I was that guy! Happy New Year 2015!

[ChevMali99]

Yes! I was that guy stuck on the side of the road leaking anti-freeze with the hood open on 12/31/2014.

The question is why? I had some preventive maintenance work done two weeks before by taking care of the leaking exhaust manifold thing. Why did antifreeze leak from the middle of the engine block?

We'll find out friday

[wpbharry]

Start the New Year with a new horse. You're WAY overdue.

[ChevMali99]

Ha! I would but I'm tied up with a kitchen renovation & a trip to the Caribbean

[ChevMali99]

Took the car to STS on friday and it turned into a two day affair where day one was spent replacing the usual suspect, the exhaust manifold gasket, and day two was spent replacing the thermostat. What happened next still baffles all.

Got the car back, popped the hood for good measure and saw the coolant reservoir full. Went for a spin and almost immediately noticed the temp gauge was rising fast. Made a quick U-turn back to STS and just as I pulled in popped the hood and coolant was pouring out of the reservoir. It stopped, as if it reached its natural level, but as if that wasn't enough - I continued to rev the engine because through it all - the cabin was ice cold. Well wouldn't you know it, coolant blew out through the bottom of the engine block.

WTF?! the mechanic and shop foreman were in disbelief because in their heart of hearts they thought the problem was fixed. They took the car in again, later told me of some mumbo jumbo about a rubber cap/gasket that couldn't be tightly fastened because the thing was supposedly broken... Anyway, they came up with a rigg that allows the rubber cap / gasket to be fastened and never be loose or leak again.

Topped the coolant off, drove it around for a few hours and the cabin never got hot; the reservoir vomitted coolant again. Suddendly, I remembered something about bleeding the cooling system by turning some knob... I did so... and so far there is heat in the cabin and the temp gauge is not blowing up. More to come.

[Johnny R]

Turning some knob?

[Tech II]

Another shop that doesn't check it's work.....letting the car idle to normal operating temp, and then taking a quick test drive would have shown they still had a problem.....

does sound like mumbo jumbo.....would love to know what the secret knob was....

[ChevMali99]

The secret knob was the anti-freeze bleeder... I didn't know what was called. But day two driving around running some errands on local roads... got heat, not over heating, and not anti freeze leak so far. I bled the antifreeze nozzle that sits on the top of the engine, that seems to have been the difference.

[ChevMali99]

It has been 11 days since the repairs and so far so good, even my wife dared to drive to the mall.

[slls]

New cars are self bleeding, what a novel idea.