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Series 3 Coolant Elbow, Pull upper mani?

Cruisin38

Cruisin38

New member
My mother's 2007 Buick Lucerne with 34k miles left a nice puddle of coolant in the garage this morning.
Upon initial inspection I'm fairly certain the coolant elbow from the Tensioner assembly to the LIM is what failed...

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Now it was easy to pull it off my series 2 on an engine stand. In the car I'm not 100%
Can I get away with just moving the alternator and pulling the tensioner assembly and elbows out? Or am I pulling that darn UIM?

Or is there a simpler method I'm oblivious to?
Thanks for any info
Checking Alldata or Mitchell I can't seem to find specific info.
 


Ya, common failure point, O/E plastic elbows for such a vital system was a real bonehead move by GM. Make sure you get all of busted elbow ends & O-rings out, clean all 4 ports wit fine emery or sandpaper (220 grit). Get an awl kit from harbor freight, 3.99 for four pcs. It'll help get any broken elbow ends out. Just don't did too hard and scratch up the inside of the ports or you'll end up leaking. 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. start to finish topping coolant.
 
Good tips. I'll take my time with it to get it done right for sure.
Both transmission cooler lines are seeping at the trans too, so I have a pair of those I just sanded and painted to try and resist rust.
Looks like I'll be knocking all that out along with a coolant flush this week.
 


Elbow broke right at the o-ring. Problem now is the moment I touched the broken ring inside the lim with my pick it just fell.... into the lim.
I was able to reach my finger in there and feel it but after trying multiple tools and things to try and pull that sucker out... I think I managed to push it in and now lose it in there.

Any suggestions or am I pulling the UIM and LIM now?
 
I would make sure the flow, but I would guess you may be able to flush it out or get it to where you can at least reach it again. Don't quote me. Maybe someone else has another idea.
 
If it was me I would shop vac it back to the hole lol then try to get a string around it to pull out. I have a na lower sitting right here upside down cant really go anywhere but straight back
 
I was worried about it getting lodged in a cooling jacket, or hacked by the water pump and clogging up the thermostat heh
 


Just tried blasting water through it, No dice!
Since I'm planning on doing a thorough flush on the system I'll see if I can catch it flushing out one of the hoses.
Otherwise It'll probably cause no issues anyways ha
 
did you blast water from the elbow side? Id fill it with water and put the shop vac on the tstat side, hose on the elbow side then floor the water and hit the shop vac on.
 
Tried blasting from several sides, Not much luck.

Either way job done. Looks nice when you're looking for those elbows haha.

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Also got the trans cooler lines replaced. They were seeping quite a bit worse than I originally thought.

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Under $60 shipped for the pair on rock auto.
I cleaned em up and painted them to try and prolong the rust this time
 
I did elbows 3 times this spring, on our 05&06 GPS and 05 Monte Carlo Lt. If you need to do this again to some other vehicle, a small bent tip awl is the key to retrieving elbow ends & of rings. If they're wedged in the engine side, just gently scratch into them up til you can pull them out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
 
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