Bought my daughter a 96 Sunfire, did bodywork, groung effects, GTO Hood scoop, 17 inch rims and tires. Sharp looking car. Low antifreeze light lit on dash today. Open hood , warm her up, notice small leak out of head just above starter. Now i am pissed, figure i will be doing a motor soon. Get out the torque wrench, tighten the front head bolts, still looks like its leaking. I flush out the cooling system ,replace it with 50/50 mix of prestone, take her for a ride, no more leak. Knock on wood. But i cant get that low antifreeze light to go out. Disconnect battery, hook it back up, same thing. Disconnect sensor in overflow bottle, light goes out, reconnect ,light comes on. Get big pair of plyers and whack that sensor a few good times, hook it back up, all is now well. I hope it stays that way but who knows. I know these motors have a problem with head bolts loosining up. What do you think my chances are of it coming back?
Jack,
What engine is in the car? The 2.2s are known for bad head gaskets. Also, I think the coolent light has a sensor which sits in the reservor on the bottom side. Make sure the plug is not loose.
BTW, I am sure this will get moved to the maintenance section of the site so keep an eye for it.
Good luck.
I'd just like to comment that my 2200 had the head gasket problem already, as well as one of my hoses slowly leaking and eventually just bursting leaving a healthy trail of coolant all over a wal-mart parking lot. lol
Moral of the story: Just make sure the hoses are kept fresh about every 2 years.
IF thats the problem. If its not the problem, sorry dunno what to say. :\
2000 2200 Cavalier: 9/14/2000--10/23/2006
2007 G85 SS S/C: 10/23/2006--Present
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if it is the 2.2 is it was it leaking from the front left corner because if so your gonna need a headgaskets. they are a badly designed gasket and they split in that corner and the newer gaskets are reinforced at the corners but headgaskets are easy on 2.2s also your coolant level light the sensors are crap what happens is they stick after a while and you have to hit the sensor or coolant reservoir with a hammer to get it to unstick, the dexclog oh i mean dexcool builds up and gums up the sensor. hope that helps. my advice is when you figure out what your problem is flush out dexcool and put in G-05 coolant.
