Thread: Grand Prix pain in the...everything!

has the system been bled of air? if not that can be a problem.

are you loosing coolant, are you checking it regularly after these shop repairs?

the heat, could be bad blend door actuators. to test this you'll want to grab the hoses that lead into the center of the fire wall from under the alternator, and see if they are both hot. if both are hot, bad blend door actuators. one hot, one cold. or both cold, is air in the core and lines.

if your loosing coolant, being your a N/A engine, the upper intake gaskets like to fail, the engine then eats coolant, as well as dumping it into the engine oil, then the engines goes boom.

so also check your oil, by just pulling the dip stick out, make sure its not milk shake looking. or foamy. just oil.

um..not loosing coolant that I am aware of. And before the water pump we did buy a new thermostat housing because the one on the car had the bleeder valve broke off so hubby says he did bleed it and lots of stuff blew out. I havent checked the oil but hopefully hubby will when he gets home if it is still light out. And those door thingys, i will show him this and let him check those because I am clueless!! lol. Lordy I hope its not heads on this car, just spent 700 replacing one on my escort last spring. Thank you for giving me info on other things to check because we are at wits end!! ok, edit to say I checked the oil and it looks like oil thankfully.

Your upper intake is fine being that it is metal. Was the thermostat changed when the other stuff was?

Where do you live in IN?

what you need to do is every other morning, before you even start the car, open the cap and check it for a week. if its low your losing it somewhere.

you can also buy a pressure tester for the cooling system if you find your loosing coolant. they run about 20 dollars. this can force it to leak, and make finding it easier sometimes.


and heres the how to for the blend door actuators if it comes to that. http://www.grandprixforums.net/blend...ent-21941.html

blend doors are easy, its just in a tight place on the drives side, the pass side is easy as pie. you could do the pass side on your own with out the hubby. that easy.

we have a few girls/ women who do their own work, its not unheard of here at all. we try to encourage everyone.

Since you already own an arsenal of thermostats, you really just want to give bleeding it another shot. Sometimes it may take a couple of times. First of course make sure your coolant is at the proper level. Let the engine start to get to temp and use the bleeder nut on the T-stat housing. Make sure the engine is up to temp and loosen the nut 2 turns,watch until a steady stream of coolant flows out. Tighten the nut and keep an eye on the temp gauge and engine bay for any visible signs. You should notice the fans kick on at
around half on the dial. If the gauge appears to level off,at whatever it use to run at, bleed it again just to make sure. Then top off the coolant resevoir. Just what I'ld do.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays

Anyone think to check the coolant elbows?

On the 04+ the proper way to bleed air out is this.....

first take the main fill cap off the radiator and fill to the top. Start the motor and it is low you will see the coolant level drop inside the radiator. If it drops add coolant to the top. Once the engine is just about warmed up check the coolant level again. If filled properly you will start to see coolant burp out of the fill neck where the cap goes. Once this happens put the cap back on and give her a go. I tried and tried and tried and tried the bleeder screw but to no avail. I just did my coolant elbows and that's exactly what the 04+ manual says! Once bled properly check every day like stated about to see if the coolant level is dropping

Originally Posted by HVACgtp

On the 04+ the proper way to bleed air out is this.....

first take the main fill cap off the radiator and fill to the top. Start the motor and it is low you will see the coolant level drop inside the radiator. If it drops add coolant to the top. Once the engine is just about warmed up check the coolant level again. If filled properly you will start to see coolant burp out of the fill neck where the cap goes. Once this happens put the cap back on and give her a go. I tried and tried and tried and tried the bleeder screw but to no avail. I just did my coolant elbows and that's exactly what the 04+ manual says! Once bled properly check every day like stated about to see if the coolant level is dropping

when you say tried the bleeder valve...what does that mean exactly? nothing comes out, or you never got a stream of coolant? if so your not waiting long enough, the t stat needs to open in order to bleed it properly.

I waited long enough, I tried at first using the bleeder valve, the car was overheating when I tried using the bleeding screw. Screw was almost taken fully out. I had a mix of air then a stream of coolant come out while the car was running and after 25 mins of trying it was continuing to over heat. Looked in the oem manual and told me exactly what I posted. My 01 gt I replace the thermostat and tried bleeding it through the screw to no avail again. Do it the way I posted and it will be filled properly every time. Once I did this the car cooled and haven't had a single problem

thats very odd. what ever works for ya tho.

The temp on my aeroforce was around 245 and climbing every time used the bleeder, to the point I had to keep shutting off the car. Once I did this, worked like a charm