Couple things first.....for the past year or so, my "low coolant" light comes on about once a month & I have to add coolant. Also, after the motor is warmed up, there is a constant ticking sound coming from down inside the motor......someone told me it sounds like "a lifter is sticking." Like I said, been having both of these issues for about a year, but the car has never been acting up at all during this time.

Starting just last week, whenever I accelerate above 2,000 RPM, my AEM short ram intake gets REALLY LOUD like its sucking in some major air, but I'm only going 35 mph. I've had the intake for over 3 years, and its never sounded this loud before.

Then, just yesterday i drove to the store. I come out of the store & start the car......low coolant light is on again, and the idle is really rough all of a sudden like it wants to stall out. I pull out of the parking spot & when I accelerate above 2,000 rpm, the MOTOR sounds like an aftermarket muffler! The car is also hesitating pretty good during acceleration. I find a safe place to pull off & pop the hood. My coolant tank is completely empty. Luckily there's a NAPA down the street so I walk & buy a jug of coolant. I pour in half the jug, and then check under the car to see it dripping right out already. It's dripping kinda beneath the area of the driver's side where the brake fluid reservoir is located......it was already getting dark out so I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from in the engine bay, but that is where is was dripping on the ground. I limped the car home & parked it out front of my apartment. Let it sit for a little while & checked under the car again......the rest of the coolant finished leaking out of the same area as before.

I was thinking this was the water pump, but from reading other posts, that should be leaking on the passenger side of the car, right? Also, does the loud sound of my motor have anything to do with the coolant level? Another thing to add, one time when I was accelerating on my way home, the motor made a popping sound that you sometimes hear from a bad muffler. Any ideas?

Probably the water outlet housing. It's on the driver's side of the head and it acts as an intermediate between the head and the upper rad hose.
They're plastic and when they go out they exhibit the behavior you described.

As far as the loud engine I would get the car on a lift and look for rusted out exhaust piping.

Could be a heater hose, the noise your hearing could be the coolant sizzling on the hot exhaust. Have somebody fill it up with coolant while you watch that side of the motor for leaks, pretty easy eh?


- Your not-so-local, untrained, uncertified, backyard mechanic. But my @!#$ runs

Exact same problem with my car. look right straight down behind power steering pump.. it will probably be leaking from there. its like 15 or less at a parts store, it was when I got the one for mine last year anyway. As for your intake, how does the filter look? could have some restriction somewhere but its hard to tell without more details. the engine shouldn't make too much noise from that outlet being bad.. you could have another problem somewhere. I don't think coolant on the exhaust would make a noise like that, also don't know how coolant could get onto the exhaust, its hard to get that way from the water outlet unless it went all the way back on the return pipe and dripped down, it usually just runs down the back side of the engine block.

The sound is probobly the flex pipe right off of the motor. Its the part right under the firewall.


Fireboy153
Brady Fire Co. - Station 150
Long Live The Sunflower! (yea its not so "cool")

Thanks for all the info! Jordan, do you remember if that $15 part your replaced is the water outlet housing that bradsk88 was referring to? If I could get the leak fixed for under $20, that would be awesome. When I first saw the leak, I thought I was looking at a $700 water pump replacement. I'll report back with what I find.

Yeah the motor sound is pretty loud so it does sound like an exhaust issue. Is it easy to tell if the flex pipe is bad by looking at it, or do I need to take it to a shop?

Chris99z wrote:Thanks for all the info! Jordan, do you remember if that $15 part your replaced is the water outlet housing that bradsk88 was referring to? If I could get the leak fixed for under $20, that would be awesome. When I first saw the leak, I thought I was looking at a $700 water pump replacement. I'll report back with what I find.

Yeah the motor sound is pretty loud so it does sound like an exhaust issue. Is it easy to tell if the flex pipe is bad by looking at it, or do I need to take it to a shop?

Yes its the water outlet housing, it can be confusing at first where its leaking from if you don't know what your looking at, when it leaks it will run all down the back side of the engine, and over the other coolant lines, but when you follow it up it will lead you to the water outlet. It should be under 20, I dont see why they would raise the price on em. and if they did it cant be much.

ok thanks! Advance Auto near me is showing a no-name brand housing for 12.99, and the AC Delco is 29.99. It looks like both are plastic so do you think the generic one would be ok? Then they have a Felpro gasket for 1.50, and then a high performance Felpro gasket for $10.

