99 SE Problems HELP

[Kid_Buick_98&84]

ok my girlfriends 99 grand am se is freakin out. (dash lights)
first thing, when she starts to drive it will hesitate for a sec then go but the ETC light pops on and dings, pushing the button does nothing.

Second thing is reletivly new, her LOW COOLANT light is on, shes had it in to valvoline to top off all fluids and it still comes on, the engine does not overheat or even go above normal operating temp. what could thses things mean, and would a system check show anything helpful as to how to re3medy the problem.

i did that when her service vens or her gas cap was just a little loose.

any help would be much appreciated

[xeroinfinity]

So when the ETC light comes on , what other lights come on if any?
Does the light(s) stay on?

If the low coolant ligths on and the coolant tank is fulll it could be two things. The sensor is bad or unpluged, and thier could be an air bubble on the sensor making it think its low.

[Kid_Buick_98&84]

yes the abs light comes on with it, and they stay on untill she shuts the car off. and how could we remedy the coolant light problem if its one of those.

[xeroinfinity]

The coolant level sensor is in the bottom of the resivour, you will see the wire coming from inside the fender.
Unplug it and plug it back in and see if it was maybe a dirty connection.
Tap on the container to release any air pockets that could be in thier.

Has thier been any puddles of coolant on the ground?
You can sometimes smell it when the engines hot.

But with the other two lights I'd say one of the wheel sensors are probly bad... That'll need scanned by an ABS capible scanner to isolate the trouble.

one other thing, keep an eye on the oil for white or chocolate colored stuff on ht eoil fill cap, the dip stick or the bottom of the PCV valve.

These are both typical GA troubles.

[fwfd601]

My wife has the same car and we fought that light from day one. turned out to be a slow leak on the waterpump gasket. engine heat would evaporate the coolant underneath the pully. never saw any coolant on the ground.

[Kid_Buick_98&84]

Originally Posted by xeroinfinity

But with the other two lights I'd say one of the wheel sensors are probly bad... That'll need scanned by an ABS capible scanner to isolate the trouble.

alright so would a place like checker have one of those or would i need to take it to a mechanic, cause they had a scanner for the check engine light and found out it was just the gas cap. but i dont kno if they would have the abs scanner.

[xeroinfinity]

Originally Posted by Kid_Buick_98&amp

alright so would a place like checker have one of those or would i need to take it to a mechanic, cause they had a scanner for the check engine light and found out it was just the gas cap. but i dont kno if they would have the abs scanner.

Never heard of "checker" so I dont know what they hav.
You could ask them. Some Advance autos do hav an ABS scanner but I'm not sure if they are where you live.
Other wise you will probly hav to take it to a shop/mechanic.

I do highly doubt thier scanner said the "gas cap" was your emissions leak problem.
They just got lucky

Here is a thread GMMerlin wrote on the gas cap delima, very imformative !!
The GAS CAP code!!!!!!!!!!

[Kid_Buick_98&84]

Originally Posted by xeroinfinity

Never heard of "checker" so I dont know what they hav.
You could ask them. Some Advance autos do hav an ABS scanner but I'm not sure if they are where you live.
Other wise you will probly hav to take it to a shop/mechanic.

I do highly doubt thier scanner said the "gas cap" was your emissions leak problem.
They just got lucky

Here is a thread GMMerlin wrote on the gas cap delima, very imformative !!
The GAS CAP code!!!!!!!!!!

no it didnt actually say that, it said something like the charcol filter, one guy just happened to drive an alero and that happened to him, he said he left it off and the lite came on, so then she went out and checked and it was barely on at all,so she tightened it up and the light went out. and checker is like advance/napa/etc...

[Gir-_-]

Originally Posted by Kid_Buick_98&amp

...Second thing is reletivly new, her LOW COOLANT light is on, shes had it in to valvoline to top off all fluids and it still comes on, the engine does not overheat or even go above normal operating temp. what could thses things mean, and would a system check show anything helpful as to how to re3medy the problem.

If even after un-plugging the sensor, cleaning the connection or doing w/e and pluggin it back in the light is still there...

On the chance that there might be a big air bubble in the coolant... heres a remedy that ive learned from these forums....

Drive the car around untill it is at normal operating temp.

Find a slope (& a place to park the car and sit for a few), basically anywhere with a slight incline... nothing almost straight vertical but good enough to make the car slightly tilt

With the car at normal temp, and sitting on the incline, pop the hood...
You're going to un-screw the coolant cap (slowly, hot coolant is a nono... it is also under pressure!!! so watch for that).

What you're going to do with the front of the car slightly up, and the coolant cap off is you're going to sit there, and to help the process you are then going to put the heater to 5 / Max AC / All the way hot (you can stay in the car if you'd like, might sweat bullets tho heh). Basically what this will do is just get the coolant flowing as fast as it could possibly go and it'll get the system flowing...

You're just going to sit for about 15mins max, Every 5 mins though you're going to want to rev the car to about 2000rpms and just stay there for about 30 seconds... anyone outside will more than likely see the coolant level inside the tank go down (this is a good thing) it just means that you're flowing coolant through the system. Rev'ing the engine is just a way to get stubborn air pockets.

All in all, this is all a general idea of what needs to be done... Every slope is different for the car so who knows how good of use it might be.

After the 15 mins, screw the coolant cap straight on and correctly... it helps if you use the palm of ur hand to make it go evenly... From there do w/e. But as for seeing if all of this helping. Let the car cool off fully untill it is driven again to see if the problem has been fixed... if the low coolant light comes on. If not, success for now lol, if its still there you might want to check the oils dip stick and see if its a chocolate milk colour like XI said, also the PCV Valve on the car.

Not sure where the PCV Valve would be on a 4cycl, but on the V6 it is located right in front and near the center... it'll be a tube that comes from the back of the engine over the throttle body, and it'll be doing a straight 90degree turn down into the engine with a rubber boot.... from the top view of the engine its going to be on the bottom right.

Hope all of this helps for the coolant at least, if not.. try and get someone to check it out... who knows what it could be doing