Overheating and coolant leak

[champs_100]

I need help folks!!!

Have a 96 Cavilier 2.2l getting sick of this thing never seen such a lemon!!!!!

Nonetheless, here's the problem.

Been extremely cold here for the past few weeks, on average -35C at night and I have no garage.
My car started overheating about a week and a half ago so I picked up a new thermostat and my nuts were stripped on the thermostat husing so I had the garage change it. Car still was overheating, also I started to leak antifreeze. The thermostat and the car worked fine for 1 day then it overheated again. Went back to the garage, during the night it leaked coolant again. Garage looked at it and said everythig was fine, they tested it, represurized the system and I'm off again. Lasted one more day then I had to take it back again. They were baffled, they in turn took it to the dealership and GM changed the thermostat in case the old one was faulty. Car worked fine for one more day then I leaked more coolant and I overheated again. Been a week of this and I am at my wits end. They checked the entire cooling system and are stumped, so what the hell am I to do? What could it be? Any suggestion?
Wouldn't be so bad but this is an extreme lemon and I have put about 3000 dollars in to it this year.

Thanks

[thecommi]

did you put any radiator stop leak in the radiator after it started leaking the first time? where exactly is the coolant leaking from? is it just boiling out of the bottle or is it coming from elseware on the motor. you could have a clogged heater core or a bad radiator. if you dont change your coolant this will happen. I belive you have Dexcool antifreeze/coolant in your cooling system, its the orange stuff. that should be changed every 5 years or 150,000 miles according to the manufacture. but in reality the stuff is complete garbage, basically turns to mud in your cooling system. GM is now changing out Dexcool with standard ethlyline glycol, which is the green stuff because of all the problems. it is possible this mud buildup is clogging one of your cooling tubes, heater core, or radiator.

[sparkypdr]

If the coolant is leaking out of the weep hole on the waterpump, it is very difficult to tell. And it typically only leaks out under load or while you are running down the road. One easy way to check it is to stuff a couple of paper towels up where the weep hole is and drive around the block. When you get back, pull the paper towels out and if they are green or orange as the case may be, then you need to change your pump out.
Like thecommi said, you need to find out where it is leaking from first. Another place that it can leak and not be obvious is from the heater core drain tube. Again, typically this happens under load, but sometimes it is bad enough to see it.
You need to find out where the leak is before your can fix it.

[champs_100]

Originally Posted by sparkypdr

If the coolant is leaking out of the weep hole on the waterpump, it is very difficult to tell. And it typically only leaks out under load or while you are running down the road. One easy way to check it is to stuff a couple of paper towels up where the weep hole is and drive around the block. When you get back, pull the paper towels out and if they are green or orange as the case may be, then you need to change your pump out.
Like thecommi said, you need to find out where it is leaking from first. Another place that it can leak and not be obvious is from the heater core drain tube. Again, typically this happens under load, but sometimes it is bad enough to see it.
You need to find out where the leak is before your can fix it.

Garage just changed my water pump and tested, seems to be fine but we'll see tonight.

I'm not a mechanic but shouldn't that have been one of the first things to check, or is there no way to really check to see if the water pump is gone? Days ago the ruled out that it was. LIke I said I'm not a mechanic, and I generallly trust mine but... just curious for next time.

[ebritt]

I just picked up my 91 rs wagon with 2.2 for a hundred bucks leaking like a siev. The guy was tired of it even after I told him what was wrong! Freeze plugs were rotted from the inside and had small pinholes in them I fixed it for about $20 and he is mad at me. Anyway if it still leaks, check the freeze plugs and the heater control unit gasket. The gasket will leak and the water will run down through the tranny bellhousing making leak appear to be somewhere else.

[sparkypdr]

It should have been one of the first things they checked, but mechanics are like doctors, 50% of them are in the bottom half of their class. If they changed the pump out, and you still have the problem then that was not the problem. A good mechanic will diagnose the problem first then fix it, but also like a doctor, the early diagnosis can be wrong because they are trying to find the problem quickly and some problems are difficult to diagnose.

For amateurs like us, we diagnose things and then fix the cheapest and easiest stuff first before going to the costly and difficult.

[oldsaltdoggie]

Head Gasket???????