My brother has a 1998 2.2L Cavalier. Driving to the restaurant for dinner tonight, he told me that he was getting an odd sound coming from under the hood. When he stopped, and poped the hood, he noticed steam coming out from the overflow tank. I took a look..
Symptoms: "thumping" sound from under hood, presumably the water pump?
Coolant boiling over in the expansion tank
Seems to overheat within 5 minutes just @ idle
Will be doing the thermostat and water pump in the morning. Was just going to do the thermostat, but found out that a water pump was only $25, so figured I'd do that too, as the car just crested 100k.
Also, the anti-freeze was a odd brown color.. is that normal for the Chevy's w/ dexron (or whatever it's called), or is oil finding it's way in?
The brown color is what dexcol does when it is old. Do a really good flush on the radiator while your doing the work to clean it out.
FU Tuning
But could the sound not be the boiling coolant passing through the hoses? I know when mine started it scared the crap out me cause it was gasping for a drink....
I had problems getting the air out after a thermostat change and the car would overflow the resevoir without overheating. Once I changed the cap with one from the dealership, the problem was solved. The new cap was 18psi instead of 15. Now the gauge never moves once it warms up.
2.2 97 Cavalier......the "Crapalier"
