95 Cavalier many symptoms Help!

[nellyray]

My car is burning about a tank of coolant every week, no leak that I can see. Today it seemed to have a mind of it's own and was decelerating as I was cruising on the freeway, it kept doing it over and over, a friend mentioned that it could be a problem with the computer? It has been a decent and reliable car up until now. I plan on bringing it to the shop later this week to have it looked at but it would be nice if I had an idea what was wrong before I go hand over all my money ( I am a dumb girl ). Any imput would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Classicrocjunkie]

Originally Posted by nellyray

My car is burning about a tank of coolant every week, no leak that I can see. Today it seemed to have a mind of it's own and was decelerating as I was cruising on the freeway, it kept doing it over and over, a friend mentioned that it could be a problem with the computer? It has been a decent and reliable car up until now. I plan on bringing it to the shop later this week to have it looked at but it would be nice if I had an idea what was wrong before I go hand over all my money ( I am a dumb girl ). Any imput would be appreciated. Thanks!

1) Place a piece of large cardboard under your entire engine on the ground and let it run till its warmed up and cycles through the fan turning off and on.

a) If you don't see any coolant from this test on the cardboard go to b.

b) Do a compression test and if your going through a tank of coolant everyweek you most likely have a head gasket on its way out. A compression test will show a random low number compared to the others.. ex. (160-157-120-161) meaning cylinder # 3 has a leak and your burning up coolant.

Extra tid bit... The 95-97 2.2 OHV motor was known for blowing HG's.


ALSO- If you have any further problems, please put them in the J-body Diagnostic sub-forums located at the top of the main forum page. It gets annoying have to move threads all the time. Thanks!

[manicmechanix]

From what you described it could be a leaking headgasket. This could be why your car was cutting out, although that could've been caused by something else too. Did your check engine light come on. Your coolant is going somewhere and if you can't find a leak anywhere then it's probably going into the engine. Has the car ever ran hot?

Some other checks in addition to the compression test for a head gasket leak are: 1. presure getting into your coolant causing it to blow coolant out and run hot. 2. milky oil on your oil dipstick, oil filler cap and PCV valve. 3. coolant on the plugs when you take them out and inspect them. 4. cooling system not holding pressure when being pressure tested and no outward leaks.

With 2. above take off your pressure cap with the engine cold. fil the reservoir to full cold then start it up and see if it blows out coolant. With 4. you will need a coolant system presure tester. maybe rent one from an autoparts store. It will also test your pressure cap. A bad pressure cap could be a reason you're losing coolant too.