Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Hi to all.

I am glad I found this forum, wonderfully informative.

I have a 2001 Blazer which I bought new. I LOVE my truck, and wouldn't give it up for anything. I truly don't think I could ever be happy driving a car again!
But, the repair bills are getting out of hand.
I must state now that I am a woman, and know nothing about automobiles. I think when I walk into a repair shop, most see dollar signs. Well, at least the shops around here. I feel so helpless. A twenty dollar part and 200 dollars in labor?"Well maam, Blazers are more expensive to repair"Well, what else could I do?

Anyways, a job loss, and two divorces later, I find myself in a real bind. My beloved Blazer is down again. I can not drive it more than a few miles, definitley not the freeway, without that tempeture gauge flying up. No heat, just blows cool air. Now, if I keep the a/c on, it takes a lot longer for it to overheat. Also, there is a drip, coming from somwhere in the middle part of the engine. OK< so don't laugh...But I put a piece of white poster board on the driveway underneath it to see if I can find out what kind of fluid it is. It is a light brown color, and it does smell kind of sweet-ish. Coolant right? This by the way was supposibly repaired by the repair shop a few months ago. The last time I took it in, they said that they HAD to replace the heater core to the tune of about 900 dollars. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that wouldn't solve my overheating problem would it? Just my heater problem.

I am tired of not understanding repairs needed. I am tired of paying for repairs that don't even fix the problem. So I have decided to learn as much as I can and even try to do the repairs myself if I am able. I have read most of the posts here on overheating, death-cool, and heater cores.

So here's my problem guys, Is this something anyone can do? I mean flushing the heater core and the coolant system. I really need this car to find another job and straighten my life out..again... I went out and bought the distilled water, Peak Global Coolant, and well, I am terrified. I am trying to get that dex-cool crap out of the system.. I understand the heater core flush, the radiator flush, but if I do those two things, will it flush out everything or do I need to flush ouit anything else? And is there a quick fix for a leak?

Thanks to all in advance, I will be a regular visitor here!
Because I have this "knock" coming from my right wheel.......

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Flushes are easy! It won't be much of an issue for you to get the dexcool out and get all the clogged nasty out of the lines.

The problem is though, you really need to figure out where that leak is. If you're leaking at a gasket (head or intake), a flush won't do you much good...and might actually be realllll risky. So....we should do some diagnostics :D

How fast do you go through coolant with the leak/overheating? Also how big of a leak is it? Sitting overnight, how big does the puddle of coolant get? Have you been able to see where the leak is on the engine? With the dex-cool, there will be a whole lot of brown nasty to show you the drip. Also how fast does it overheat? Does it just starting heating up after start up, continuing right into the red?

Lots of questions, but we gotta get some more information. Welcome to the forum!

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

brycind, here is something you should do before you do the flush. start yoyr blazer and let it run for 5 minutes, then turn it off. open the hood, and locate your oil dipstick, pull it out and wipe it down. then put the dip stick back in, pull it out again and closely look at the oil on the end does it look blotchy or kinf of soapy looking? like dish water that has been sitting awhile. If it does then you have a bad gasket and the flush wont do you any good. If it is clean oil, unless you haven't changed it in awhile then you are good and you can procede with the flush. also, you can go to your local GM dealer and tell them you want a print out of the entire coolant system (detailed pics) and you can begin replacing hoses which is not as bad as it sounds. I'm by no means a mechanic and i did it with a day off of work. After replacing hoses, if leak is still present then you can refer back to this great forum for water pump diagnoses. I hope this help you out.


Thanks, Shane

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Guys. Thank you so much for your quick replies..

Ok, checked the oil, and as expected, I was very low. The oil that was on the stick was clean looking, looks like the drip is right underneath where you put the oil in, not the dipstick, bur where you actually put it in.

The truck is slow to overheat, say driving a couple of miles, but once it does, it starts climbing quickly. Say, if I try the freeway. I can drive it if I only go a few miles and I keep the air conditioner on high, then it seems to stay normal. It's a slow drip, not a puddle, but a big enough wet spot, bout 5 inches all around in the morning, to be noticeable. I thought maybe it was from water from the air conditioner, but when I stuck a piece of paper under there and pulled it out, it was a light brown color. And it was oily.

I just checked my radiator, and it is full. Not alot of orange sludge, but there was some. What I thought was a coolant leak was oil. Very slow drip. Could that be causing the overheating? The overflow tank of coolant is low, and there is a moderate amount of sludge in there.

I really hate to sound so ignorant, but this is so new to me. Every thing under the hood looks so crammed in there, it's hard to see hoses and such if you don't know what your looking for.
OK, stupid question of the day, where in the hell is the plug to drain the radiator?? I did find the heater core hoses and they look pretty rusted on there, but I think I can get them off. That should take care of my heater problem right?

Thanks guys so much for your help. Yep, it's my day off too Sasq!I refuse to give up, I WILL do this today!

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Your drain plug is below the air filter on the driverside. Remove the air filter unit and look at the bottom corner of the radiator, you will see a not with a little wing on it that is your drain. Also, you may want inspect your water pump and replace your thermostat. That should help you out for now.


