Thread: dexcool coolant

what are the pros and cons with dexcool,seems my 07 gp may have a problem seems to be using a lot of coolant with no visible leaks.Lucky its still on warranty,what should i watch for so the dealer doesnt take me for a ride as i got a 30 day exchange warranty.

is there a radiator cap? that might either not be on right or be faulty.... that can contribute to fluid loss.

the other possibility is that the water pump is leaking just enough that the coolant that leaks out gets evaporated quickly enough that it doesnt drip on the ground. see if you can look around the water pump area and see if you see any liquid staining....

NO the engine is not running hot,its not getting up to running temp,stays at the first indictator on the temp guage,that could be the thermostat,When the car is running and u carefully sniff the exhaust u can smell the coolant burning its like a sweet odor,will check oil b4 taken to dealership today.THanks all for your help.

If it is still under warranty....let the dealer handle it. Might as well make them do it on their dime.

If it is not reaching operating temp, could be a stuck thermostat.
They should pressure test the system and see if it bleeds off, if it does then they'll track down the leak.

Lord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet smelling exhaust is a key sign of a blown head or intake gasket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To the o/p let the dealer handle it if its under warranty... Has the car also been putting out white smoke? if its putting out white smoke and the exhaust is smelling sweet your burnning coolant

Checked the oil b4 going to the dealership,oil look good not milky,as to how coolant i added was about half a 4l bottle premix 50/50 prestone gm approved dexcool,why i added the coolant was after 5 days of owning the car decided to check the oil level thats when i notice the coolant in the overflow bottle was line up to the return line of the rad.Consulted the owners manual and added coolant to the proper cold fill level,after 2 days the level in the resvior dropped about 1 liter.The car is at the dealer now to do a pressure check of the system and also ask the advisor that when the do there pre delivery that it is a 150 points check is all the fluids levels topped up and why a car with 33k lost that much coolant?.Sorry about the long post.

I already know the out come its what I said earlier. the newer 3100's show the same signsn when they blow an intake manifold gasket and god only knows i've done a ton of them in the time i have been in the gp world. But like i said before its either a intake gasket or head gasket..

To the o/p next time you talk to the dealer ask them if they have done a leak down test on the cooling system that will tell you if the system is good or not. If the advisor has no idea what your talking about ask to speak to the tech working on your car and tell them. that test will tell you and them if the intakes or heads are blown

Originally Posted by 19SE92

I already know the out come its what I said earlier. the newer 3100's show the same signsn when they blow an intake manifold gasket and god only knows i've done a ton of them in the time i have been in the gp world. But like i said before its either a intake gasket or head gasket..

holy cow! the newer 3100's have white smoke and sweet smelling exhaust when an intake gasket goes??? wow... that's a neat feature. would be awesome if other motors did this, too..... oh wait! they do!





by the way, where's your $$ on this one? It's possible that it's a gasket, but you have no cause to say definitely is a gasket.

that being said, if by chance the radiator cap is faulty, that could cause undue pressure in the system, forcing coolant where it wasnt meant to go. so yeah it could end up with some in the exhaust.

how do i know that the cap can cause this? i had this scenario on my last truck-- i was leaking a little bit of coolant, but didnt have a leak on the ground. after careful inspection, i found that the coolant was being forced out around the heater hose tube that was pressed into the water pump... pushing right past the O-ring. I picked up a new radiator cap from the dealer, and presto! no more leak.

A liter of fluid in a couple of days is a pretty significant amount. The pressure test should tell where it's leaking at. There were very very very few cases in which some cars had a freeze plug problem, but that was almost non existent, and in cars around the detroit area. Goes to show that they pretty much knew exactly which batch of engines had this problem.

Toasty dude your totally out in left field...... Read the post over Sweet smelling exhaust!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Means the engines burnning coolant.. And it lost a liter of fluid in a few days its burnning coolant somewhere some how...

HELL YEA YOU WOULD!!!!!! you'd see is on the ground. You'd see were the belts have slung the coolant all over the engine it self...

Originally Posted by David99GTP

I'm no expert but that much coolant in such a short time sounds like a big problem. If it was leaking out a bad cap wouldnt you notice signs of that?

if it were leaking out the cap, yeah. definitely not saying it is the cap, its likely not, but a bad cap could cause higher system pressure, forcing coolant to leak elsewhere. ...but like i said COULD (i think it took less than a week or so for me to be able to hear gurgling in the heater core from the coolant being low)

cap should be replaced periodically anyway (usually they recommend I think once a year or every 2 years)

yep its every two years