Toast?

[pasadena_commut]

Update - the mechanic put in a new radiator and ran it for a long time and there was no CO2 or oil in the coolant. So, amazingly enough, it seems not to have blown the head gasket. It will not surprise me if that gasket gives out at some point as a result of the abuse, but for now, things look good to go. Cost was $500 for the radiator, belt, and work. Plus $100 for the first shop for their work. Hopefully this $600 lesson will not be lost on my daughter!

 

[seventystangfan]

Woohoo! Money is usually a great teacher

 

[kms1990]

i was not ripping on her, just saying we need to educate people on some basic troubleshooting before they get the keys. it would save many a headache and many a dollar, i understand cars are not most peoples "thing" but everyone that owns a car needs to know what to do if it overheats (pull off let it cool down and check the coolant) if the tire goes flat and if the battery dies, just saying we need to help educate everyone so that they can do little things to keep themselves from ending up in these situations. i came off harsh, and i apologize for that, it had been a rough day and i probably shouldnt have been on the forum, so my apologies to anyone i offended with that post

 

[pasadena_commut]

Update.

My daughter graduated this weekend so we were in Columbia for the ceremony and to help her pack up. She had moved out of her apartment by dumping everything she was keeping into the car in one big heap. When we pulled all of that stuff out to pack it in boxes to ship it the floor and seats underneath were disgusting: old french fries, cookie crumbs, unidentifiable bits and pieces of pens, paper clips, paper, wrappers. I have seen cleaner trash cans. So while my wife and daughter stuffed things into boxes back in the hotel room I took the car to a car wash to vacuum it out. Good thing I did. Every time it slowed down the oil light came on. Popped the hood - oil everywhere around the top of the motor. Dip stick was dry. Put in a quart of oil - still dry. Put in another quart and it was half way up the stick. So 2.5q low. This was Saturday afternoon and my silly girl was planning on driving to New York the next day with two of her friends - no way they would have made it. To be fair, she had had the oil changed only last month (at a Jiffy lube) and there were no problems then.

The autozone where I bought the oil was next to Tom's Imports - their shop was closed but Tom himself was still manning the parts counter. He was kind of enough to come out and have a look and said it was at least a bad valve cover gasket. When it cooled down later I checked the coolant, and thankfully that was still clean. Brought it back in on Monday morning and once they started to take it apart they also found a seal going to the timing belt was bad and there was oil on the timing belt (sorry, I don't recall the exact term, and I was driving to the airport by this time) that needed to be replaced too, along with the timing belt, which they said might fail as a consequence of all the oil that had been on it. (The belt only had 20K miles on it, it was replaced before we sent her the car.) Also one of the spark plug boots had cracked (possibly from too much heat). Apparently they were able to get the parts faster than expected and had it back in my daughter's hands by late that afternoon.

In addition, one of the injectors had failed a couple of months ago. Possibly a coincidence, but also possibly the result of having been baked when she drove it with no cooling.

Did the valve cover gasket fail because of the heat? Probably, but not necessarily. I replaced one shortly after I bought the car, because it was leaking oil into the spark plug wells. This leak was much, much worse, with oil coming out all over the place.

Anyway, none of these subsequent problems surprise me - a lot of components are not designed to withstand the temperatures that occur once the cooling system stops functioning, and sustained exposure to those temperatures causes them to fail prematurely.

 

[pasadena_commut]

One other issue, this one pretty minor, probably not overheating related. There were 3 bulbs out: the left front turn signal, the right rear brake light, and the left rear reverse light. I did not have the right tools with me, and not much time, so I had the mechanic take care of the last two. The turn signal problem was not a bad bulb, instead the side contact had smashed down over the years and become dirty, so that it no longer made contact with the bulb. Pried that contact up and out of its groove with the tip of a voltmeter probe (which I had sent to my daughter with the car) and it worked again. Probably only a temporary fix, but we will see how long it lasts.

 

[icantshift]

I'll never look at a classified ad that mentions the car was "lady driven" the same way again. Best of luck to you.

 

[P-Funk!]

^werd.

 

[pasadena_commut]

The "fun" never ends...

After the repair my daughter drove the car from Columbia to New York and back to Saint Louis by way of Chicago. About 2000 miles.

In St. Louis the oil light starts flashing. It is again 2.5 quarts low. (Yes, she was told that it was critical to check the oil frequently during the trip, and she didn't do it once. As you can no doubt deduce by now, the girl is a lost cause when it comes to cars.) This time there is no oil leaking from the valve cover gasket, nor as far as they (she has a friend with her) could see, anywhere in the engine compartment, nor are there any drops from the bottom of the car (as best as they can tell). The car still runs well and it isn't smoking (knock wood). The current plan is to buy 3 more quarts of oil, just in case, and try to drive it back to the repair place in Columbia to see if he can figure out what is wrong with it. That's only 120 miles so if it loses oil at a steady rate it should still be in between the marks on the dipstick, and if it is just pouring out, well, if 3 quarts won't do it, then it is in really bad shape.

I'm guessing either the valve cover gasket wasn't installed right or was defective and it is leaking into a cylinder, or one or more of the oil control rings is messed up from the over heating episode. Seafoam in the oil might help with the latter problem. Not something I really want her to try while traveling though.

 

[pasadena_commut]

In St. Louis the oil light starts flashing. It is again 2.5 quarts low. (Yes, she was told that it was critical to check the oil frequently during the trip, and she didn't do it once. As you can no doubt deduce by now, the girl is a lost cause when it comes to cars.) This time there is no oil leaking from the valve cover gasket, nor as far as they (she has a friend with her) could see, anywhere in the engine compartment, nor are there any drops from the bottom of the car (as best as they can tell). The car still runs well and it isn't smoking (knock wood). The current plan is to buy 3 more quarts of oil, just in case, and try to drive it back to the repair place in Columbia to see if he can figure out what is wrong with it. That's only 120 miles so if it loses oil at a steady rate it should still be in between the marks on the dipstick, and if it is just pouring out, well, if 3 quarts won't do it, then it is in really bad shape.

Oddly enough it didn't burn any oil going to Columbia. The mechanic didn't see any problem. So she drove it home 1800 miles though the southwest and it still didn't burn any more oil. Very odd. I have never heard of a car that will burn or leak a couple of quarts of oil and then suddenly stop doing so. Makes me wonder if they forgot to top off the oil when they replaced the gaskets, and it just happened to be right on the border of having the light flash.

When she pulled into the driveway there were two golf ball sized bulges on the sidewall of one of the front tires. Of course she had not noticed. The mechanic in Columbia would have seen those for sure, so I'm thinking either they ran over one too many potholes on the way home, or the heat of driving across the desert led areas already damaged by earlier collisions and pothole hits bulge out.

 

[Inside]

Man, at some point you should just cut your losses and get rid of the car!