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I have a 99 Olds Silhouette minivan. She was overheating usually after 10 mins or so. I took it to the shop, where they replaced a t valve that had blown. 140 bucks. Worked great. The following week, we hit major deep freeze…literally 20 -30 below for almost two weeks. All of a sudden, it was overheating again. We took it back to the shop. Said the heads were cracked. :blink: I found that hard to believe, seeing that as soon as it hit red, I had her towed to the shop. Decided I didn’t want to put 1400 bucks into a 15 yr okd car, and bought something different. Now that the temps are more mild, it is running perfect!!??!!?? So,besides determining that shop to be shysters, I’d like to know what the potential problem is/was?
I’d like to sell it, but I don’t want to do anyone dirty…
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Well, I’m going to have to stick up for the shop. If the temperatures really got as cold as you say the antifreeze mix had to be perfect or it would have frozen. Anybody that tops off the system from time to time with a little water is going to freeze an engine in those conditions. So, I’m guessing they saw a bunch of frozen and broken engines. Then you come in with the same complaint.
Anyway, maybe the radiator was frozen and the coolant wouldn’t circulate. In other words, you got lucky.
I wrote this article on Overheats that I think might be helpful. In it, I talk at length about making sure you purge the air out of the cooling system anytime you do a repair. It’s a practice that is often overlooked and is the most common cause of overheating issues, especially after a cooling system repair. Perhaps there’s something in this article that can help. BTW, there’s also a video showing how to check for a head gasket or cracked head or block.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats
Good luck and keep us posted.
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