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Car Temperature Rising Past Normal

  • Thread starter jimscott
  • Start date
  • #21
So I began calling our favorite repair shops in the hoped that one of them could do a quick leak test check and at least let me know what we were up against. I got one in town and brought the car in. The car has problems. The rear heating tubes were leaking badly. The valve cover gaskets needed replacing. The thermostat needed replacing. And my best attempt to seek advice from the auto parts place for the appropriate antifreeze resulted in cross contamination. All this to the tune of ~$860. And then I had to break the news to Lynn. That didn't go over well. We just don't have that much money in the account, much less for weekly groceries and gasoline. Nevertheless, the care was declared undriveable and will be worked on. They gave us a loaner to use and I was told that the car would be ready by tomorrow.
 
  • #22
Valve cover gaskets almost always need replacing LOL Unless you noticed having to put in crazy amounts of oil to keep it full- those can be held off. That is nothing major just an oil leak. Give me 100 cars and I'll find 90-95% of them could use new valve cover gaskets to some extent. Are they charging you extra for a coolant system flush? If they're doing the hoses and thermostat anyway- there really shouldn't be much more of a charge there to be honest. At least a flush at a discount as far as I'm concerned.
It's nice they had a car to let you use though.
andrew

ps I still don't think you've said what the car is? I guess a GM if you're talking about a coolant cross contamination.. there are very few cars/fluids that cannot be mixed when it comes to antifreeze... mainly on cars that have lots of a certain metal (aluminum i think) to keep the antifreeze from eating away at it.
 
  • #24
Aviator: Thanks for the article. It's more than I ever imagined,but I got the gist of it.

Andrew: I have a 2002 Town & Country Chrysler. Oddly enough, the guy at the oil change place noticed that (something) was saturated with a combination of oil and coolant and his (unofficial) opinion is that I had a leaky valve cover gasket. He didn't want to say for sure because he was the oil change guy and suggested that I have it checked out by my mechanic. AFAIK, that unofficial diagnosis was confirmed. But who can tell if a mechanic is being 100% honest or just 90% and looking to get another $50 or $200 out of a desperate motorist who about as much knowledge of cars that doesn't go beyond turning a key and filling the resevoirs that are so designated for know-nothings like me. I'd like to go to other places and ask if the parts put in were reasonably priced. That won't tell me if they were necessary, but it's helpful. Labor costs are another thing that could be compared. In a sense I got a second opinion as my first opinion from the oil change guy. Seems as though that car has been revolving around various fluids - oil, steering wheel, coolant, and transmission. So far as I can tell, it isn't leaking gasoline!
 
  • #25
Ohh... I remember us dealing with a few of those for over heating problems. I can't really remember what the final straw was, but I remember going through radiators adding special additives to the radiator etc- but we get quite a bit warmer than you too ;)
 
  • #26
youre welcome mate,

good luck
Butch
 
  • #27
Andrew: I have a 2002 Town & Country Chrysler. Oddly enough, the guy at the oil change place noticed that (something) was saturated with a combination of oil and coolant and his (unofficial) opinion is that I had a leaky valve cover gasket.
Jim,
Have the repairs been completed yet? I'm assuming that your statement was a bit of a misquote/misunderstanding since it's difficult to imagine finding mixed oil & coolant almost anywhere and coming up with that diagnosis. At a minimum, there would also need to be a coolant leak someplace since a valve cover gasket cannot produce coolant... ???

Fwiw, our experiences with a Chrysler minivan will keep us away from that brand for quite some time ... :0o:

Best of luck ...
 
  • #28
Ron, I'm confident they're saying there was a coolant leak, and also the valve covers leak. Like I said above- many vehicles have a leaking valve cover(s)... That was them quoting something needed repair that had nothing to do with the overheating problem. That's why I mentioned he could likely skip that for now to save the money. Since valve covers are on the top of the motor, they drench the whole motor as they leak down, add in a coolant leak that that will mix with the oil that is on the motor already from the covers.
Andrew
 
  • #29
The oil change guy said that something was saturated with a mix of oil and coolant. I just don't know where it was.. But the two weren't mixed together in their respective resevoirs or containers (for lack of better terminology). Both leaked and were found mixed, maybe on top of some housing or some other surface. The work is done and the car works beautifully - for now.
 
