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If theres oil in the cooling (unless it’s actually transmission fluid) system then the head gasket it most likely blown.
As for the starter it’s pretty strait forward.
Just disconnect the battery first (I’m sure you know that 😛 )
Also the geo prizms are the same so you might want to try looking the repair procedure up for one of them instead.I wonder if someone put some of that stop leak stuff in there and that made the coolant look very black.
Quoted From bk7794:
I wonder if someone put some of that stop leak stuff in there and that made the coolant look very black.
Very possible. It would be best for him to flush the system and see if the oil comes back.
I have no idea what he did with his car, every time we ask if he service some thing he always said it’s done and it’s obviously from looking, he had not. I feel like whacking him some times for being such an a*ss. But I don’t see coolant in the engine so I don’t know if that is a good sign. But it’s definitely oil in the coolant. Wouldn’t that stop leak just make the coolant black, but in this case it’s definitely engine oil. I’ll make him take it to my favorite shop and pay them $55 to completely flush the coolant out. If he comes back with the same oil in the radiator, I am going to kick him hard.
I’ve done a couple starters on those cars. You have to do some work from the top, and some from the bottom. For a big guy like me, I was literally laying on top of the engine to get to the bolts/connectors. It’s not fun. I have Popeye forearms too, so you should have an easier time than I did. I removed the air cleaner assembly up to the throttle body, and had to get a bolt from the bottom side. Or maybe a connector. But it’s been awhile.
If you have oil in your antifreeze, then you pretty much have a head gasket leak. Those engines don’t use the timing belt driven water pumps like your Honda, they are external, and driven by a belt.
Sometimes you need to remove things to gain better access, if the air filter assembly isn’t enough look at what else is in the way and remove as needed, if memory serves replacing those starters is not that big a deal just be sure to disconnect the negative battery cable when you do.
As for the coolant gather evidence, observation is a good start but you really don’t KNOW that it’s oil, I’ve seen some pretty ugly coolant that looked like it had oil but it was really just old. I show how to check for a head gasket problem in this video, if you find that you don’t have one then perhaps drain out the coolant you have in there and replace it with fresh to see if the condition changes or goes away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUzOTnsWImIThanks guys. It took us, 3 people, one to watch the owner of the car of course, and my neighbor and I to get the dawn thing out. We remove the air assembly, the top bolt was just a dummy with a through hole and no thread. One bolt on the bottom that was tight and we couldn’t crack it open. So we took the passenger’s side wheel out, use and long tranny extension to reach the bolt and it came off. It took us 10 minutes to rebuild the starter, cost $10 for parts with new contacts and a plunger. Took it to Autozone, test and past. Put it in took less time. Overall, it took around 3 hours and I thought it was easier than my 99 Corolla. His next thing is going to flush the coolant, and then I’ll replace the dizzy o ring and the valve cover gasket. This car only has 100000 miles on it but it looks like a car with 400000 miles on it. The plugs look good with Denso but it’s black tips as I don’t know if it’s burning oil. But it sounds like dying cow when running cold and quiet down when warmed up. It has has an intermittent CEL which I got to check but it passed smog some how a few months back and he did not even cheat.
Glad you got it sorted out. As for the plugs it’s normally a brown crust that you’ll see when the engine is burning oil, black soot is actually normal especially for a car that’s been sitting or hasn’t had a chance to get warm. You’ll need to pull the code for the CEL and take it from there on that one.
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