Questioni have a 97 deville with 94k miles on it. i got it from an auction for 2000.00. when i took it home i drove fine. the next day i drove it.....the engine overheated and i got the "stop engine message"/ "idel engine". and it all so said "check coolant level". "coolant temp hot".
so i put some 50/50 inside of it and. drove it back home. buy the time i got home the whole container of fluid i put in it was gone. and the engine overheated again.
after the second time i drove it i notice the coolant coming out underneath the car on the passenger side just beside the right wheel. it was all inside the right when well. it drips out when the cars off, but seems to poor out when the car is on. i smell the coolant everywere outside the car. it was smoking yesterday. so i stopped driving it.
whats the problem? what should i do? how much generally will it cost? can i use the tablet things to filx the leak? was it worth the 2grand i spent out it. how do i know if its so far gone that the head gaskets are blown.
and why dose the overheating happen to everyone who gets this car?
AnswerJemel,
First things first. Find and repair the leak. No sense in even trying to diagnose the cooling system until it will hold water. You could be lucky, it might only be a heater hose. Once fixed, run the engine and see if it overheats. It may not. The whole problem could be the leak but if you allow it to overheat, you are flirting with disaster because that significantly increases the stress on the head gasket. If, after the system leak is fixed, it still overheats, you need to verify the fans are working, the thermostat is opening, and the coolant is flowing (check the waterpump belt).
