Coolant Problem (Need Advice)

[kevin231]

Ok, back in January 2003 my coolant had brown chunks in it and smelled awful. I took it in for service and they flushed the tank where you pour coolant and topped up the coolant. I don’t check my coolant all the time, bust last month I checked my coolant and noticed that it came back, I took it to the dealership and they recommended me not to drive the vehicle because it could cause serious damage. I've been driving my car all the time I don’t know when my coolant turned like that again. My question is how come the first time they didn’t try to locate why my coolant was turning brown they just did a quick fix and its back. Now they want to inspect everything to find out what’s going on. Who's to say down the line I wont start experiencing problems with the vehicle cause of this.

[matt shauf]

I don't know if it will cause problems in the future or not, but mine is always like that. I got my cooling system flushed a couple times, and it always comes back after a while:confused:

[eaglesrealm]

Wow, this has been a hot topic again lately.

Brown/caramel clumps in your coolant is a very bad sign, generally.

Drive it as little as possible and get it fixed as soon as possible.
It could very well be doing damage as you wait. Feel free to search on here or elsewhere on the web for the intake gasket issue with these engines.

The new gasket is beefier and the part does not cost that much money. However, it is some decent $$ for the labor involved to change it. Left alone, it can eat your engine and render it useless, leaving you with an even larger bill.

Good luck, and I cannot stress enough that you need to get this looked at now.

[Sailor_dude]

I have heard that there has been a class action suit against GM ref the DEXCOOL. Where it has been coroding and clumping.

[AaronGAGT]

Ok. I guess throw my 2 cents in here.

In the coolant tank, the dark brown sh|t lookin pieces are normal. As long as its not a light brown, its ok. Every grand am i've ever seen has it and i've taken it to dealer's and mechanics and they say its normal with Dex-cool.

In the engine, the caramel or coffee w/ 3 creams colored stuff is bad. If your oil cap has this color on it or if you can see it in your engine--you're in trouble. Your coolant and oil is mixing.

[Aleromi]

Yea i have seen that in my beater car use dex-cool in that car and seen that same brown S**t in the tank...

I think dex coolant sux....
Oh dont change it till after ur warranty is up....

[kevin231]

I'm wondering if i was to ask GM to extend the kilometers for my warranty i have 5/80km do you think they could. I've had the car for 2 years and drove it 40 000km i was wondering since im facing all these problems do you think they will be able the extend it if i asked

[Aleromi]

DUNNO u have to ask.. But IMO prob. not with paying something more for it...

[CelticSkyhawk]

There are tons of companies out there selling extended warranties. If GM won't extend yours further (at extra cost, of course), you may want to look up some other companies and take care of it that way. If you extend the warranty through another company, you should probably cancel your GM extended warranty and save some cash.

[Aleromi]

Originally posted by CelticSkyhawk
There are tons of companies out there selling extended warranties. If GM won't extend yours further (at extra cost, of course), you may want to look up some other companies and take care of it that way. If you extend the warranty through another company, you should probably cancel your GM extended warranty and save some cash.

Just becareful in what Co u get it from...

My wife go one on here countour and well the trans need to be replace ( so said the ford dealer) and the warranty Co that she had went belly up and the her warranty was bought buy another Co and they said it would be 2 weeks before they could even get to her case... So just check them out before buying ....

Peace!:thumbs:

[eaglesrealm]

Ok, after reading a lot of these threads...I am not sure if I have the problem or not. (I am going to take it in for an investigation, even though I hate not doing the work myself)

Here is my situation. My wife has a 2000 Alero and just got an oil change about 1000 miles ago. The oil level was full afer the change. There has been no evidence of oil leakage at all before or since then in the driveway or parking spots, etc. However, she started getting a low oil light on and off today (mostly on). Knowng of this issue, I looked at the coolant and oil. It was hard to see anything with the oil in the night time...even with lights.
But the coolant had some solid chunks floating in it (i would say dark brown in color) as well as a build up of brown "sludge" on and around the cap/top of the coolant tank. Is this the "normal" part of Dexcool???

[IMICEMAN]

I had been getting a LOW COOLANT light over the past 6 months now....always "topped it up" when that happened.
Last week I got fed up and took it to the dealer (still under warranty) to investigate.

It turns out that my coolant was slowly MIXING with my OIL.
They showed me the caramel/brown mix on my oil cap.

In any case they had to replace the gasket on the engine which, if not under warranty, would have been very expensive.
It was 6 hours of labor, plus the new antifreeze, plus the oil change, plus they needed the car for 48 hours.

Take it to get fixed asap. They told me that if left like it was, it could have caused much more damage, (and $$$).