Thanks, shane

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Is it my imagination or is the cars a lot less "roomier" under the hood than they used to be?

Had my thermostat replaced a few months ago at the tune of a couple hundred dollars. Mechanic told me he was sure that that was the problem. He was wrong.

Wouldn't know a water pump if it came up and bit me.

Managed to find the drain plug though, thanks.....

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

WHAT!!?? a $9.00 part that takes 10-15 minutes to replace and they charged you a couple hundred bucks??


Thanks, Shane

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Yep, hence the name of my post. Not only did they charge me that much, but they had to keep it overnight because they just couldn't do it that day.

I must admit, I really didn't know any better. Seems I have never left the mechanic paying anything less than 200 dollars, usually more.They wanted to charge me 185 for an engine flush. The smirk on thier faces was enough for me. I have had it. Guys don't undestand how difficult it can be for a single woman dealing with car problems. Not only do you have to deal with the mechanic talking about things that mine as well be Greek, but leering at you and snide little comments that are downright insulting. Not all mechanics mind you...just the ones I have dealt with. It's nobody's fault but mine, as the song goes....

Wish I had found this forum years ago.... Think of all the money I would have saved.

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

When this overheating occurs , do you smell the engine getting hot , or does the engine get noisy or lose power ? If not , its possible you have a bad temperature sending unit , telling you your engine is overheating when it is not. That little drip of oil/transmission fluid or what evershould not cause an overheating problem. If you have a true overheating problem , turning on the AC would make it overheat much worse in most cases , yet you say turning on the AC actually helps it !
It would probably pay you to ask around about a good honest mechanic , there are lots of good ones who won't take advantage of you.

Steve

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Thanks Steve,
You know, that thought did occur to me. I never let it get to the red zone, as soon as I saw it go over the regular mark, I turn it off. But no, no steam, no change in in anything else, just thar gauge creeping up. I am scared to death of doing some serious engine damamge if I continue to drive it while that hot.

But the heater does not work, so I know it must be something besides a temp gauge. I should be so lucky. And yes, turning on the a/c seems to keep it from moving past that mark.

I did attempt the engine flush but a thunderstorm has thwarted my efforts. Sigh..
If you know of any honest mechanics in the Cleveland area, I would be most appreciative.

Cyndi

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Hrm...I wouldn't be so quick to eliminate a coolant leak. Miles/Years of gunk on the engine, combined with dripping brown (dexcool turns brown after a bit of air exposure) coolant can yield a very oily coolant leak. Especially if you're having overheating issues that are affected by venting. If the leak is that small, and your oil is ok, I would say go ahead and do the flush.

I was having overheating issues myself, about a year after a thermostat replacement. I was also having a no-heat condition..only cool air blowing. Turns out my heater core was a little clogged from dexcool sludging in the hoses. A flush brought out quite a few chunks. After refilling with coolant and replacing the thermostat again, I have no overheating issues, and fully functioning heat/cold.

The best way to do a flush is to get a Prestone flush kit. The other problem with non-kit flushing, is that I believe in 2001, GM did away with the drain plug! So with a flush kit, you install a T piece in one of the hoses at the top of the engine, and then just connect your garden hose. Then it comes with a drain spout that snaps into your radiator cap opening. Then just turn on the hose and let it flush :D

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...hkittpiece.jpg
The flush piece.

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

You know Wolf, I am glad you left this comment.

For the life of me, I could not FIND the drain plug. So I imagine I can pick up that flush kit at any auto parts store? Sounds easy enough even for me to do.

Yea, I am thinking that it could be coolant after all, it DID have a sweet smell to it. I'm pretty sure oil doesn't smell sweet.

Thanks for the advice

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Yep! I got mine at Advance Auto for like $7.99. And you don't need to buy any coolant flush liquid...the water pressure works fine for both of my flushes.

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Just a note on the ( no heat ) situation.On some cars/trucks if you accidently hook the
heater hoses up in reversethe heater core can airlock and you won't get much heat. This
mistake is easy to make ( I've done it myself[:@] ) , the top hose must go to the top of
the heater core , so the water flows down through the heater core. In tight engine compartments it can be very easy to hook them up backwards.
As for the airconditioner helping the overheat situation , the only thing I can think of is the electric fan is probably turned on full time automatically when you turn on the AC. This will give the radiator more airflow. Perhaps the electric fan is not coming on unless the AC is turned on. ( a bad fan sensor maybe ) which is bypassed when you turn on AC.
All this reminds me of the two worse days of my life...I was replacing a leaky heater core in a 1990 Mustang. I had to remove the seats , console and half the dash , thenlay in an awkard position for hours to get to that devil. Two twelve packs of Miller Lite and a box of bandaids later it was all back to normal :D I told my wife if it ever went bad again I was gonna have a mechanic do it no matter how much it cost , I'd rather second mortage my home to pay for it then go through that again !

RE: Tired of getting ripped off..
 

Hey guys!

Just wanted to thank you for all your help! Got it flushed, heat is working again and is not over heating!!

Just wanted to thank you all!

Now to get that oil leak fixed...

You guys are great!!!!!!!!