04 Coolant Issues

Hi everyone! This is my first post. I have an 04 LS, nothing fancy but I love the car! I was wondering if anyone else have had a problem or 2 like me. I change the oil the other day and was checking the coolant, and the radiator has brown gunk all over in it. I was looking online and read in a couple places that the dex-cool crystalizes and turns into a brown goo. If anyone has had the problem, was there any warranty problems?
Also the tranny seems to messing up. When you slow down to say turn a corner then accelerate the down shifting of the tranny is pretty rough, I am very concerned about both.
I was just checking to see if anyone has had any problems like these so when I take it to the dealership they dont try to put it to me, so to speak. Well thanks for taking the time of reading, ANY posts would be great! Thanks again.

wow, this not very comforting, considering I just bought an 04 LS two days ago. I took it out on a long test drive and didn't notice any issues with the tranny shifting at all, which was exactly the reason I traded in my previous car for this one. I guess I should check the oil and all that good stuff too, huh? How many miles are on your car? Mine has 29k, so I've got about 7k before the warranty expires.

I bought the car with 8600 miles on it, I now have just over 20,000 miles on it. Yea I would certainly check the radiator fluid as well. I have read on msn auto that the 01's and 02's had a problem with a pressure soleniod in the tranny, but nobody has anything on the 04 yet. Glad someone replied!!! Take care!

quote:

ORIGINAL: GTown

I bought the car with 8600 miles on it, I now have just over 20,000 miles on it. Yea I would certainly check the radiator fluid as well. I have read on msn auto that the 01's and 02's had a problem with a pressure soleniod in the tranny, but nobody has anything on the 04 yet. Glad someone replied!!! Take care!

ahaha, I know, it's like a ghost town here. Hopefully traffic picks up, this is a nice board.

I'm gonna go out right now and check my fluids before it starts raining again.

Don't panic..... lol

Welcome to the forum...!!!


Well, that brown gunk is leak tabs put in the cooling system at the factory to prevent leakage from crapy GM gaskets. If it's under warranty, take it back and tell them your not happy. They will flush the system. Another thing you may want to address with your dealer is the long term problems associated with the temp & low cooling system sensors. Additionally, I think they are suppose to replace the radiator cap as well..

Chevy_jj,

I thought there was a TSB out on this. Would you happen to have any insight?

TVW

quote:

ahaha, I know, it's like a ghost town here. Hopefully traffic picks up, this is a nice board.

Sorry guy's, I have been on a road trip to LA since Friday.... I am at the Westin @ LAX as we speak ready to fly home tomorrow..

El Segundo is nice BTW, I spent most of the day today roaming most of the El Segundo area.

TVW

quote:

ORIGINAL: tvanwinklehome

quote:

ahaha, I know, it's like a ghost town here. Hopefully traffic picks up, this is a nice board.

Sorry guy's, I have been on a road trip to LA since Friday.... I am at the Westin @ LAX as we speak ready to fly home tomorrow..

El Segundo is nice BTW, I spent most of the day today roaming most of the El Segundo area.

TVW

no worries. I like this board and look forward to being here for a while, and hopefully learning alot about my Monte and ways to mod it.

i just had the recall on mine done for the dex cool
when i asked wha tthe poroblem was they said the old generation of the stuff was having a chemical reaction with the hoses and such so it was basically eating them from the inside out.

But they also told me dex cool is only good for 5 years (to the spec) and it will continue to grow thicker and thicker every passing year to that point and that after 5 years is is no longer doing its job.

i flush mine about every two years so this time they did it for me LOL

I have a 03 SS so not sure if it is the same for yours i would hope they have changed the fluids there putting in to the at the factopr also

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

i just had the recall on mine done for the dex cool
when i asked wha tthe poroblem was they said the old generation of the stuff was having a chemical reaction with the hoses and such so it was basically eating them from the inside out.

But they also told me dex cool is only good for 5 years (to the spec) and it will continue to grow thicker and thicker every passing year to that point and that after 5 years is is no longer doing its job.

i flush mine about every two years so this time they did it for me LOL

I have a 03 SS so not sure if it is the same for yours i would hope they have changed the fluids there putting in to the at the factopr also

This is good to know. I have an appt at the dealer on Friday to see what's up w/my cd player, it won't load cd's :angry: I will be asking them to find out what, if any, recalls have been issued for my car which need to be done and have em take care of it.

hell i tookmine in for that to they cleand the heads and sent it out

but they did replace the seat belts YEAH!!!!!! they now actually retract when you unbuckel them so no more slamming them in the doors

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

hell i tookmine in for that to they cleand the heads and sent it out

but they did replace the seat belts YEAH!!!!!! they now actually retract when you unbuckel them so no more slamming them in the doors

LMAO, that would suck!(seat belt issue)

You took yours in for what? the cd player issue im having? what do you mean they cleaned the heads and sent it out?

yeah it did with the belts.

yeah i took mine in for the recalls and told them about the CD player screwing up.
also had my dash lights that were dimming out. they turned the dash lights all the way up to fix that one and cleaned the heads on teh cd player ad set it out the dor. but this is in germany where i have to fight tooth and nail to get anythign done with my car beign that it is here and not in state side shops.

