Over The Hill Gang , Old Farts with Young Cars

[69supersport396]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

I posted this in the V6 section but wanted to see if any of you guys had any thoughts:

First let me vent a bit then the questions. I am pissed off!!!!! I took Ruby to the dealership to have the radiator flushed a few weeks ago. Today I got it out & just ran about 5 mi down the road to get gas. No problem. On the way back home about a couple miles from the house & get a warning light "Engine overheated" Then "Idle engine". I crept a few feet down the road to the next intersection where I could safely pull over. I shut the car off & popped the hood. Everything looked okay, no steam, but the fan ran for a little while. Called hubby. No coolant showing on the dipstick but we could see a little in the radiator under the pressure cap. we added about 2/3 a gallon. Soooooo it appears they did not fill my car sufficiently with coolant. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!.

Now the questions. Is it normal for the car to get that hot with only a 2/3 of a gallon low on like a 5-7 mi drive? After we added the coolant & it was driven around the block it read 199 degrees. When we got it home like 2 miles more) it read 205 degrees then dropped to 201 with a few min at idle. What is the normal operating temp of our cars? I had taken at least one road trip after it was serviced of about 70 mi each way. There was no leak indicated on the garage floor under the car. I did think I smelled something when I started it up but I thought it smelled more like gas fumes. Thoughts?

My guess is they probably didn't completely burp the cooling system, and there was still some air in it. I think those temps are normal operating temps for our cars, at least a stock one.

[RubyCamaro]

Last night I looked at my receipt from the flush & the specs for the coolant capacity. The capacicity is 10.2 qt. The receipt indicates they put 8.8 qt. There is the proof. Heads are going to roll. What if I had been on the interstate & could not stop & blew my engine? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Going to pick up a bottle of 50-50 coolant to take with me to a club event today. I want to drive it to test it out & be sure that is all it was. Need to be sure before the fest. I will have plenty of folks around to help today. I am still mad though. I will be taking it in & having a talk with the service manager on Monday. Have a great Saturday everyone.

[RubyCamaro]

Need to vent:

The saga continued. We checked it this morning & it seemed good, no leaks detected on the garage floor, level was good when cool & with running it a while so I decided to go on to the club event since I'd have lots of help if needed & wanted to see how it ran. We bought a fresh bottle of coolant to take with us. It did fine from Springfield to Bowling Green (mostly interstate, about 35 mi.). We stopped at the Corvette museum to meet up with some more folks.

When we left there to head to the event, my car started acting funny. When I did not have my foot on the gas at all or was braking the engine would surge hard & then back to normal repeatedly. Now it was a weird surge. It did not feel like it was shifting like when it does not seem to know what gear it wants to be in. Usually when it does that you have your foot on the gas at least a little. It did not feel like it was trying to speed up like it does when it does the indecisive shifting thing. Just like the engine was getting louder & revving hard. I pulled over along with hubby & a club guy who is a mechanic. He looked at it & reached down touching a lower coolant hose & said it was cold whereas it should be hot. He said it probably still had air in it. We drove it easy to the event. I called OnStar & had them do a diagnostic & they did not find anything. We let it cool & he checked the coolant. He squeezed on that hose & you should have seen the air come bubbling up. We spent the rest of the day at the show, off & on working on the car running it, letting the air work out, letting it cool a while doing it again. It was amazing how much air came up. It drove fine coming home.

Now, what do I do about the dealership other than give them a piece of my mind? Now I pretty much know the air is worked out of it but I think at least they should give me my $ back, maybe reimburse me for the coolant I had to add that they did not add, maybe reimburse me for what I should pay my friend for working on it all day in the heat at a car show in the grass & under trees. Maybe they should even have to clean it up underneath where we ended up getting coolant on parts of the car trying to do all this at a car show (I am going to go out & do the best I can when it cools down some outside). I know they are going to want to re-do the job but I am just not sure I want them to. I definitely want to know the name of the tech who did it I be assured he will never touch my car again.

When I think about being stranded in the projects at dusk on a Friday evening & about what could have happened if I had gotten the engine overheat warning on the interstate in traffic where I could not get over, I get so furious!

[skipinminn]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

Need to vent:

The saga continued. We checked it this morning & it seemed good, no leaks detected on the garage floor, level was good when cool & with running it a while so I decided to go on to the club event since I'd have lots of help if needed & wanted to see how it ran. We bought a fresh bottle of coolant to take with us. It did fine from Springfield to Bowling Green (mostly interstate, about 35 mi.). We stopped at the Corvette museum to meet up with some more folks.

