Coolant Issue

Got in my wife's 01 Grand Prix (3100 Engine) last night and noticed the coolant light stayed on longer than usual. It's been leaking a bit of coolant so I figured it was time for a top off. I noticed a nice orange sludge at both ends of a short hose (about 5" long). The hose is above the lower radiator hose and has a bleeder screw where it connects on the bottom.

Any ideas? I'm at 96K on the engine. Is it just time for a good flush?

since it's using coolant, check your oil for cloudiness and being overfull. Your car is right at the mileage where the intake gaskets go and start allowing coolant inside the engine into the oil. Letting it go will eventually destroy your engine, so if this is your case, don't put it off. Once you replace the junk OEM plastic/rubber gasket with one of the improved design metal/rubber replacements, your engine should be good for another 200k.

since it's using coolant, check your oil for cloudiness and being overfull. Your car is right at the mileage where the intake gaskets go and start allowing coolant inside the engine into the oil. Letting it go will eventually destroy your engine, so if this is your case, don't put it off. Once you replace the junk OEM plastic/rubber gasket with one of the improved design metal/rubber replacements, your engine should be good for another 200k.

I am also loosing oil somewhere too. I was a quart and a half low on oil at last oil change too. Coolant does not appear to be in the oil as of the last oil change, I will check it tonight though.

Is that gasket something easy to replace or better left to the shop?

If you have good mechanical skills, a repair manual (for torque specs), and the right tools (in/lb calibrated torque wrench for 1), you can do this job yourself. The first one I did (on my wife's minivan, similar job just more cramped) took me about 7-8 hours over 2 days to do. I have it down to about 4-1/2 now. Organization and cleanliness are your biggest allies here, as quite a bit has to be torn down to complete the job. The oil loss issue could be the oil pump drive shaft o-ring leaking. It's essentially a distributor with the top cut off. It's located under the throttle body on the drivers side in the center of the "v" of the block. It's very simple to do while the intake is off (one bolt on a hold down clamp) but requires removing the throttle body for access if you're not doing the intake at the same time. The oil will appear to be leaking from the oil pan area or rear main seal, as the oil will run down the back of the block and down to these areas.