  • #30
Hi Jim, glad to hear you got it back and it's working well... Maybe a nice road trip is in order :) heh
 
  • #31
My wife's 1997 Chevy Cavalier is bleeding antifreeze..
but we arent bothering to get it fixed..my wife loves the car (she bought it new in 1997..its been a reliable car for 12 years) but its time is up..antifreeze leak, oil leak, and rusting gas tank..
I have always said American cars are good for 10 years only..and hers is 12..so thats a good run.

We are debating between a Scion XD and a Ford Focus..
we like the Scion a lot, but it feels a bit cramped..maybe too small..
my wife likes the Ford better..(and its going to be "her car"..so she makes the choice!)

We were considering a Ford Fusion, Ford's answer to the Accord...really good rebates on them right now..
(which drops it into our price range..otherwise it wouldn't even be in consideration)
until we learned its built in Mexico..that makes me leery or quality..
and if im going to buy an american car, I want to at least support American jobs..
Kodak (where I work) has sent lots of jobs to Mexico..so I dont want to support Ford sending jobs to Mexico..

Im not a big fan of domestic makes anyway, from a quality standpoint..
I consider Ford ok, (my first car was a 1981 mustang! so Im a mustang fan)
...never been a GM fan at all..and everyone knows Chrysler has always been a disaster..

but ive been doing a lot of reading, and the Ford rates pretty well on the reliability scale..(not as good as the Scion of course, (which is a Toyota) but its rates pretty well..)
so we might go with the Focus.
We do try to buy American..but its hard to do that when it comes to a car. my Honda Civic (built in Ohio) is also a 1997, and will easily live twice as long as my wife's 1997 Chevy.

anyone here have a late-model Ford of any kind?
how do you like it?

(sorry to hijack your thread jim! ;) but it sounds like your story is resolved for now..)

Scot
 
  • #32
LOL! We get to pay the car off this year. It's still a good car, in spite of its various replacement parts in the past year.
 
  • #33
Jim - I'm glad it seems to be healthy again and that it'll seemingly outlive the payments.

Scot - We have a 2005 Focus wagon. which we bought as a one year old car with nearly 30,000 miles on it (if I remember correctly) and have had it ~ 3 yrs. Overall, we're satisfied with it, even though some things about it aggravate me to no end. But it's my first modern car and people tell me welcome to the modern world. I have little grasp of post-1990 auto technology and our two previous cars were Volvos which we bought with 180,000 and 120,000 miles, respectively. But a Volvo 240 operates in a parallel universe where they were just getting broken in at 100,000 miles.

We need to be able to carry two dog crates in the back of our car and, after deciding to abandon Volvos, our choice came down to the Focus wagon or a VW (I forget its name). The Focus won. I grew up in a Ford family and learned to drive in a '66 Mustang. Also, since I've pretty much quit working on cars, the better reliability of the Ford and the better availability of parts & service matter now. Unfortunately, there are darned few of them with manual transmissions and, since we didn't have the luxury of waiting, ours has an automatic. Grrr...

One thing I learned when I started researching the Focus is that Ford went real cheap on the brakes and those before 2004 (or was it 2005?) went through brake incredibly fast. It's pretty clear that the number crunchers have way too much say in car design at Ford. Even our greatly improved 2005 has rear drum brakes, which I consider pretty underwhelming for a car that's competing with German and Japanese models that abandoned drum brakes in the Mesozoic. But the Focus costs a lot less (as do parts & service), its carrying capacity is impressive, the mileage is decent and it handles snow and ice reasonably well.

If only I could change the driver's side headlight bulb without needing a lift or having to remove other parts first, or if only I could run the defroster without the air conditioner coming on too. Those have to be the most annoying things about it and, if those are what ticks me off the most, I guess I don't have any serious complaints. People tell me that's the way of cars in the 21st Century. The final verdict is that if we had to replace it tomorrow, we'd almost certainly get another Focus.
 
  • #34
The going cheap is a problem on all American made cars. My fathers company produces tooling that many of the American car suppliers use and also worked in sales in the car industry for many years. (I grew up in Michigan not a surprise to be involved in cars). The way all three of the big American car companies chose suppliers is based on the lowest bid, not quality, the ability of the company to produce the part, not reliability, not anything else, the lowest bid always wins. The Japanese car companies however look more a quality along with other variables between suppliers, price is a factor but its not the only nor the most important factor. So remember every time you climb into your American made vehicle everything in it was built by the lowest bidder and see if that explains a few things for you.
 
