Lost coolant

[FormerCutlass]

When I shut my car off last week after driving, I had a flood of coolant all over my garage floor. All the leaking appears to be from the surge tank, but I'm not 100% sure. Where do I begin to look? And how bad can this turn out to be? If it's the water pump, where is it on the ecotec? This was only the second time my alero got outside this year :cry:

[Nate's Alero]

Was it heating over when driving? Was there any lights on the Dash? Loss in power? Weird smoke?

[spc2125]

Run the car and put it in reverse and back up a couple feet. then put it in drive and go back to where it was parked. Then keep it running and look underneath the car to see where its dripping from.

[a.graham52]

i had this happen to me once. my coolant bottle was over full and one of the times i was on a fire call i beat feet to get there and left the car running, came back 20 minutes later to find coolant running out fron under the car. hows your coolant level? too high and this could happen.

[03glgold]

the water pump is in the timing cover...when i had my car in the shop for the timing chain tensioner i had everything in there replaced (both chain kits, water pump etc.) and my bill was $1008, however i took it to a shop because i didn't have time to mess with it...the pump itself is like $60 and then i think the gaskets are $40 total if you did it yourself from o'rielly's

[FormerCutlass]

Was it heating over when driving? Was there any lights on the Dash? Loss in power? Weird smoke?

The temperature was at half, there were no lights, no smoke, no nothing. I backed into my garage, shut it off and the coolant dumped. When I inspect the engine compartment, it all appears to have dumped out of the surge tank overflow hose.

I should mention that I very rarely drive this car.. it's a fairweather summer car only on it's second drive for the year. Most of you might think it's just an alero, but to me, it's a pristine low mileage tribute to the finest car maker ever.. So I treat it good. 30 years from now, I'll be the old guy driving the classic oldsmobile :p

[FormerCutlass]

i had this happen to me once. my coolant bottle was over full and one of the times i was on a fire call i beat feet to get there and left the car running, came back 20 minutes later to find coolant running out fron under the car. hows your coolant level? too high and this could happen.

Fair enough, but would it cause it to empty? After this happened, I got the dinging idiot light telling me that my coolant is low. I immediately shut it off and haven't tried it again since there's no use until it's fixed.

[FormerCutlass]

the water pump is in the timing cover...when i had my car in the shop for the timing chain tensioner i had everything in there replaced (both chain kits, water pump etc.) and my bill was $1008, however i took it to a shop because i didn't have time to mess with it...the pump itself is like $60 and then i think the gaskets are $40 total if you did it yourself from o'rielly's

Great.. I hope it's not that. That's good knowledge though

[FormerCutlass]

Run the car and put it in reverse and back up a couple feet. then put it in drive and go back to where it was parked. Then keep it running and look underneath the car to see where its dripping from.

There's nothing left to drip out, or so the idiot light tells me.. the coolant bottle is bone dry now, and I can't get at the radiator to tell how much is there, but the hose squeeze test tells me it's empty.

[Redog]

If it's comming from the overflow hose, could be a head gasket.

Start the car, let it warm up (after refilling the coolant of course) then rev the engine with the throttle plate and see if the coolant level changes, as in goes down and comes right back up as soon as you let off of it.

Quick short revs, nothing crazy :coolio:

[TdotAlero]

It seems to drip from under te coolant bottle? Warm up the car to normal temperature, then pop the hood and inspect for leaks. Mine had the same problem and it turned out to be leaking coolant from a tiny crack in the bottle. $30 later, and no more issues :) Hopefully urs will be as easy of a fix as mine.

[rustyballs_69]

I would try a new cap.

[a.graham52]

If it's comming from the overflow hose, could be a head gasket.

Start the car, let it warm up (after refilling the coolant of course) then rev the engine with the throttle plate and see if the coolant level changes, as in goes down and comes right back up as soon as you let off of it.

Quick short revs, nothing crazy :coolio:

Is like to add to this: make sure Ur coolant is 100% full otherwise it could be normal for an engine to suck down coolant with the engine revved. Did that to my RV before bring it home. Revved it up and dumped in half a gallon, with it revved I stuck the cap back on. Had I left it off coolant would have come gushing back out.

[Shiwnath]

Wow! You Ecotec guys kinda have it bad for changing the water pump.. On the 3400 all you have to do is take the belt off and remove 4 bolts to take off the pulley, then remove the 5 bolts that mount the pump to the engine and the thing comes right out.. That sucks for you guys that you gotta get in there really deep.

Most of you might think it's just an alero, but to me, it's a pristine low mileage tribute to the finest car maker ever.. So I treat it good. 30 years from now, I'll be the old guy driving the classic oldsmobile :p

A lot of us feel the same way about our own Aleros. It's not just an Alero to most of us on here... Most of the people on here are passionate about these cars and some even own more than one Alero... We know how you feel haha.

[Redog]

I liked changing the water pump on my 3400. It started to weep, so I replaced it and had FUN!! Also changed the upper and lower hoses. Had a bitch of a time unclamping the lower hose on the raditor, but in all, total work time was 1.5 hours :D

Redog is starting to reach the end of the road. When I get a house, I'm looking for a new DD and Redog will be in the garage and around June 2015, Classic plates, just like the Delta :D

[FormerCutlass]

how do I post pictures? I have two

[zzyzzx]

My guess is a cracked overflow tank.

[sleepyalero]

how do I post pictures? I have two

photobucket.com

create/sign into account

upload photo(s)

copy IMG code from picture

paste in here

reply

bam.

[Papa Rad17]

Mine started doing that overflowing crap whenever my head gasket went. Is it eating any oil?