What is wrong with my car...........please help?

Question

Hello i asked this question a few days ago but i left out a few details.....i recently purchased a 1997 pontic trans am....with 76000 miles on it....and when i brought it home there was engine coolant on the driveway.....and i think that was because the seller did not know the first think about a car and he just added so much coolant right to the top and it busted through the cap when i parked it in my driveway....also there is a light brown sludge or paste on the bottom of the stick....((((i know that alot of cars dont have a coolant check stick but this one does)))) so my first guess it would have to be a head gasket....but i just did a engine compression test on all 8 cylinders and they came out with 200-210 pounds of pressure which would indicate that the head gaskets are good....my question is why is there that sludge on the bottom of the engine coolant stick.....also the car does start to overheat when left on for about 20 mins but when i turn the heat on it seems to get cooler.

Answer 1

1st off, without proper diagnostics you cannot get a proper repair...with that being said...

2nd, a dipstick for the coolant on this model and year of car is rare but not unheard of, could have been replaced the reservoir with a different cap style, some of the newer models and makes are coming out with them more frequently now.

3rd, the brown sludge is probably dirt that has fallen into the reservoir or gotten into the system some how, have the system flushed and it should take care of it, also have the reservoir bottle taken off and thoroughly cleaned.

4th, as far as the overheating, you could possibly have a sticking thermostat(because of the sludge), take it out and clean or replace it, should take care of the problem.

5th, the reason it cools down when you turn on the heat is because you are having your heater act as a radiator, taking out the heat of the engine, exactly as the radiator is supposed to work, but it's blowing it into your car not outside.

Good luck and hope this helps

Answer 2

Rare to have a dipstick for the coolant, but it does happen in Dodge and Pontiac. I'd have the cooling system looked at and perhaps flushed. Is the cooling fan coming on as it should? You can check that by turning on the A/C. The fan should run continuously with the A/C on.

A bad intake gasket can also cause a problem with coolant, but usually that lets it into the combustion chambers and you get steam in the exhaust, not a puddle.

Or it could be you are right, the previous owner overfilled it. But I'd still get an opinion about the sludge on the stick.

Answer 3

get the cooling system flushed

it is normal to have some sludge in there but when it gets too built up it can cause the car to overheat because it starts to clog the radiator cooling passages
and you say that it runs cooler when you turn the heat on.....,thats because you are helping to draw the heat out of the engine by running it through the heater core

also change the thermostat after having the cooling system flushed it may end up with a lot of sludge on it which may cause it to stick open or closed, either of those is not good

most of the sludge comes from cheap coolant

may need to replace radiator and water pump eventually if to much damage done from the sludge


B.

Answer 4

Your cooling system is gunged up. Basically you need to buy the us equivalent of a product called radclear in the UK.

Run this through your system and all the crud will get loosened up and then you can flush the system to have a shiny clean cooling system that will actually cool your engine.

Alternatively your local workshop can do a much better job for you for not so many bucks.

Loads of people in the UK sell their cars cheap thinking they are going to fail and all that is required is to clear the sediment and particles that have accumulated out of the system.

The reason that the car appears to cool when you run the heating is that the heating matrix (a smaller rad inside the scuttle) is near the top of the cooling system and less prone to sludge build up. Hence when you stick a fan on this radiator (turn the heating on) the coolling system can get rid of some of the excess heat.

Finally - the sludge is a really good heat insulator and actually retains the heat making it difficult for the cooling system to do its' job.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Sludge is a common sight at the bottom of cooling reservoirs and is not a conclusive evidence of a blown gasket.

Sludge is formed when the coolant is being moved around the system and it collects traces of oil, grease and rust etc.,
and with time, settles down towards the bottom.

I would strongly suspect a choked up radiator and/or ineffective cooling fans.

Remedy: Flush out the whole system. Ensure radiator is clean. Check radiator and reservoir caps for any minute leaks from the rubber gaskets. Ensure cooling fans work perfectly.

Answer 6

97 Trans Am is a great car. It needs 76000 maintenance. As the new owner the coolent system needs to be flushed for the sludge. Then take the radiator out and off to the radiator repoir shop. Get the sludge cleaned out. Change the clutch fan that is on the car or Flex fan. Look at the belts and radiator hoses change them. It is so much easier to do preventive maintenance when the radiator is out... Some shops have a machine that sucks the old transmission oil out and replaces with new... My truck takes 13 quarts of fluid.

Answer 7

I had a similar problem when I got my 68 Camaro. I don't know what causes the coolant to turn to gel, but it was a 'solid" gel around the first two cylinders. I didn't know this until I rebuilt the engine, but was impossible to diagnose from the outside. The engine pinged like crazy, but the temperature gauge always read fine, and there was plenty of circulating coolant -- it just wasn't circulating around those two cylinders. Load it full of the goo dissolving chemicals and flush the system. Don't just drain it -- you need to get the gel out of there. Hope you can do it without a rebuild -- I couldn't.

Answer 8

Take this car to a Shop.The reason he added more coolant is because the car used it,and it shouldn't.There shouldn't be any thing else in coolant but coolant and water,that sludge your seeing is oil. Which shouldn't be there either. I think the seller knew something was up with car. Good luck

Answer 9

The first thing you should do is have the cooling system pressure tested. It is better to find a leak before you replace all the fluids. Intake manifolds have been a weak spot on most gm engines from 96-99. I am willing to bet that if you that the intake is leaking and the previous owner just kept filling the reservoir when it got low.

Answer 10

well, as for the overheating, maybe the thermostat is bad, that is a cheap easy fix. I guess you should maybe change the coolant and get it flushed, which is a hundred bucks or so if you have it done. I dont think that it would bust thru the cap if overfilled, usually there is an overflow vent. If the guy was an idiot, who knows, he might have put oil in there.