Saturn Vue 2003 - Over Heated

Asked by Longpaws Oct 11, 2015 at 08:29 PM about the 2003 Saturn VUE V6 AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Saturn Vue 2003 - Car over heated.  Reservoir overflowed.  Greenish muck.  Refilled with water to get it home - a few miles.  Heated up on the way.  Mechanic (whom does not work on Saturns and did not do any testing) speculated the following:

1. There was oil in the water.  
2. There may be a crack in the oil cooler.  
3. The thermostat may be the problem.
4. DEX Cool (GM brand coolant) may be the problem causing damage to gaskets.  

Some facts:
1. The vehicle was scheduled for a replacement of the intake manifold gasket a week before the overheating.  
2. No issues with overheating prior.  
3. The car did make an engine noise before it overheated but I was not driving it at the time so I cannot describe the sound.  
4. The car was only driven a few miles before the overheating took place.  
5. The car drove fine.  No issues, no abnormal noise but a slight increase in ticking, to and from the repair shops (2 miles apart) but the temp was rising over the half way point.

Do you know what the problem could be?  Any troubleshooting/testing ideas so I can make a better determination of what is going here?  

Thanks!

2 Answers

223,905

Is DEX Cool the recommended coolant for the car? Green muck, did the mechanic say there was oil in the coolant? Was the oil level on dip-stick ok? Thermostat definitely can cause over heating. Also a bad head gasket which you could tell by a compression check. Need to know more on green muck, so far with info I'd say get a compression check, replace the intake gasket, and DEFINITELY the thermostat.

1,955

Did you go through with the intake gasket repair, maybe a bad repair? After putting the intake gasket it, maybe their was air trapped in the cooling system or some cleaning chemicals got into the cooling system. Seems a flush should have been performed after the intake gasket was replaced.

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