- This topic has 12 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
Hoping I’m posting in the correct forum here….
I have a 2003 Chevy Impala LS 3.8. Starting about 3 weeks ago, it just suddenly overheated 15 minutes after leaving my house. Pulled over and discovered I had almost no coolant. Since then, I have to add coolant almost every day (I check it before I drive it). After watching several of the videos here I replaced my thermostat yesterday (kind of proud – all by myself…) and also burped (?) the system. On my driveway I have not seen any coolant leaks so I assumed it was leaking as I was driving. Then yesterday, after replacing the thermostat, as I was adding the new coolant (car was running as I was burping it) I could see the coolant running out the bottom of the car (a lot was coming out, not just a trickle). I was trying to see if it was coming from a hose, but couldn’t see that it was. I looked under the car and I guess my car has some cover thing under it, so I could only see it was coming out of one of the holes in the under-car metal thing. (I also put on a new radiator cap last week). I have had horrible experiences with taking my car (not this car – other cars…) in to check what is wrong and walked out with $$$$ repairs that I was later told by my brother weren’t really necessary. So, I am hesitant to just go in with no idea of the issue. As an additional note, my heater does not work. In fact when it begins to overheat, my dad always said flip your heater on high to temporarily get to a safe place to pull over. I have tried that in the few weeks this has been happening – flipping on the heater does absolutely nothing. Can anyone please help with what I can look for and what it may be, so I have an idea of repairs? The car is not worth a ton (excellent shape – just an old car…) so I’d prefer to not put so much repair into it if it’s cheaper to just get a different car. Also, it has 61,000 miles on it. Thank you for any suggestions or help.
-
Replies
-
Hello MomNeedsHelp and welcome to the forum! Congrads on taking the first steps on diagnosing your own car issues, you’re already starting to save money. With only 61k miles I would say this car sounds like its certainly worth putting a bit of work into it as its still a baby. You’ll definitely need to remove the splash shield under the car which is bolted by usually many small bolts, screws and plastic fasteners in order to properly see where that coolant leak is coming from. Also get a good LED light, preferably a headlamp one so you can fit your head under there and see what’s going on. It’s most likely a bad coolant hose from the sounds of the leak and probably the one that travels to the heater core. I would recommend that you not drive it anymore until you’ve fixed this problem as you risk overheating the engine and warping the aluminum heads or worse. Putting the heater on isn’t going to help at this stage in the game but in an emergency you may be able to put the Air Conditioning on which switches the auxiliary radiator fan on at the radiator to cool off the coolant better. Once again, don’t drive it until you can locate the bad hose, replace it and refill the coolant system and burp out all the air bubbles. Let us know how you make out and good luck!
Thank you for the response! I actually did just go out to add only water to see if I could see better where the leak is and, despite what I thought before, it does leak when not running also… And, I am really hoping you are correct!! I tried to get down and see where the leak is and with holding a hand mirror, I could see a wet hose that is running sort of under the car. Crossing my fingers and going to try to take that bottom part off and see if it just the hose.
Thank you, again! So very much appreciated!
No problem, if you don’t already have the car on jacks I would definitely do so. If you don’t have a dedicated floor jack and jack stands you could always use the scissor jack from the trunk but you would still need the jack stands to make sure the car doesn’t fall on you. I know you don’t want to spend much money here but your taking the steps to automotive mechanical independence and even harbor freight 2 ton floor jack with stands would be around $100. The bolts are usually 10mm on those shields and you might need a flathead screwdriver for any plastic rivets, don’t worry if they break as they are cheap to buy and your on a mission anyways. Good luck and post back as to your findings, I may not be able to respond much more after today as I’m going on vacation but I’m sure someone else here on the forum will pick up where I’ve left off. Good Luck!
One more thing, on most cars you’ll have two fat radiator hoses going from the front of the engine to the radiator and two more smaller hoses going from the back of the engine to inside the car (to the heater core). There may be some other small auxiliary hoses in and around the top part of the engine but that’s it in a nutshell.
Just guessing, but what you describe makes me think a heater hose has failed.
I would suggest replacing both heater hoses (the “Inlet” hose and the “Outlet” hose). They’re both the same age, and it’s a good bet the one you don’t change will be the next one to fail. And get new hose clamps as well.
