over heating and possible oil leak

[billytheman1188]

Well yesterday i was on my way to a beer fest.... had 4 people in the car, A/C on. and the beer fest was on top of a mountain, so we were going up twisty roads to get to the top. well just as we were getting to the top my temp gauge was going up to the 3/4 mark..... so i turned the a/c off, rolled the windows down and turned the heat on so it would go out the windows. the temp went down, but my question is....

i should probably get my coolant flushed and re-filled with some new dex cool.....right? cause i dont think its ever been changed (2002 car) and my step dad says he changes his every 2 years (but he also does put a lot of miles on his car for his job). anyways, would flushing the coolant solve the problem of my engine going past the half mark when idling or going up hills? should i also change my thermostat too? or is that fine.....

ALSO, when i changed my oil 2 days ago i noticed a good amount of dried up oil on the bottom and a little on the sides of the oil pan..... when i poured the old oil in the 5 qt plastic container it only showed about 3 6/8 and i always put 4.5 in. could it be a bad oil pan gasket? (step dad also said he always has the exact amount when he changes his, and he has 240,000 on his car) i thought it might just be because my car is getting older and the mileage is starting to get a little high, but when he said he always has the exact amount and he has 160,000 more miles on his car than me....i thought that might be an issue;)


Thanks for any help guys!:coolio:

[billytheman1188]

everyone posts in the off topic section and doesnt post in an alero related thread...... wow. i think the time is coming to where i need to switch to 60 degree for any help with my car, and i will come on here to chat about dumb shit like fat people causing global warming and aleroracing wanting to know why everyone on here flames him

[pawzbear]

blah blah blah..
nah a coolant flush you may probably need, but will most likely not solve your problem. Changing every 2 years is OVERKILL.. maybe every 80-100k miles, yes.

Check your radiator to see how its holding up.. plastic ones can develop cracks along the top, expand, etc and not be able to hold pressure over time.
But if you want to try something yourself instead of having it diagnosed (since, ya know, overheating could be a HELLUVA LOT of things..) you can try replacing the radiator cap and thermostat..get the t-gaskets while your at it too, they are cheap!
Check all hoses for softness and crackling while your at it. This is all pretty easy-peasy.

Oh and does the oil seem to just be accumulating around the pan area or is it dripping down from higher on the engine? Spray it all down with brake clean, drive a little, then check it out thoroughly.

[worknprog.99]

everyone posts in the off topic section and doesnt post in an alero related thread...... wow. i think the time is coming to where i need to switch to 60 degree for any help with my car, and i will come on here to chat about dumb shit like fat people causing global warming and aleroracing wanting to know why everyone on here flames him

i have an account with them...
i too have an over heating thing. check out what my problem is as found in my turbo progress thread, i have no idea what is wrong with mine maybe we have somehting similar:cool:

[Bad99Olds]

Well yesterday i was on my way to a beer fest.... had 4 people in the car, A/C on. and the beer fest was on top of a mountain, so we were going up twisty roads to get to the top. well just as we were getting to the top my temp gauge was going up to the 3/4 mark..... so i turned the a/c off, rolled the windows down and turned the heat on so it would go out the windows. the temp went down, but my question is....

i should probably get my coolant flushed and re-filled with some new dex cool.....right? cause i dont think its ever been changed (2002 car) and my step dad says he changes his every 2 years (but he also does put a lot of miles on his car for his job). anyways, would flushing the coolant solve the problem of my engine going past the half mark when idling or going up hills? should i also change my thermostat too? or is that fine.....

ALSO, when i changed my oil 2 days ago i noticed a good amount of dried up oil on the bottom and a little on the sides of the oil pan..... when i poured the old oil in the 5 qt plastic container it only showed about 3 6/8 and i always put 4.5 in. could it be a bad oil pan gasket? (step dad also said he always has the exact amount when he changes his, and he has 240,000 on his car) i thought it might just be because my car is getting older and the mileage is starting to get a little high, but when he said he always has the exact amount and he has 160,000 more miles on his car than me....i thought that might be an issue;)


Thanks for any help guys!:coolio:

or you had 4 people in a heavy car with big old rapper rims going up a fucking mountain, i would imagine that would be stressful on an engine, especially with ac on.

[Redog]

Flush out dexcool, swap in the green stuff ;)

[rustyballs_69]

I don't think a flush is gonna help with the temp getting up to 3/4. I think it was probably they stress on the car, A/C with the wieght of 4 people going up a mountain, like bad99olds said.

[NickAlero2000]

Mine burns a bit...how many miles are on yours?

