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TCPMeta
12-03-2008, 07:18 PM
I have a 98 Saturn SL1 that is my daily driver.

The car lives up to it's name "Beater"
I try and keep the engine top notch. The A/C hasn't worked in a while so I removed the A/C equipment that was under the hood. While doing so I found out my radiator had a major gash and coolant gushed out when I poked it.

I bought a new radiator and took the old one out and had the new one installed 15 minutes flat, no lie. My girlfriend watched and she hates watching me work on cars.

Well since the hood was up I went ahead and checked the fluids. The crank case was empty, yet I changed the oil last month. I filled it back up and ran the car and checked for leaks it, good news no leaks at all. I found out the radiator fan isn't working and the sensor for the coolant system was bad. So all of this time I have been overheating the motor with out knowing it. The car itself had no idea aswell. All I can say is GM has built one hell of a engine. As for the electrical system they should of used metal for temperature sensors instead of plastic the first time around.

I might overhaul the engine to make sure I didn't crack the block or warp the head. Right now I just have straight water in the cooling system, this way I can identify if the block got cracked. Tomorrow morning i'll pop the cap and see if there's oil floating around. This way I know I didn't spend money in vane on coolant.

MagWag
12-03-2008, 07:36 PM
crap man, sounds like alot of my older trucks, lol!

Magmania
12-04-2008, 03:16 AM
It definitely sounds like you were working on a car.
Tell your girlfriend that it's better to watch you work on cars
than it would be to help you! LOL! ;)

Carolina Magnum
12-04-2008, 04:17 AM
A few years back I worked @ Wal Mart as the service manager in the Tire & Lube express area... and EVERY Saturn that came in for an oil change was really low on oil! Seems like they have some type of problem with this!!!

TheFOSS
12-04-2008, 06:07 AM
Wow.. now there is a car!@ lol

TCPMeta
12-04-2008, 07:25 PM
Today on my drive to work I found out the main reason why the radiator blew. The fan isn't running. Tomorrow i'm going to troubleshoot it and see if the motor works. If not I have a extra fan from a 95 corolla that should fit perfectly.

TCPMeta
12-08-2008, 04:44 PM
Well sure enough the fan motor was dead. Guess too much water and coolant got into it. I wire up the extra fan. One draw back though, the fan I installed was meant as a A/C condenser and kicks on when the A/C is turned on in the corolla so I had to wire up a switch and have to manually turn it on when the car reaches a certain temp.