Taking cooling system maintenance a bit further, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to also replace the upper and lower radiator hoses as well, as finances allow. A general rule of thumb in preventive maintenance is to replace all the hoses and clamps every 5 years. A moderate expense for a lot of peace of mind.
Thank you so much for the advice! I (with the help of my 10 year old son) took some time eyeballing the engine area both with the car running and not and actually found the leak. I was looking around the hoses and then found (after googling the photo to see what it was) I have a heater hose fitting with a nice size hole in it (leaks when the car is off, but really sprays when the car is on). I looked up how to fix it and I know I don’t have the tools (or possibly the bravery, too) to fix it myself, so I’m going to call around and see about getting that taken care of. With the above comment, perhaps I should have the connecting hoses changed at the same time?
Thank you again so much!! As I’m off for the summer (only 2 1/2 more weeks until going back to the kiddo’s…), I was hoping it would be an easy fix so my son and I could get in a little more outings before work calls my name. Thank you a million times over for the advice on what to look for!!
I would also check the heater core and see if its clogged by trying to flush it and see if it allows water to come out… if it doesnt allow a flush water to pass… you can try some flush chemical to help it but if all fails you will have to replace it… about the not turning the heater on full blast and using the AC to get the fan on… the fan will kick on as soo as the tempture try’s to reach high… if the ac is on or not… turning the ac on will cause more stress on the engine causing it to work harder there for heat up faster…
a heater core is basiclly like a small ratator in your dash that takes the heat from your engine and brings it into your cab of your car… it could help cool you engine down if the fluid is not getting to the ratator…
now what if you want to some service shops will not charge you to look at where its leaking to give you an estimate.. so they will somethimes check your hoses for free…. .
if its in the front of the engine ratator and hoses, middle look at water pump and hoses and maybe head or block, back hose to the heater core and or heater core…
now I also have to ask do you do you see steam or smell antifreeze in the cab when you have the heater on? also check for what looks like white manaze in the oil dip stick and cap,
also check the exchost to see if you have water (steam ) coming from it
like the other guy was saying you will have to most liky take the splash gard off to see the system and or possibly the bumper… let us know if you have anymore questions… but untill you take the splash gard off there is not really much to tell you… uselly 10 or 8 mm builts but can be diffrentMaybe tell us where you are from or look at other people profile and ask them for a estimate for repair. Atleast if someone from here does repair we would hope they are honest. Good Luck
you can do like old school and use cinder blocks as jask stands… if you goto menards you can pick up like a solid cement block that is like 4 in thick… you might need a guy to help you because the solid block is like $1.60 but weight is 33 lbs each… and you will need like 3-4 for each side… sinder blocks are hollow so some ppl dont like it because they are scard it might brake on them… you will see the fram under the car that looks like sqare bars that are very strong use those area.. to hold the car up… dont get under the car with a sisor jack like you have in your trunk for tires because they can easyly be kicked out while moving the car.. also make sure the driveway is level not on an angle and place blocks behind the back tires to provent it from rolling… I dont know your skill level so I just want you to be safe and not kill yourself from working on your car…
also you can feel around the hoses and see if they are wet.. will not tell you for sure becuase it might of slapshed around just disconnect your battory just incause when you do that.. be safe
if you have a harber frieght around you they have a very good selection of jack’ sand several jask stands… so if your thinking about working on cars more you could check that out and have cheap tools too… just dont buy one of these thin pump jacks I have had them bend on me and had to throw my away after like 6 months… latter anding my rant… LOL[quote=”BubbaGarage” post=170083]Maybe tell us where you are from or look at other people profile and ask them for a estimate for repair. Atleast if someone from here does repair we would hope they are honest. Good Luck[/quote]
the 8th of the vin should be an K
heater core labor time is 1.8 + 0.4
water pump time 2.1
heater core hoses 1.4
now u can call up auto part stores and ask them how much parts are…. but thats what the labor should for hour’s if your 8th vin is a K… it should be close to thatto do the water pump is prity easy if you have some skill… drain coolent , remove belt, wtaht you have to do is use rubber wrench on the pully to remove the 4 botlts on the pump pully… move/ remove the power stearing pump then remove the water pump…seal it up and put it back tothether agian… and burp the system
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.