Pontiac grand am 2005 v6: thermostat or head gasket?
I was driving my grand am for about 45 minutes. I didn't notice any issues,
but when I got into town and hit a couple of stop signs, it started acting like
it was out of gas. It was sputtering, not really wanting to drive unless I
really gassed it. The "low coolant" light came on, then disappeared, then
the "service engine soon" light came on. I parked the car and let it sit.
When I checked the basics I could see that the water was completely gone
from my water reservoir (I think that's what it's called... the thing that holds
my water for the radiator). The oil was a little low but it was not discolored
at all. Today I tried to put water back in the tank and run the car again (just
idling, not driving) and the water started spurting out of the overflow tube.
The car never overheated when I first had problems. I didn't run it long
enough to see if it would overheat today. The water kind of scared me. I
have zero idea what's wrong. My dad was thinking the thermostat or the
water pump but the guy at the part store said it sounded like a head
gasket. The oil isn't milky. It has been sitting for 2 days since the car first
acted up.
Thank you for your help!
