WHEN LEAKS ATTACK

Drip drip goes the Cadillac

A customer brought to me a 2004 Cadillac  SRX with the 4.6 liter engine.  Evidently it had been leaking fluid for some time in small amounts but now it was a full blown gusher.  Nice orange spot every time she parked.
"Help me!" she cried.  I guess I'm a sucker for dames so what the heck, I decided to see what I could do.

Observing a large puddle of dexcool under the car, I took a flashlight and examined the front of the engine.  Yup.  Leaking from water pump weep hole.  Nice simple job.  Put a new pump in, bled the system and checked it for leaks.  Still leaking, only this time from the other side of the engine!  I verified that the pump was bad (it was) and resolved to find the other leak.  

First thing was to get some coolant dye that was compatible with dexcool. Here is what I used.

What I saw was the coolant leaking from behind the intake air hose from a piece of metal that connects to the intake manifold. It is known as the water outlet.

This caused a significant leak down the passenger side of the engine and cannot be seen because the gaskets are on the rear side of the intake water outlet. So it has to come off.  Like these picture show, there are four bolts that hold it on and a large hose and small hose on the left side.  But first the throtle body bolts have to come off. There is a hidden bolt behind the throttle body.

Throttle body removed and the bolts are clearly seen.

Once the assembly had been removed, the leak area and gaskets could be clearly seen. Notice the scale buildup on the right hand picture.  The gaskets were similarly covered.  A leak was inevitable.

Here's a destroyed gasket that shows the scale buildup and reason for the leak.

New gaskets with part number from GM.  (Dont get them at the dealer, they are 6x as expensive)

Thread in the bolts to hold the gaskets and then put some locktite thread sealer on it to hold them in place.

Torque it down and put the throttle body bolts back on.  assemble the rest of the small stuff you took off (hoses, wires, etc) and refill it with coolant.  It should look like this when you are done.

On an added note, there is a tee fitting for the radiator overflow tank that sits on top of the radiator.  You can see it in the above picture on the lower right hand corner.  Notice the one I have is metal while the original is plastic.  Discard the plastic one and get a metal tee.  The plastic will break and leak all over the place while the metal one will probably outlast the vehicle.  Just one less leak for you to worry about.

If your zen concentration and relaxation techniques are up to par, you will not feel the least bit angry about the horrible leaks the SRX can develop.  Except for that tee fitting.  That's really pushing it Cadillac!!

VOLVO STEERING PROBLEM

2002 VOLVO S60 STEERING YIKES!!

Some time ago I bought my wife a used 2002 Volvo S60.  It had been in a small accident on the right front side but was otherwise in good shape.  The only problem was that when you hit the brakes (even slightly) it would take a hard left turn!  Talk about super dangerous!  Especially if you did it in traffic at high speeds!  Well, my wife had a few choice words with her mechanic (me) and I decided to hunt down the culprit. 

On the S60 Volvo, the control arm has rubber bushings that isolate it from the metal of the arm.  These bushings are prone to cracking or even breaking.  The final result is that when they frag, and believe me they do, you will suddenly find yourself making an unscheduled turn right into someones house.  Being the tight wad money saver that I am (am I right guys?) I resolved to fix these bushings by having new ones pressed in instead of replacing the entire control arm.  

 The bushings are indicated by red arrows.  Notice one is entirely gone (the rear one).

Bad idea.  Unless you use the factory bushings, I didn't, you are asking for trouble. Even then, if for some reason the shop you can find to press in the bushings doesn't do it exactly right you will face another unscheduled turn in traffic.  Let me cut to the chase.  Suffice it to say, that within a month of driving with the"new" bushings, they had once again broken and the car was steering crazy when braking.  

Do yourself a huge favor (and your wife) and replace the entire control arm with bushings.  Better yet spend a little extra money and buy the Volvo control arm.  As it turns out, the control arms only last about 20,000 miles before they frag.  The price of owning a Volvo I guess.  

THE CASE OF THE GRUMPY STALLING CHEVY CAVALIER

CHANGE YOUR DIRTY SOCKS

I am struck by the way diagnosing vehicles is a test of my amazing Zen calmness.  Take my 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier LS 2.2 OHV, for instance.  It was in all respects a well running machine......until it got to the lower quarter of the gas tank.  Then, for no apparent reason it would stall but only when  taking a left turn. ??????????????????   My first thought was that a wire to the fuel pump circuit was at fault.  I mean, only on left turns?  Yup.  Only left.  

I checked all the circuits and they were undamaged.  This is right about where my Zen  gets tested.  Back to basics, I thought.  If it wasn't an electrical problem, then it must be fuel. But why only when the tank was quarter full?  A faulty gas gauge?  Sounds reasonable, I thought.  I had a Mini Cooper with one of those.  Customer wondered why it was dying all the time and turns out the gas gauge was faulty so they kept running out of gas.  Kind of unlikely though.  

Unfortunately, the only thing that seemed reasonable was the fuel system.  Something in the tank was moving when I took a left turn and either shut off the fuel pump or clogged it.  Either way the fuel tank had to come out.  Ouch.  I hate doing that.  Its not the black widow spiders that make a home in the suspension, or the tree frogs that hide in the suspension that makes it so fun.  Its all the dirt that rains down in a shower right in my eyes that really makes that extra fun.  But I digress.....

Out comes the fuel tank and then the fuel pump, only to find everything sound and in good condition except........the outer fuel sock had a rip in it.  Being nylon, I was surprised that it was ripped.  It's pretty tough.  If that one was ripped, what about the other one inside the fuel pump.  I had a gander.  Yup! Bingo.  Not only was the inner fuel strainer ripped, it was falling to pieces like a piece of toilet paper!  Pieces of it were littered in the fuel pump canister and obviously clogging the pump when the tank was low on gas.  As I took a corner, the fuel would move all the pieces into the path of the fuel pump pickup and starve it.  When the tank was more than half full, it would float out of the pickup reach.  Problem solved. Although in this case, I went ahead and replaced the entire fuel pump assembly since there was no telling if some of the sock had gotten in the pump mechanism.  Note to everyone:   change your socks like your mamma told you.