i'm really not a car guy so if i sound stupid forgive me... i drove about 4 hours with family to the grand canyon and while there we stopped and started the car a few times (10 minute short drives)... well during on of these stops i stayed in the car and heard gurgling noises..( engine still running at this point) i opened the hood and noticed that there were bubbles coming into the radiator fluid tank (reservoir not the actual radiator) from some hose line attached to the bottom... not just a few bubbles but pretty forceful and continuous. (like if you blew as hard as you could through an average size straw into a glass of water) i turned off the engine and it continued. i then had to turn the car on again and drive for about 10 minutes and at the next stop - no bubbling. i continued to drive on/off for a few hours and later in the evening had it happen again... i never had the car overheat, but i'm worried about what that could be? btw, its a 2002 olds silhouette minivan
had that happen before. check the electrical wires that gets the power to the radiator/radiator fan. it might be loose and isn't turning on the fan.
blown head gasket basically, you have exhaust leaking into the coolant, which is what is causing the bubbles
Blown head gasket??? C'mon Codell, that's a worst case scenario. Quit scarig the guy. We need more info on the the condition of the car. It sounded to me like the car was "burping" itself. Have you recently filled the radiator. You may have had an air pocket. You may also have a sticking thermostat as well. This would cause pressure to build in the radiator and the radiator cap to relieve pressure by burping releasing the water into the overflow tank.
Check the dipstick and see if it looks milky - there will be water in the oil- def. blown head gasket.
It could also be that you just don't have enough coolant in your radiator, and the coolant that is in there is not circulating enough, and is staying hot and boiling over. Once the car cools down, check your levels....they are probably low. DD
Sounds like a stuck thermostat.. very common on those GM engines. Parts store.. less than $10 bucks and a good half hour if you have a shade tree mechanics knowledge of what to do, and the tools.
sorry i hadn't had a chance to reply before... anyways i checked the engine and transmission fluids and both look fine (no milkiness). the engine hasn't overheated at all in last 3 days (and i've driven 25-30miles/day). in fact ever since the 2 episodes friday everything has been fine? so now i'm debating what to do... have it checked out (and of course i'm sure some mechanic will find something wrong) or just wait and see what happens.
It sounds just like my experience with a "sticking" thermostat... common in GM's. Thermostats stick open so the antifreeze never stops in the radiator to get cooled by the air flowing around the tubes... it just keeps heating up. Thermostats that do this will do it intermittently until they no longer close and open properly. I have had three different GM engines (2.8 L V6, and a pair of 4.3 L V6's) do this... GM's thermostats are also usually set at a high temp to begin... I suggest requesting a lower temp thermostat. For example most thermostats in a GM V6 engine are set at 220 F... I always bought a 170 F replacement... This way it was very easy to tell by the temp gauge if something was not right... It would read under 200 at normal, and above if there was a problem. The factory "higher" temp thermostat reads about 220-250 at all times... and those engines will warp a head (aluminum) at a sustained heat of 280-300 on the gauge (in reality it is much, much hotter) but if your thermostat is one of the lower temp ones, it will work more frequently to ensure a lower overall operating temp, and you can notice a spike in temperature easier. Hope that helps.
I dealt with a similar problem last year ... coolant reservoir bubbling. Turns out there was a leak in my cooling system. Took it to the shop ... they did pressure test. They said my water pump was leaking, so they replaced it. Couple weeks later ... same problem ... bubbling in reservoir. There was a hairline crack on the top of my radiator (which is plastic), and this crack had finally gotten big enough for me to actually see fluid gushing out of it now. Apparently, when the car was hot, the crack would open up due to intense heat/pressure. I guess when they pressure-tested my system earlier they didn't test it hot since they have to go through the radiator cap to do the pressure test. As a result, I think they misidentified the actual source of the problem. I had them replace the radiator and the problem went away. (Lesson learned: make sure they pressure test your system while it's hot) ... but the story didn't end there .... Couple weeks ago my car suddenly died on me. Turns out my timing belt got cut .... yes, it got cut ... literally. What happened? .... well, remember the new water pump they put in? You know, the one I probably didn't need? Well, it broke. A piece of it got in and slashed the timing belt.
thats not true, not every mechanic will find something wrong with it, my dad has mechanic shops and if nothing is wrong with a car, we wont do anything to it, we work honestly
wouldn't the car temp have gone up? because at the time this bubbling was happening my car temp guage appeared normal....
Actually, my car had the same issue a while back. It turned out that both A/C coils were shot, causing this to happen. Just another possible scenario.
