken and leaking all over the driveway. safe to say i won't drive my car this way. how big is the job? should i leave it to the pros? Thanks YK Quote
mdelorie Posted June 21, 2003 Report Posted June 21, 2003 Is it the pipe that leads from the water pump, behind the resevoir, along the firewall, and over to the heater core? If yes, you poor poor bastard. No, just kidding. It's not TOO bad. Happened to me last year. the "aftermarket" way to fix it is a huge long length of heater hose... I said no way to that. It just didn't seem..... good. seemed kind of like a cheap way out. anyways, the only other way to do it is to get the pipe from GM. mine was 70 bucks CDN and they had to order it in overnight. Like I said, it's not too hard to change, gotta rotate the engine to give you more space... and remove the coolant resevoir. I think getting the spring clamps off the heater core end was the hardest part. Kind of awkward space to work in. Hope that helps. Let me know if you need any more info. Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Posted June 21, 2003 Is it the pipe that leads from the water pump, behind the resevoir, along the firewall, and over to the heater core? If yes, you poor poor bastard. No, just kidding. It's not TOO bad. Happened to me last year. the "aftermarket" way to fix it is a huge long length of heater hose... I said no way to that. It just didn't seem..... good. seemed kind of like a cheap way out. anyways, the only other way to do it is to get the pipe from GM. mine was 70 bucks CDN and they had to order it in overnight. Like I said, it's not too hard to change, gotta rotate the engine to give you more space... and remove the coolant resevoir. I think getting the spring clamps off the heater core end was the hardest part. Kind of awkward space to work in. Hope that helps. Let me know if you need any more info. yep, thats the one! hopefully it won't be too much trouble. I'll get my dad to drive me to the GM dealership tomorrow and see if they can order that part in for me. I guess 70 for the part beats 70 + paying the mechanic to do it all. I think i can handle rotating the engine again because our driveway is sloped so i just have to park facing down and then rock the car a little aaanyway, how long dis it take you to do yourself? did you need any special tools or anything? other question is, should i drain out the cooland and refill it completely/bleed it/all that stuff? Quote
mdelorie Posted June 21, 2003 Report Posted June 21, 2003 Always a good idea to flush the coolant every 2 years / 50 thousand clicks. With the rate I've been having cooling system problems though, I haven't needed to flush cuz I'm always adding new. No special tools needed, just some pliers for the spring clamps, and a ten mm socket to undo the nuts that hold it to the car. Advice: Don't use those pain-in-the-ass GM spring clamps... go buy a few gear clamps... easier to deal with. Removing it took longer than putting the new one on... I was cursing and swearin' pretty good trying to get the old one off the heater core... now that I've done it, this is my suggestion to you: cut off the old one at the pipe, and twist it off the core.... makes life waaay easier. Probably about a 2 to 2 and a half hour job for someone who doesn't know what they're doing. (read: me) Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Posted June 21, 2003 awesome.....thanks a million. I'll keep u posted as i go YK Quote
Slade901 Posted June 21, 2003 Report Posted June 21, 2003 If you get parts from GM like for $70, the repair shop will mostly jack up the $70 price of the item + labor. Ever wonder you can't bring your own parts to most of the auto repair shop? However, there are few exceptions. Quote
GrandPrix34 Posted June 21, 2003 Report Posted June 21, 2003 in the foreground around the throttle body you will see wat i used when this happened to me. I also saw how much the new pipe cost and my prob wasnt a corroded metal pipe thingy but a busted heater hose at the heater core entrance...yeah those spring clamps make you want to ask God to strike dead the 1st born of whoever came up wit them Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 21, 2003 Author Report Posted June 21, 2003 OK so update: I spent about 45 minutes this morning (in the frikken heat) getting the old pipe off....it wasn't TOO bad but it was painfully annoyying. Those spring clamps are really really frikken annoying. and the fact that theres a couple things u have to remove to get at it. right now i've got my coolant bottle and a couple other things out of my engine and its off. It broke twice while i was trying to get it off but i think that actually helped. I'm gonna go to my dealer and get the new pipe ordered on Monday so i dunno when i'll be done. Thanks for everyones help! Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 23, 2003 Author Report Posted June 23, 2003 OK new question......I was just examining my car without the coolant reservoir in there, and right next to the ECM housing, there's a thing bloted into the metal with basically like 2 wires coming out of it. I might have to bust out the old digicam if nobody knows wat this thing is but if u do, wat the hell is it?! Quote