Better to pay a small amount extra to get the one with (probably) higher quality plastic.
Installation can take a long time if your unlucky.

Just went out & looked at the water outlet housing....its all wet & dirty around it so it looks like that's the leak. I added coolant & went to start up the car to make sure. Well, now the car won't start! When I turn the key, it tries to start & the motor shakes & make a spuddering exhaust sound & then dies immediately. This is the first time I've tried to start the car since limping it home a couple days ago as described in my first post at the top of this thread. Can a bad flex pipe or exhaust leak prevent the car from starting or does it sound like I have some other issues?

Silly question: You out of gas?

If not. Turn the key on and listen for the fuel pump to prime, let us know if it is turning on or not.

I had just filled up with gas a day or two before this all happened, and its down to about 3/4 tank so there's still plenty of gas in the car.

What type of sound am I trying to hear for the fuel pump? Also, do I turn the key forward just enough so the dash lights come on, but not far enough to try to crank the motor? If so, I did that tonight when it was nice & quiet outside, and I didn't hear any sounds at all.

Can spark plugs be a cause for the no start? The last time I replaced them was around 100,000 miles, and I'm around 180,000 now. Fuel pump has never been replaced before though.

when you turn the key to run position, last click before the motor cranks you should hear the hum of the fuel pump, listen to the back seat if that makes sense, thats where the hum should be, and it should be very noticable. if its a weak sound this could be the issue still, sometimes if it doesn't come on, you can hit the fuel tank with a 2x4 or something like that and it will help the pump to run for a bit, only use this for testing or if your in a jam like stuck in the road. To be clear, what your listening for is the inital run of the pump to prime the system to proper psi. spark plugs wouldn't be a bad idea but if it ran before and doesn't now your issue is probably in the pump. so listen for it and get back to us

I didn't hear any sound coming from the back seat area, but maybe I'm just not hearing it. I replaced the spark plugs (factory AC Delco platinum) & boots. After that, it seems like the car is closer to starting, but it just won't turn over. I turn the key & the motor is really trying to turn over, but it just keeps chugging.

I had the car towed yesterday to a local shop. The tow driver tried to start the car, and he said he could hear the fuel pump. The shop just called me this morning, and they couldn't get the car to start either. They said they did some testing & the area above the spark plugs wasn't getting spark. I can't remember if they said it was the cover, coils, or module, but they said the whole thing should be replaced, and it would be about $700. Does this sound right? Are there any of these pieces that would most likely be the culprit to just replace one thing instead of spending $700?

What are all the parts under the IDI cover? Is it just the ignition module & 4 ignition coils? Does the cover itself have anything electrical inside it that can go bad or is it just a cover?

I don't believe so. You can probably snatch up a whole IDI cover with the coil packs from a junkyard for a smaller dollar than the shop wants to put a new one in.

You could even swap for external coils and get rid of the crap under the IDI cover...

I'm kinda in a pinch at the moment since this is my only car so I don't really have time to check out the junkyards. I would love to do the external coil swap, but I don't have the time to wait around for parts & I've never done any soldering before. I told the shop to just go ahead & replace everything for $700. I could have bought all the parts from gmpartsdirect for less than half that price, but I have no idea how long they would take to ship the stuff to me, and I would have to have the car towed back to my house.

Anyway, the shop calls me today & says they replaced the coils, cover, & module, and the car still won't start. They said they were in the process of taking all those parts off so I'm assuming I'm not getting charged for that, right? The guy asked me if the engine was knocking the last time the car was working. I told him the motor sounded like an aftermarket muffler when I would accelerate & the idle was really rough like it was trying to stall as I explained in the first post above.

Does anyone know what else could be the culprit? Crankshaft position sensor maybe? I thought I was reading somewhere that the CPS sends something to the module to let it know when to send spark from the coils to plugs?

You'll probably get charged shop time, but not parts. I would check with the shop though, there's no way we can tell you that kind of thing.

I'm grabbing at straws now. But you could maybe have a clogged fuel filter.

I just had a new AC Delco fuel filter put on about a month ago. I was thinking this was gonna be the fuel pump, but the shop didn't even mention anything about that. I guess I'll ask them tomorrow if they hear the pump.....I didn't hear anything, but the tow driver said it sounded like the fuel pump was fine to him.....I just assumed he knew what he was talking about.