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

yeah it did with the belts.

yeah i took mine in for the recalls and told them about the CD player screwing up.
also had my dash lights that were dimming out. they turned the dash lights all the way up to fix that one and cleaned the heads on teh cd player ad set it out the dor. but this is in germany where i have to fight tooth and nail to get anythign done with my car beign that it is here and not in state side shops.

so your cd player wouldn't accept cd's either huh? so after they did what they did it was all good? Did they fix it right then and there or did you have to leave it with them for a day?


This 60 second flood control ish is irritating.......it may not be 60 seconds but it sure feels like it :angry:

yeah it was good to go
but it was there all day after the recals also

and i agree with the flood controll
here is my yahoo. Im

Classiccruser @yahoo.

it is the same for my email as my messenger
fel free to contact me when or if you need help on any of this'

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

yeah it was good to go
but it was there all day after the recals also

and i agree with the flood controll
here is my yahoo. Im

Classiccruser @yahoo.

it is the same for my email as my messenger
fel free to contact me when or if you need help on any of this'

I'm trying to be optimistic so hopefully mine will be good to go after my appt on Friday too, I have so many cd's I wanna listen to in the Monte, can't wait to see what they sound like on the system, which sounds pretty good for factory.

Thanks for the yahoo info, I'll add you to my buddy list.

I'm rkf76 on yahoo, do the same

hey sorry i missed this post. i would have to agree with tvw on the sealer tabs. they are added to the cooling system from the factory and also there is a service recall where the mechanic like myself will go in and replace the throttle body nuts and added sealer tabs. i do not know if your vehicle has had this recall but if you did then that is why the brown crap is there. the last time that i used the tsb on this problem they would want the tech to clean the overflow thuroughly and clean the cap. i do not like the dexcrap i mean cool coolant but thats what they run in there vehicles. dexcool is ok, ive seen more leaks with it. if it gets low i dont know if the coolant breaks down terribly or what from excessive heat but it turns sludge brown and i see this mostly on blazers at least 5 years old. so hopefully they will do something withit like discontinue it. transmission, if you got warranty, take it in.

I noticed the tranny issue on my car too:angry:

When you are slowing down for a stoplight and then the light turns green before you come to a complete stop, but are under say 10-15mph, once you press on the gas, the shift is kinda rough. Sound about right GTown? I go on vacation in a couple weeks so I'll take it in then and let em do what they gotta do. Car is still under warranty. Hopefully they replace the damn thing, or at least isolate the cause of the problem and fix it. I don't want this to be a long drawn out process.

heres a question for ya how hard is it to change over to the regular ainte freez? I mean what do you have to replace? They make it sound as if you do this it will ruin the cars cooling system this is something i really dont need to have happen

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

heres a question for ya how hard is it to change over to the regular ainte freez? I mean what do you have to replace? They make it sound as if you do this it will ruin the cars cooling system this is something i really dont need to have happen

I dunno man, sounds like more trouble than it's worth, honestly.

that depends if it is amatter of flushing a system and changing the fluids then no it would be well worth not having the leacks and the related issues with this crap.
they have already found out that it is eatting the hoses from the inside out on some cars this alone is not a good thing I can tell ya right now those heater hoses dont look fun to have to figure out how to replace on the side of a road

quote:

ORIGINAL: mickey

that depends if it is amatter of flushing a system and changing the fluids then no it would be well worth not having the leacks and the related issues with this crap.
they have already found out that it is eatting the hoses from the inside out on some cars this alone is not a good thing I can tell ya right now those heater hoses dont look fun to have to figure out how to replace on the side of a road

I doubt it would be that simple

hence the question dont know till we ask

I've heard of many switching over to the green stuff with no problems. I am thinking of switching over in a month or so when I get my system flushed. If your car is fairly new I would not worry about changing hoses after the switch over unless and inspection of a hose in the system shows signs of degradation.

TVW

quote:

ORIGINAL: tvanwinklehome

I've heard of many switching over to the green stuff with no problems. I am thinking of switching over in a month or so when I get my system flushed. If your car is fairly new I would not worry about changing hoses after the switch over unless and inspection of a hose in the system shows signs of degradation.

TVW

you guys are braver than me. Good luck. And I hope your car isn't under warranty when you do this cause surely they'll have an issue with it should you need any powertrain warranty repairs.

what was the issue with the coolant at hand here? i think that i missed the main thread here and i am completely lost. sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!