98, 2.2, 110000 miles. this car seems to refuse to keep coolant in it. April of last year i replaced the heater core, due to a leak, in november i replaced the transmission cooler lines, due to more leaking, and in january i replaced the water pump (from advance), as the gasket went out. have had air in the lines ever since, as you can hear them trickling through the core from time to time, despite my best efforts to bleed them.

noticed yesterday morning that there was steam coming from the engine bay, popped it open after work to find the underside of the hood, belt, alternator, hoses, plastic shroud over the radiator, nearly everything in the general area, soaked. Wiped it all down, started it up, and the serpentine belt was throwing small bits of coolant up and forward, pretty consistently. I wont have a chance to get under the car for at least a week or two to get a proper look, just wondering if anyone has seen this before or if there are any guesses on the cause. It's running great, no squealing yet, and noticeably cooler than a few days ago, no white smoke or anything.. Perhaps a coolant line? Cheap water pump failure? maybe the head gasket failed and is leaking externally only? Did the system burp the air out of the lines? (in my search i ran across someone mentioning this, but feel like that is way too optimistic). Stabbing in the dark here, any help is appreciated.

Caps have O-rings which go bad. My grand-am pulled the same schtick.. Maybe its shooting hot coolant out the overflow tube.

davedmp wrote:Caps have O-rings which go bad. My grand-am pulled the same schtick.. Maybe its shooting hot coolant out the overflow tube.

Will totally check that, hopefully it's that simple. Thanks for the suggestion!

So i finally got a chance to get under the hood, turns out that the below highlighted pipe (name?) has a leak at the 90º bend, right before it connects to the passenger side of the engine. I am sure there are previous posts on this, so will research when i get a moment, any one have experience replacing this? time consuming? anything to be aware of? thanks.

Drop coolant,remove three hoses,unclip wiring harness,unbolt alternator,remove sensor from pipe,and the side nut and remove bolt on top of pipe.Push pipe out towards passengers side.GM part numbers or buy used. Pipe# 12564068 and seals package of 10 part# 24575483 .I dont know why you need to buy ten seals but you only need one.

Thank you, much appreciated.

01SilverFire wrote:Drop coolant,remove three hoses,unclip wiring harness,unbolt alternator,remove sensor from pipe,and the side nut and remove bolt on top of pipe.Push pipe out towards passengers side.GM part numbers or buy used. Pipe# 12564068 and seals package of 10 part# 24575483 .I dont know why you need to buy ten seals but you only need one.

just called a local pontiac dealership, they gave me the part number 24577029 for the 98-2000 2.2 sunfire, which i cross referenced with a chevy dealer, they confirmed that the number for the same year/engine cavalier. the part number you gave is listed for the 01-02.

I would go with the part number that they gave you.Sorry,to me it looks like the same crap as mine.I bought mine awhile ago from http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/ .You can email them to double check the correct part numbers.I dont know what the difference is.