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Sedans Buick LeSabre Buick LeSabre: General Care & Maintenance
48 messages, Last post on Sep 21, 2009 at 6:41 PM
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Replying to: viper2007 (Jun 03, 2007 11:10 am) http://www.carspace.com/guides |
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I have a '98 LeSabre that's had regular antifreeze mixed in with the Dex-Cool due to having sprung a leak in a hose in the middle of nowhere. I'm about to take off for a 4000-mile drive, and would like to flush and change coolant entirely, especially now that I have a mix, which is supposedly a major no-no. An amateur shop that changed oil today said they "couldn't get a reading" on the coolant. Any expert advice on whether to go with Dex-Cool or not? Buick insists on it, of course, but I've read much bad about it, and nothing good.
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Replying to: tdc1 (Jun 11, 2007 10:19 am) You can drain it completely, flush out all the dexcool and green stuff mixture. Then I would refill with DexCool. I took off the lower radiator hose to drain mine every two years. It will take just about the 6 quarts needed to give a 50/50 mixture. I sometimes have to put the extra into the reserve tank. If you unscrew a knock sensor on the bottom of the block I'm told a lot more comes out. Either way your best bet would be to rinse and fill with dexcool, which is really good and nondamaging to water pump and aluminum. An alternate would be to refill with one of the compatible antifreezes that is supposed to mix with DexCool. With aging the mix is supposed to turn blackish and give a gummy residue. I'd drain and fill at least 3 times to get as much of the old mix out as possible. I would run the motor til it circulated then drain again and refill after it cooled a while. I did that 2 times just to rinse out old DexCool (2 years old). Be sure to get the air bubble in the heater out after the motor warms up by reving to 2500 for a few seconds about 5 times--from the owners service manual. Also after that you can bleed the air out at the thermostat screw to get the last air out. Air mixing with DexCool as it circulates supposed causes part of the problems.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Jun 11, 2007 10:27 am) Three questions: 1) any reason why you recommend sticking with Dex-cool rather than flushing out completely and starting anew without it? I've read on many sites that it's nothing but trouble, corrodes innards, etc. 2) any idea which other anti-freezes are okay to mix with Dex-cool? That sounds like a good compromise solution to me. 3) I assume I can eventually find the plug at the bottom of the block, but where's the thermostat screw? TIA, TDC
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Replying to: tdc1 (Jun 11, 2007 10:38 am) I ahve heard people on another board discuss a product (Walmart has it I believe they said) that is says it's universally mixable with others, green and Dexcool. It'll say on the label. But your choice should be to flush and drain and get most of the stuff out and put in one new chemical. DexCool took lots of grief for the seals leaking around some motor sizes on their intake manifolds and the throttle bodies where coolant is sent up through to keep them from icing. There was a problem with the chemical makeup of early seals, years ago, and those seals were changed. DexCool also formed a brown sludge if air was left in the system. I was told certain designs of radiators for filling, Ford had one e.g., were hard to fill and get all the air out. Those seemed to have trouble after years of running hot with the DexCool breaking down. Also adding green stuff to it or using anything like a tester that had a little green stuff in it contaminated the Dexcool causing a sludging to form. I think DexCool gets blamed for problems the owner helped cause by not changing it every two years like regular antifreeze and not watching when it began to look gunky in the overflow and radiator cap area and getting the old stuff out of there. I don't know what the knock sensor looks like. It has an electrical wire to it. Myself I avoided trying that just used the lower radiator hose at the radiator. Drain, fill with water, run, drain, fill ... The thermostat air bleed is the little brass screw on top of the round hemispherical housing at the end of the upper radiator hose on the right of the picture. 
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Jun 11, 2007 12:45 pm) I ended up getting the universal stuff at WalMart, supposedly Dex-Cool compatible. They had four brands all with the same composition and all claiming they could be mixed with anything. Including Prestone, so I'll assume it's legit. And I'll try to flush very thoroughly. Thanks for the photo of the thermostat screw -- very obvious once the plastic cover was popped. Now... just as soon as things cool down a bit more... |
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Replying to: suydam (Aug 02, 2006 7:02 am)
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Replying to: bugz (Jun 27, 2007 5:43 pm) Do not buy any parts or replace anything. See what the codes mean as symptoms, not an indicator of exact parts bad. I suspect it will be related to the pollution checks on the parts for pollution control, p0442. It probably will turn itself off after a while if the store won't turn it off for you. Is the gas cap seal good. Put petroleum jelly on it on the cap and check that the plastic part on the filler is in good shape and clean. The most common problem is the tank doesn't seal tight enough for the vacuum check the car does occasionally to look for leaks. The algorithm for checks is tank between 1/4 and 3/4 full (your gauge doesn't work thought). Then the car is restarted when the coolant temp is between two temps (130 and 170 guessing my recall numbers). And the system will check for leaks. I've had a couple and on restart the light turns off. Your 2000 has an access cover under the mat in the front of the trunk to get to the fuel pump and the fuel level gauge. |
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I have a 1994 Buick LeSabre which has the following problem: In the morning when the engine is cold the car idle races exceptionally high and the odometer and speedometer do not work. After about 10 miles of driving, when the engine warms up, the idle returns to normal and the odometer and speedometer works again. I do not know how these two could be related and I can't get to the bottom of this problem in order to solve it. Thanks, Barry |
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