mdelorie Posted June 23, 2003 Report Posted June 23, 2003 No idea for sure... but I know what you're talking about. A relay of sorts? Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 23, 2003 Author Report Posted June 23, 2003 i have no idea....i'll bust out the digital camera sooner or later and try to post a pic of it. Quote
cutlsp Posted June 23, 2003 Report Posted June 23, 2003 could it be the coolant sensor? or the temp sensor? i think its one of those two things :? i'm just not sure. Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 23, 2003 Author Report Posted June 23, 2003 could it be the coolant sensor? or the temp sensor? i think its one of those two things :? i'm just not sure. I dunno if it was the tep sense, do you think it would be underneat the coolant bottle? it might well be a relay of some kind. meh who cares... i got a snap of it on my camera but now i have to install the software so i can upload it to my computer. I'll get around to it eventually. --> in the meantime, i went over to my GM dealer and they had the part that i needed in stock! so i bought one (83 bucks after tax) and i'll install it tonight after work. After i install it, I plan on flushing and bleeding the cooling system but i've never done that before. any tips? Thanks YK Quote
cutlsp Posted June 23, 2003 Report Posted June 23, 2003 when you drain and flush the radiatior don't pull out the stoping plug i found that out the hard way and that cost me about 50 buck or more in coolant :? . oh and it shoul be on the drives side either underneath where you can see it or above part of the frame it hard to get to but at least its just a plastic drain nut it should be pretty easy for you though at least with that infoand make sure put a pan under the car to cause if it goes and has the one above the frame it will be running all over your cars under side unless you park it where it is facing down hill. Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 24, 2003 Author Report Posted June 24, 2003 why not pull out the plug? I finished it up yesterday...mixing that orange crap is nasty....so i just poured 'equal amounts' of water and coolant in until i filled the radiator....same for the bottle. but are you not supposed to do that? Quote
cutlsp Posted June 24, 2003 Report Posted June 24, 2003 uh then your going to be losing coolant very soon now i just tried to warn you before you did that but i guess its to late now. :? Oh well its a cheap item to replace its just kind of hard to replace it. Pulling it all the way out of the drain hole makes it drain fast but it also breaks the drain plug so it does not work at stopping the hole. Oh well i tried to warn you but hey at least i tried . Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 24, 2003 Author Report Posted June 24, 2003 No i'm pretty sure i didn't break the plug because it came out intact....like pointy edges and all.....after i put the coolant in yesterday i drove it around for the whole night with no problems. Even raced my friends OLD hyundia Excel 5 speed and won but i'll keep an eye on it just in case ur right the other thing is that my coolant didn't start coming out until i pulled it out. I unscrewed it and all and nothing came out so i popped it out and boom there went all my coolant. maybe were talking about different engines? i'm running a 3.1L Quote
cutlsp Posted June 24, 2003 Report Posted June 24, 2003 yeah mine is the 2.8 and their pretty much the same engine yours is just a bored out version of my engine block just keep an eye on it cause it needs to be watched maybe mine was just to old the fluid had not been changed out for 3-5 years i guess :? so maybe that did my old one in i'm just not sure just be careful don't race it to much for these next 2 weeks mine failed 2 weeks after i did mine it seemed fine until then and it happened after it got cold outside i was freezing repairing it but i had to replace that fluid cause it was black :? . any ways be careful. all right later man. Quote
OldsmoBeast Posted June 24, 2003 Author Report Posted June 24, 2003 damn....well now u got me worried!!! i'll keep my eye on it thx Quote
90lumina3.1 Posted June 24, 2003 Report Posted June 24, 2003 mine blew too, i pulled it out and it had 1 fork on it. after i changed the coolant i started it up and after a few mins, whoosh! coolant spraying out. didnt ever replace it, just made sure it was in good and its been fine ever since(even though i dont have it anymore ) Quote
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