2001 Chevrolet Cavalier
2-Door Coupe
108,000 Miles
Automatic
i've been having an issue with my car.
whenever it's parked in the driveway, there seems to be a leak coming from below the coolant tank.
i'm not sure if it's "water from the air conditioner", or anti-freeze...
there's always a puddle of fluid, and sometimes the car steams (which looks like it's coming from the same area of the leak)
it doesn't start steaming all the time though, just on occasion.
it's weird.
also,
the engine has been overheating on occasion.
it doesn't happen every time i drive it.
but whenever i'm at a stoplight (sometimes), the engine seems to heat up to the point where the "CHECK GAUGES" light comes on, and the temperature gauge is all the way to the top (in the red zone)
but then right when i start driving it, the temperature drops back to normal.
sometimes it heats back up again, sometimes it doesn't....
i don't get it.
do i need to replace my radiator?
or replace one of the water pumps?
somebody help me out.
You need to find the leak of coolant. Gatta know where it's coming from. The overheating can be caused by a number of things. Blocked radiator, bad heater core, bad water pump, or even low coolant from the leak and it could also be the cooling fan not coming on, but if it's leaking coolant I'd start there. To tell if the leak is coolant, take a clean white napkin, and dip in the water/puddle. If it's coolant is will be redish pink in color, it could be green if someone's already been in there and replaced the coolant with the green coolant. If it's a brownish red or brownish pink, then it's still coolant, it's just got rust in it. If it's a really light light tan-ish or clear, then it's water. I say tan-ish because there's dirt on pavement and that will make water look tan-ish.
Also, don't let it overheat like it has been. You'll probably need a headgasket job if you do. You might even need one already.
Might help if you told us what engine is in the car.
Well, as sunfire said, try and locate the leak. Its possible its coming from ur water pump, but with the 2.2's there not very common to go out, or at least not I have heard. I would let the car heat up while its sitting on a set of jackstands, and them climb under it, with the car off, and see if you can see the leak. It should be pretty obvious. The best reason as to why you somtimes overheat and sometimes dont, is because your probably low on coolant. meaning, somtimes the coolant flows to ur thermostat and somtimes it dont, causing the fluid to pretty much just sit, and heat up, and It cant circulate in the system and cool off. Or you have a huge air pocket that needs to be bled from the system. Either way, if its leaking from around ur bottle, you may have a cracked bottle. Not uncommon as I have seen this before. But find out where the leak is from. It also might be a leak, and it may be from overflow from the car heating up, and when the car is suppose to be cooling down, its boiling over, causing the AF to flow out of the bleed hole and through the tube located on the top left of the bottle, right inside the neck of the bottle, under the cap. The reason I say that is be near the tank, there really isnt anything to leak coolant. But check all the hoses going into the tank, wiggle them around, if anything comes out of them, then u should be able to find where its coming from. Also, with a 108k on the car, might want to look into preventative maintence. Such as a coolant fluch, and replacing the thermostat as a just-in-case idea. Also, make sure your cooling fan comes on. If it dont after you fill the coolant system up, then U gotta do some trouble shooting to find the problem, weather it is a relay, or bad fan, or a wiring problem. Goodluck.
jack it up, run it, shut it off and go under and search for the leak
if youre low on coolant, that would cause the over heating, but for some reason, both cavaliers i had, the temp guages would read higher then they actually are...one day we tried to over heat it in school, we had a scanner and it was into the red line of the guage but the scanner said 220 and at 226 my low fan speeds came on