When we left there to head to the event, my car started acting funny. When I did not have my foot on the gas at all or was braking the engine would surge hard & then back to normal repeatedly. Now it was a weird surge. It did not feel like it was shifting like when it does not seem to know what gear it wants to be in. Usually when it does that you have your foot on the gas at least a little. It did not feel like it was trying to speed up like it does when it does the indecisive shifting thing. Just like the engine was getting louder & revving hard. I pulled over along with hubby & a club guy who is a mechanic. He looked at it & reached down touching a lower coolant hose & said it was cold whereas it should be hot. He said it probably still had air in it. We drove it easy to the event. I called OnStar & had them do a diagnostic & they did not find anything. We let it cool & he checked the coolant. He squeezed on that hose & you should have seen the air come bubbling up. We spent the rest of the day at the show, off & on working on the car running it, letting the air work out, letting it cool a while doing it again. It was amazing how much air came up. It drove fine coming home.

Now, what do I do about the dealership other than give them a piece of my mind? Now I pretty much know the air is worked out of it but I think at least they should give me my $ back, maybe reimburse me for the coolant I had to add that they did not add, maybe reimburse me for what I should pay my friend for working on it all day in the heat at a car show in the grass & under trees. Maybe they should even have to clean it up underneath where we ended up getting coolant on parts of the car trying to do all this at a car show (I am going to go out & do the best I can when it cools down some outside). I know they are going to want to re-do the job but I am just not sure I want them to. I definitely want to know the name of the tech who did it I be assured he will never touch my car again.

When I think about being stranded in the projects at dusk on a Friday evening & about what could have happened if I had gotten the engine overheat warning on the interstate in traffic where I could not get over, I get so furious!

Look on the service ticket you got back when you car was done! Lots of times the person who worked on your car there name is there Just an Idea something to show the service manager.

[RubyCamaro]

Here is a link to pics from yesterday's event.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417418
I found out we will be closing on our parent's house/mini farm om Monday. I will be taking the day off. I will be at Payne Chevrolet first thing on Monday morning then when finished there will head to the closing. Today I will color my hair then go to see daddy. It is so weird not being able to talk to him about selling the house/farm. He worked so hard to get it & taking care of it. Now it will take care of him.

[69supersport396]

Going for a swim after washing 2 cars. Claire had to attend an early class, so I'll do her car later.

Epic road trip in one week!

[zandron263]

I had a great weekend with the Camaro. Drove it to Cleveland yesterday for a baseball game top down the whole way. Today I took it to a car show with some friends from the club and had a lot of fun. I did not win an award but one of the guys in the club did. I never go to shows expecting to win I just like to hang out with friends and check out the cars at the show. The weather was nice all weekend sunny and hot just perfect for driving with the top down.

[RubyCamaro]

Well We had a productive day. I painted the swing & the mail box post. Mike & I both cleaned up our Camaros a little (just a whore bath to get the bugs off). Then Mike cooked steaks & I cooked some zucchini, some broccoli & some garlic toast to go with it & prepped some crook-neck squash to freeze. I decided to wait to go see daddy tomorrow since I will have the whole day off to deal with the Chevy dealership about messing up Ruby's radiator flush & sign off on the sale of the homeplace. And there was a hard rain in Clarksville & did not feel like driving in. Oh, and I got my hair colored. Here are a few pics from the day.

[skipinminn]

Ruby I started Packing today ) I leave in 3 days I'm going to drag it out and Play on the way down

[RubyCamaro]

That's great! I can't wait to retire & have some freedom. I'm not going to be able to focus this week at work.

[69supersport396]

Finished washing all three cars and cleaned the floors during the afternoon. Gotta knock out some chores this week before I leave.

New tires are on the Impala. Brakes were checked and found to be newly overhauled with new shoes, hardware, wheel cylinders, and hoses. My buddy has been driving it to see if there are any other issues.

Five days until vacation and the epic road trip.

[69supersport396]

Jan, as always, your food looks yummy.

[RubyCamaro]

Good morning. Time to go get fired up at the dealership and finalize the sale of the homeplace. Not a happy day. But all necessary. HAGD crew.

[BLU DUCE]

Originally Posted by RubyCamaro

Good morning. Time to go get fired up at the dealership and finalize the sale of the homeplace. Not a happy day. But all necessary. HAGD crew.

Where are the flowers around the mail box? Give them hell at the dealer ship. A said day to have to see the place where you grew up has to be sold.

Hope your time at the fest takes some of this tension off you & can finally relax for a few days.
Have fun & enjoy.