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Grand Prix pain in the...everything!

K

KarenHoke

New member
Ok, hello and merry christmas everyone. My name is Karen and we have a 05 grand prix from hell. This is going to be long so bear with me. Started with my son in law discovering thick black gooey stuff in the radiator cap. Took it to BigO and they said it was from mixing coolants and said the system needed flushed. It had been trying to overheat and after they flushed it did ok for a brief time. It then started not having any heat and the temp gauge would go up to red line if moving in traffic but if in open air it was back down in normal range. Took it to mechanic who after us telling him what it was doing and he messed around feeling hoses and such said we never should have let BigO flush because what didnt come out was now loose and clogging the radiator and heater core. Also before I forget, we replaced 3 thermostats before taking it to him. Anyway, left the car with him and $500, a new radiator and the heater core flushed 16 times later he said it was good to go. Picked it up, no problems, heat was hot as could be. That was the only day the heat worked apparently. But wasnt aware because car isnt driven that often and weather had been comfortable without needing heat. So my daughter was driving it a few days ago and called and said the temp gauge was back up again. Hubby looked at it later and noticed antifreeze on the engine by the water pump. So we bought one and replaced it. There isnt antifreeze blowing in the motor now but still no heat and the car is overheating and I mean fast! It's only 50 degrees out today and I drove it to see if the heat would kick in. I was on interstate for maybe half mile and the gauge went up..didnt stop..right up to red line. I waited to see if it was gonna go down being in open air but it didnt, by the time I was almost home the dang thing was hootin and hollerin at me from that info center and telling me engine coolant hot. I parked it and felt the top radiator hose and it was HOTTTT. I had wondered before if it was actually getting hot because no antifreeze smell or bubbling in the engine. Apparently it is! My question is what now?? What could be causing this that we haven't already addressed? Ok, in case I didnt mention the heater is blowing hard but is cold air and no there is no antifreeze leaking into passenger floor or any other indications that I am aware of that would indicate heater core being bad. Other info on car is its an 05 has the 3800 engine and its not super charged or turbo or any of that. Any one wanna tackle this? LOL.
 


has the system been bled of air? if not that can be a problem.

are you loosing coolant, are you checking it regularly after these shop repairs?

the heat, could be bad blend door actuators. to test this you'll want to grab the hoses that lead into the center of the fire wall from under the alternator, and see if they are both hot. if both are hot, bad blend door actuators. one hot, one cold. or both cold, is air in the core and lines.

if your loosing coolant, being your a N/A engine, the upper intake gaskets like to fail, the engine then eats coolant, as well as dumping it into the engine oil, then the engines goes boom.

so also check your oil, by just pulling the dip stick out, make sure its not milk shake looking. or foamy. just oil.
 
um..not loosing coolant that I am aware of. And before the water pump we did buy a new thermostat housing because the one on the car had the bleeder valve broke off so hubby says he did bleed it and lots of stuff blew out. I havent checked the oil but hopefully hubby will when he gets home if it is still light out. And those door thingys, i will show him this and let him check those because I am clueless!! lol. Lordy I hope its not heads on this car, just spent 700 replacing one on my escort last spring. Thank you for giving me info on other things to check because we are at wits end!! ok, edit to say I checked the oil and it looks like oil thankfully.
 
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Your upper intake is fine being that it is metal. Was the thermostat changed when the other stuff was?
 
what you need to do is every other morning, before you even start the car, open the cap and check it for a week. if its low your losing it somewhere.

you can also buy a pressure tester for the cooling system if you find your loosing coolant. they run about 20 dollars. this can force it to leak, and make finding it easier sometimes.


and heres the how to for the blend door actuators if it comes to that. http://www.grandprixforums.net/blend-door-actuator-replacement-21941.html
 


Upper intake? Im glad its fine but again am clueless! And right now the car is being used as a back up so to speak because son in law has no driving priviliges so isnt getting driven often. But it is also the newest and nicest of the vehicles and would like to resolve these issues cause the others we have are on last legs and when they go its over, already sank way too much into a 95 escort and a 00 jimmy. Oh, the thermostat was changed before the radiator was but not since. I sure hope it isnt the door actuator things cause from looking at that I dont think hubby will tackle it.
 
blend doors are easy, its just in a tight place on the drives side, the pass side is easy as pie. you could do the pass side on your own with out the hubby. that easy.
 


Well hubby said this one can only go in one way so I guess not. And when I got out to feel the hose after it started hoopin and hollerin at me today I noticed the lower fan was running and that was after the car was shut off.
 
Since you already own an arsenal of thermostats, you really just want to give bleeding it another shot. Sometimes it may take a couple of times. First of course make sure your coolant is at the proper level. Let the engine start to get to temp and use the bleeder nut on the T-stat housing. Make sure the engine is up to temp and loosen the nut 2 turns,watch until a steady stream of coolant flows out. Tighten the nut and keep an eye on the temp gauge and engine bay for any visible signs. You should notice the fans kick on at
around half on the dial. If the gauge appears to level off,at whatever it use to run at, bleed it again just to make sure. Then top off the coolant resevoir. Just what I'ld do.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays
 
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On the 04+ the proper way to bleed air out is this.....

first take the main fill cap off the radiator and fill to the top. Start the motor and it is low you will see the coolant level drop inside the radiator. If it drops add coolant to the top. Once the engine is just about warmed up check the coolant level again. If filled properly you will start to see coolant burp out of the fill neck where the cap goes. Once this happens put the cap back on and give her a go. I tried and tried and tried and tried the bleeder screw but to no avail. I just did my coolant elbows and that's exactly what the 04+ manual says! Once bled properly check every day like stated about to see if the coolant level is dropping
 


HVACgtp said:
On the 04+ the proper way to bleed air out is this.....

first take the main fill cap off the radiator and fill to the top. Start the motor and it is low you will see the coolant level drop inside the radiator. If it drops add coolant to the top. Once the engine is just about warmed up check the coolant level again. If filled properly you will start to see coolant burp out of the fill neck where the cap goes. Once this happens put the cap back on and give her a go. I tried and tried and tried and tried the bleeder screw but to no avail. I just did my coolant elbows and that's exactly what the 04+ manual says! Once bled properly check every day like stated about to see if the coolant level is dropping
Click to expand...


when you say tried the bleeder valve...what does that mean exactly? nothing comes out, or you never got a stream of coolant? if so your not waiting long enough, the t stat needs to open in order to bleed it properly.
 
I waited long enough, I tried at first using the bleeder valve, the car was overheating when I tried using the bleeding screw. Screw was almost taken fully out. I had a mix of air then a stream of coolant come out while the car was running and after 25 mins of trying it was continuing to over heat. Looked in the oem manual and told me exactly what I posted. My 01 gt I replace the thermostat and tried bleeding it through the screw to no avail again. Do it the way I posted and it will be filled properly every time. Once I did this the car cooled and haven't had a single problem
 
The temp on my aeroforce was around 245 and climbing every time used the bleeder, to the point I had to keep shutting off the car. Once I did this, worked like a charm
 
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