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I have a 1996 Saturn LS2. Recently my low coolant light has been turning on and I simply added water and it was fine for a couple weeks. This last week my temperature began to shoot up (all the way) and when I added water, it would immediately super-heat and evaporate. I replaced the thermastat and the car stopped over heating. However, I have a coolant leak and cannot figure out where. I have checked all the hoses and none of them have holes or any signs of serious wear. Right above where my thermostat housing is, I will notice coolant, so I removed the housing and placed a gel gasket on it. However I still lose coolant and the build up above the housing continues. To make matters worse, my car also emits smoke from this area. I am unable to determine if the smoke is coming from where the coolant is, but i'm assuming it does. Could I have a leak somehwere else? Is there something that I can do to quickly solve this problem? Another issue I have is that the passenger side floorboard is wet. I assumed it was due to the rainy weather and my moon roof seal failing (had this problem before). I do not think the problem exists in my heater coil, as I cannot smell the coolant on the inside, and the fact that my engine is smoking.
Re: I have a 1996 Saturn LS2. Recently my low coolant...
The water pump is right above that area. Very common area for leaks on the s-series cars. Oh btw the gasket for the thermostat is just the o-ring in the housing, your new thermostat should have included one.
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do not use water. During freezing nights, the water could freeze. when water freezes, it expands. when it expands it can crack your engine block. Do you see anything leaking under the car when its running? Does your car constantly blow smoke out the exhaust?
Its a warning light to let you know that your coolant level is low. When the engine is cold remove the reservoir cap. If the coolant is red add a mixture of 50/50 dexcool and water. If the coolant is green add a 50/50 mix of regular coolant and water. If you cannot tell what color it is add a 50/50 mix of all make/models coolant and water.
Fill until the level reaches the full mark on the bottle.
Sometimes it will take the light a little while to go out and sometimes you literally have to whack the reservoir a couple of times with a rubber mallet to get it to turn off.
If it goes low again in a fairly short period of time than you most likely have a leak in the cooling system.
There should be a radiator cap as it controls what goes into the overfill tank. You might consider replacing it. If there are no leaks in the radiator or hoses, there are only 3 places the coolant can go (water pump leak, blown gasket, or out throught the radiator cap). Hope its the cap because that's the cheapest. Good luck!
If its not low on coolant and the light continues to come on it is the low coolant sensor in the radiator. This sensor is in the plastic side of the radiator and just pops off. These sensors are always a problem and don't always require replacement of the sensor. What happens -especially if you are using red DEX-COOL coolant is that the coolant gets hard and crusty inside the sensor and wont allow the coolant to enter and make contact with the sensor. Simply take the sensor off and blow compressed air or water pressure in it to free it of debris. Easy fix-hope this helps!
Nowdays 1 Qt. in 3000 miles, really isn't that bad, even some new vehicles claim that's normal. I know with my current vehicles, both at approx. 150,000-160,000 miles, they won't use any for first while after an oil change, but then after mileage starts adding up again, they start to use a little, approx.I Qt, every 1000 miles or so, until it's changed again. I've switched to the high mileage oil, just for piece of mind, as they say it revives seals, and has added protection for the higher mileage engines.This time around I'm thinking of adding "Lucas" & see how it works, as I've heard some pretty good reports on it, just to see if it will prolong that oil breakdown, at mid change.
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