QuestionHi Roland
We have a 1999 Chrysler Sebring Convertible that has been overheating and loosing coolant. We are looking at it today and have check/found the following: There is steam that smells like coolant coming out of the exhaust. When we refill the coolant, it seems to maintain temperature at idle when in the shade. If I remove the radiator cap while it is running, there is no pressure. There is no grinding noise coming from the car and the weep holes on the water pump look ok. The radiator fan cycles on and off. I see coolant swirling in the pipes under the cap. The top radiator hose does not exceed 140 degrees and does not get firm. The cap on the overflow chamber is cracked on the top and obviously needs to be replaced. Since the overflow chamber is pressurized on the Convertible the cap may be the answer to the pressure problem but I am still at a loss to explain the steam in the exhaust. We are planning on changing the oil today (it needs it anyway) to check for coolant in the oil. You have mentioned a fault in the head gasket on previous posts. Is that what we are looking at? Is replacing this a straightforward endeavor or should we give up at this point. I believe I have the needed tools. Thanks in advance for you advice.
AnswerHi Derek,
There is virtually no way to get coolant smell out the exhaust without it somehow entering the combustion chamber of one of the cylinders, either via a head gasket leak, or a slightly looes cylinder head bolt, or a crack in the head or block. So that would be the focus at this point, along with the coolant overflow cap. If the loss rate is low, it is possible that loosening the headbolts to maybe 65 foot pounds and then retightening them to spec may fix a small leak between the head and the block. You would want to find which side is leaking by pulling the front plugs first and try cranking the engine when cold (and thus allowed coolant to leak into one of the cylinders), and watch at the start of cranking for the expulsion of water from the holes, or even looking at the plugs when you remove them might tell you if the 2/4/6 was leaking. If not, then you can assume the problem is on the rear bank. If loosening/retightening doesn't fix it, then replacing the gasket will be necessary... and that would be a good time if the timing belt is high in mileage to replace that, and the same with the water pump as all are accessible at that point.
A possible fix would be to add some Bar's Leak to the cooling system to see if it might seal the leak. That is of course the easiest potential solution, if it works.
You would want to have either a Haynes maual for the specific vehicle, or at least the #25015 which covers the engine (Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze models) for a gasket replacement. If you locate which side the leak is on, you could remove the cylinder cover, loosen the bolts slightly in the counterclockwise outside to inside pattern, then re-torque to spec. The torque spec for the bolts is 80 foot pounds using a clockwise in to out pattern by means of a 10 mm allen head fitting on a torque wrench.
I hope that you can fix this easily.
Roland
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