[DOHC_tuner]

Check and make sure your fans are running properly as well. I had a overheating issue and all it was is one of the fans was not spinning fast anymore.

But yes also get a a flush and replace your t-stat if you can. Check your reservoir tank cap, do you hear pressure when you turn off the car?

As for the oil change it can be a lot things. Its not easy to find sometimes. It took me about 45 min. to find my friends leak on his Ion Redline and it turned out to be tranny fluid.

Get some brake cleaner and get cleaning. Put the car on jacks and turn on the car and rev it. A flash light can come in handy!

[CactusWill]

Well yesterday i was on my way to a beer fest.... had 4 people in the car, A/C on. and the beer fest was on top of a mountain, so we were going up twisty roads to get to the top. well just as we were getting to the top my temp gauge was going up to the 3/4 mark.....


Thats normal

my engine going past the half mark when idling or going up hills? should i also change my thermostat too? or is that fine.....

Thats also normal

everyone posts in the off topic section and doesnt post in an alero related thread...... wow. i think the time is coming to where i need to switch to 60 degree for any help with my car


Give people more than 3 hours on a sunday nite to respond, maybe noone on 60 degree has a life but many of us do.

[cherrington17]

everyone posts in the off topic section and doesnt post in an alero related thread...... wow. i think the time is coming to where i need to switch to 60 degree for any help with my car, and i will come on here to chat about dumb shit like fat people causing global warming and aleroracing wanting to know why everyone on here flames him

i had suggestions, but they have all been said. but for this comment... seriously billy. you've been here a couple years. you should know, weekends are SLOW. espicially when the weather gets nice. I've posted problems on a saturday and didn't get a good response till monday afternoon.

[Ryan from Ohio]

Flush out the dexcool ASAP. once drained put some engine flush in. Run it, drain it. flush it with clean water. After the first water cycle, remove the thermostat, put together without Tsat. Crack bleeder screws, put hose in radiator hold hand around hose. Pressurize until water comes out is nice and clear... That should make your radiator and block nice and clean...

Now reinstall a new Tstat and reassembled. Fill with GREEN coolant (get it at Wal Mart). Adjust to correct mixture. I dont buy that premixed crap...

[Nate's Alero]

haha, i drove around for three days without my thermostat, just to clean out ALL the crap, i need to do it again, my block is totally rusted.... it keeps coming back

[billytheman1188]

why switch to the green stuff??? just curious. is the orange shit not as good?


i will be doing a flush and get a new t-stat. Its getting hot out, and it would be nice to have fresh coolant.

i know that going up the hill with 4 people and the ac on will make it over heat.....but the needle does go up if im stopped at a light for a while.

[[ion] C2]

it's not overheating.... it's just increasing in temperature.

get a better radiator if you do uphill driving with extra weight (towing friends around)

[Bad99Olds]

its cause your fat.

[Gr1m]

this is also caused if theres air in your coolant lines. when a hot air pocket under the pressure of the coolant system passes your tstat, the temp will shoot up. this air can be manually bled or the system will automatically bleed the air out after a few days, but there shouldnt be air in there unless its leaking from somewhere

[zzyzzx]

I'm also on board with the fat being the problem, except my guess is that all 4 occupants of the car are fat.

[Nate's Alero]

im guesing the car was fully loaded and had four moderate people in it....
mine does not move at all, and i have green shit with my A/C fan running constantly

[billytheman1188]

^which brings me to my question.............

why should i switch to the green stuff? just curious.....i will do it, but i wanna know why people like the green stuff more

[Ryan from Ohio]

Because the Dexcool is the devil. Its been root cause to some peoples problems. People have even had issues with the coolant itself...

The greens tuffs been around for ages. Its predictable.

[Nate's Alero]

it's better, /thread

[billytheman1188]

I brought my car into the shop today to change a bad stud on my driver side front hub. go to put the new one in, it just slides right in. The guy at autozone gave me the wrong stud, so we made a trip there and we got one that looked pretty close to the stock one. It was originally for a buick century.... hammered it in from the back, put the wheel on. good as new..... then we changed the fuel filter, the nut came loose pretty easy (we were worried it would be a bitch to get off, and we didnt want to twist the fuel line but we got lucky lol).

So two things down..... coolant is the next issue to get fixed. I talked to my buddy who is a mechanic and he was telling me a lot of people switch from the dex-cool to the green stuff. He said the orange shit eats away the gaskets, which is why a lot of the 3.4's have those LIM issues. After he told me that, i remember people saying that on here. lol i will be bringing it to my mechanic to get it flushed sometime next week. just figured i would fill you guys in on my small "tune up"

[worknprog.99]

i just switched to green too lol