  • #35
... or if only I could run the defroster without the air conditioner coming on too.
Our Tundra (Toyota) does the same annoying nonsense - it runs the a/c compressor when some odd little algorithm tells it to, not when I think it should be running...

On Ford, I was pretty impressed when the 3 domestic companies went to Washington begging for money, that they didn't need it as bad as the other 2. During a car show, I heard about a new small Ford, currently selling in Europe, that would be coming over here this year. However, once I looked around, Ford officially says 2011. It looks like it has potential, but once again, the domestic carmakers won't give me what I want!
The way all three of the big American car companies chose suppliers is based on the lowest bid, not quality, the ability of the company to produce the part, not reliability, not anything else, the lowest bid always wins.
My experience with the 'Big 3' would agree with this. After our multi-year minivan nightmare - we've been trying to compromise & purchase Honda's made in the USA. I've been impressed with each Honda that I've taken the time to research &/or own (can't say the same for Toyota). My 1994 Civic Vx was one incredible, sweet, gas-miser of a car. It had a small V-tech engine that gave us ~40mpg and also allowed me to downshift, get the revs up and pass everyone going up interstate-highway mountains (where I was not as likely to have a visit from a 'Badge'). How I loved that car!!

With the economy in a tailspin, if anyone is actually looking to buy, I recommend throwing out crazy-low bids. One dealer near us was offering a 2-for-1 sale (literally). Some of the deals are just nuts - it's really worth it to drive around and see how desperate they are...
 
  • #36
Jim - I'm glad it seems to be healthy again and that it'll seemingly outlive the payments.

Not to be cynical, but the keywords are 'seems' and 'seemingly'. Hopefully, we'll get a good long break before we have to deal with something again. I keep saying that and....
 
  • #37
Jim - I'm glad it seems to be healthy again and that it'll seemingly outlive the payments.

Scot - We have a 2005 Focus wagon. which we bought as a one year old car with nearly 30,000 miles on it (if I remember correctly) and have had it ~ 3 yrs.

*snip*

thanks Bruce..
I guess we will give the Ford a try..
but if Ford lets me down, im buying nothing but Hondas for the rest of my life! ;)

to me, the "best of all worlds" is a Japanese car built in America..
you get the japanese quality, but still support some american jobs..
(yeah I know.."the money goes to japan"..maybe, in theory..but a lot of it stays in the US too..and it does support American workers who build the car.)

Our first major contender was a Pontiac Vibe..its a Toyota underneath!
built in a joint GM/Toyota plant in California..
its the same car as the Toyota Matrix..
so..GM car, with Toyota engine and drivetrain, built in the USA!
best of all worlds! ;)
but my wife didnt like the driving position..(we are both 6-feet tall..makes fitting in the smaller cars an issue..)

Scot
 
  • #38
ktulu: you could not have spoken my opinion on american cars any better!
about the A/C compressor, theoretically, it should not work below freezing temps, the light might be on, but the compressor won't work cause it has temp sensors that tell it not to... at least that's what my teacher said in auto mechanics school...
American cars are innexpensive and break down and rust, Japanese cars are everywhere and are cheap(parts, labor, they won't break down) and no one wants to be part of the same movement(how many darn civics are there on one road at the same time), german cars rarely berak down, but when they do (at least in the states, canada's not that bad) they cost an arm and a leg to fix and try to find parts...
One suggestion when buying a car, don't buy the newest model out, eg: in 1998 VW came out with a mark iv Jetta halfway thought 1998(i call it the 1998.5), you would have been better off to buy the older model, because cars that are brand new on the market have bugs, and usually the makers have most of those bugs fixed by the time the same model car is produced the year after. the '1999' model was full of unexpected surprises and little noises that, when a car is new, you don't hear them, but once broken in...you get the point.
Try to keep that in mind when purchasing a new car :)
 
  • #39
Sadly blokeman what I said is not an opinion, its really the way things work. As I have stated my Dad has been in the auto industry directly or indirectly for years and thats really the way things work.

As for German Cars, VW's have a lot of problems, at least everyone I know who has had one has had nothing but trouble with them, and weird things like window tracks having to be recalled because the window falls down for no reason.

Personally I recommend you try to find a Renault Le Car, or a Yugo, both good cars. LOL.
 
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