GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi, currently, I'm using a dropper to refill some coolant to radiator through the pipe with the radiator cap on the top.

Please advise, thanks in advance.

Uh, you mean the overflow tube that goes to the coolant tank? The radiator only takes in coolant from the tank when the system needs additional coolant. If you have no leaks, it won't suck more in.

What problem are you trying to solve?

In viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28515 Caretaker and jolt have suggested that izzy's issue of frequent cooling loss with no leak evidence in a 2009 base Vibe could be due to a blown head gasket or cracked head. Apparently, issy's trying to add coolant via the hose to the overflow tank was mimicing the action of some mechanic.

My son's 03 Matrix had coolant loss, and although I didn't see any leaks on the ground, I was able to finally notice (took longer than I' wish it had) pink crusty deposits on the engine side of the radiator. Thanks to Toyota red coolant. A new radiator solved that problem.

Almost never a good idea to take off the radiator cap when the engine and coolant is hot. It could be under a lot of pressure, and spray scalding sticky liquid all over you. And if for some reason you ever have to add coolant to a hot engine, do it slowly with the engine running or else you can thermally shock and crack the block or head

When I need to add coolant to a car, my preferred method is to have the engine and coolant not be hot, and with engine off, remove the radiator cap, and fill the radiator. Sometimes it takes a few steps of add,/wait for the coolant to percolate down into the radiator, depending on how empty it is. I also fill the coolant overflow tank to the cold line, cap everything back up, and run the engine until it gets to normal running temp, check it again later when its all cool

When the coolant gets hot it expands, and for a full system, the expanding coolant will push past the radiator cap into the overflow reservoir. Later, when the engine cools, the coolant will contract creating a vacuum, and will suck some more back out of the overflow reservoir. For a car with a slow leak, this action will drain the overflow tank over time. For a big leak, the vacuum might just suck air in through the leak and not from the overflow tank I wouldn't expect to be able to add coolant just by pouring it into that hose to the overflow tank, unless perhaps if the radiator cap is off, and if the radiator cap is off, then it seems a lot easier to just pour it through the big hole left by the removed cap.

Joatman says "seems a lot easier to just pour it through the big hole left by the removed cap"
I believe that's exactly what he's doing. Either the cap is defective or the leak in the system isn't allowing
it to draw a vacuum sufficiently to suck the makeup coolant from the reservior.

izzy wrote:Recently I've been experiencing some overheating issue(according to gauge), usually the temperature stays in the middle, but now sometimes it moved almost to the top and stay there for seconds then dropped to the middle, back and forth, also the "check engine" led lights on randomly, I got the code"P0301" after used obd reader, asked some my co-workers, we checked the coolant and a few other things but could not figure out the reason. Need some help here, my car is 2009 pontiac vibe base model(1.8L), I already put around 240,000KM on it, don't want to spend to much on it as I'm planning to get electric car(maybe nissan leaf) next year or 2020.

thanks in advance

izzy wrote:In January this year, one day I found my car took a long long time to blow out the warm air, sometimes needed 10 minutes after I started it, and also, while driving, the warm air turned to cold ones for a few minutes then backup, I went Midas and the technician checked the coolant, told me it almost gone, it was the first time that I faced this issue since I bought my car back to Nov 2008, and he added some coolant via the pipe of radiator I guess and change the radiator cap.

After that, I think it worked properly for about 45 days then started acting the same.

izzy wrote:Went to a friend's auto shop, he replaced 4 spark plugs for me, he added some coolants as well. he told me to monitor if those issues still remain in the next couple days, the strange thing is I don't know why the coolants were gone again(added in January) because I didn't see there is any leaking on the ground.

I'd like to re-check the code with odb2 scanner a week after to see if the same code shown up or anything different. Will report back.

izzy wrote:There is something else that I want to share with Cylinder Misfire, a couple days ago, my vibe shown Misfire code again, there were like P0301 and P0303 at the time I read the codes with my ODB2 reader, it drove me crazy as I don't know what to do, gauge went up and down, check engine lights on, then one day I checked the coolant and found it's empty, so I added up and the issue gone for awhile and then come back again, so this time I checked the coolant directly, after watching a few days, I found that the the coolant is not going back to radiator, I used a dropper to suck the coolant form the coolant container and drop it to the radiator for temporary solution now and looking for a better radiator cap and hope it could fix the issue permanently.

Before I'm doing that, I like to hear some advice from here, thanks in advance.

I would recommend that you do not start multiple threads that evolve around the same subject so that people that are trying to help you see what has already happened and see all the information that you have already provided on the subject.

What color is the coolant in your overflow/surge tank and what color is the tank where the fluid sits in the tank? Have you cleaned the tank to make sure the line connection is not pulled? Have you replaced the radiator pressure cap and make sure that the cap is tightened all the way down on the radiator? Have you taken the hose that runs from the overflow/surge tank to the radiator and replaced it? Have you done what other have said and taken it to your friend/shop and had a done a leak down pressure test on the cooling system? What have you done to help troubleshoot your issue and correct your problem?

I would recommend that you do not start multiple threads that evolve around the same subject so that people that are trying to help you see what has already happened and see all the information that you have already provided on the subject.

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