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Weird cooling system problem

N

njostrander10

New member
First I'd like to say that I've been creeping this forum for about 5 years now and you guys have been very helpful in dealing with my POS car (05 Grand Prix GT). I'm still a big noob when it comes to cars though. Anyways I have ran into a problem that I couldn't find using the search bar. My car has been leaking coolant slowly for like 4 or 5 months now but being a college student I haven't been able to figure out where or fix it due to lack of money or knowledge. Then yesterday as I was driving down the interstate at about 75 mph and the temp gauge went crazy going up and down randomly and then overheated. This was all within 15 minutes of me starting this journey. I thought I was probably low on coolant but I checked the overflow tank and all of the coolant had been pushed into the tank making it way too full. I let my car sit for a couple of hours and the coolant all stayed in the overflow tank. I was able to have a buddy of mine load me onto his trailer and take my car back to my apartment. Where it is now sitting because I'm afraid to drive it and risk damage to the car without knowing what it is. I've seen similar posts about it being the thermostat or a blown head gasket.. But none of the posts mentioned the coolant being pushed into the overflow tank. My car has 140,000 hard earned miles on it. And yes in my younger days I put green coolant in my dexcool... So that's part of my problem there I'm pretty sure of that. Any insight would be awesome as to what may be wrong (other than I own a Grand Prix) and what I should do about fixing it would be much appreciated.
 


now that its cooled off, re fill the rad run it bleed the t stat housing bleeder. then watch for leaks while its running.

the rad cap could be bad, that would let the coolant over flow the tank. or a blown head gasket, less likely tho.
 
Start with what scotty said, those caps fail all the time and basically create a wide open doorway to the overflow tank. I've seen this exact situation before and amazingly all it took to fix it was a new cap. I was kinda of blown away by that
 
I did what Scotty said only problem is that when I went to unscrew the bleeder valve the tip just snapped off. I'm not sure if the tip is important because i did not see any air bubbles or coolant coming from it at all.
 


No worries if the stupid top came off.. as long as that area doesn't leak, leave it alone.

Start it up and run the car..for a few min. Turn it off.. do it again a few times.
Then.. wait for it to cool and check the level again. Do this a couple of days in a row and you will either find the leak or be all set
 


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The other thing you could so.. is put a 10mm six point socket on what remains..but honestly I don't bother with that thing anymore.
 
since you are taking pictures though. Go take a picture standing on the passenger side.. look just to the right of the alternator .. Just above the water pump.. how wet is it where that elbow is located?
 


It sure does look dry. Hmmmm stop by a parts store and ask them to pressure test your radiator cap. Should be free test
 
Just to update you guys. I ended up replacing the thermostat and the radiator cap and that seems to have fixed my overheating problem. I still have a small leak somewhere because I have been adding a little coolant every couple of days to the radiator.


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