On Sat, 31 May 2008 23:51:40 -0400, "Brian" <hskr@cox.net> wrote:
>
> When you opened the hood and saw fluid all over the engine, that should have
> been the first sign that you might need to top off the coolant system. Then
> when you noticed there was no water in the radiator hose when you replaced
> the radiator cap, that should have been the next sign that you might be low
> on coolant. Then the first time you overheated, and you said the upper hose
> felt cool, then once again, here's your sign. If there's not enough water
> in the block to let the water touch the thermostat, then the thermostat
> isn't going to open.
Ok, I feel like an idiot, and rightly so. It really didn't look like I
had lost a lot of fluid, compared to the 13qt it holds, and I didn't
know it would fail to use the overfill reservoir if the radiator got
too low, and that I should look past its "full" reading. When it began
to overheat I cranked the heat control up, and I wonder whether that
drained more coolant into the heater core and aggravated the problem,
since there's no sign the garage bothered to turn on the heat or use
the bleeder plug when they refilled.
I guess I can only hope and pray I didn't cause more extensive engine
damage. When it started to overheat I was literally "in the
neighborhood" on a residential street going 20 mph or less, and pulled
it over to cool within 30 feet of the "check gauge" lights, and then
drove a few blocks home very slowly with my eyes glued to the temp
gauge. It never got all the way up to the redline. Serves me right:
I've taken the time to learn how to do all the maintenance (other
fluids and plugs) myself up to now; this is the first time I've
trusted a mechanic with any sort of work. Time to find another one.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 21 2008 - 10:10:56 EDT