hi, i have a question about my cooling system. lately my car's engine temperature had been dangerously high and close to overheating. I checked my coolant levels and it seemed to be extremely low. I contacted my mechanic and they said to put some coolant in it and bring it over. i read that you should use a 50/50 mix of coolant and water, but I just wanted to put enough in to make sure it wouldnt overheat on the way to the mechanic. I put in about 2 cups full of my anti-freeze that i had in my garage without any water (green in color,) and took it over to the mechanic with no problem, the engine temperature stayed at about halfway, and i didnt even fill the coolant up to the recommended level. and now I just read on camarov6 that i am not supposed to use this green type of coolant and i shouldn't have mixed it with what was already in my car? dex-cool or something? it says that this green coolant will mix with the dex-cool and corrode things such as the water pump. i dont know much about this type of thing so sorry if this is a stupid question...but what should i do? I didnt put much in...is it safe to have this in there, or should i flush it all out and flush the engine with water and then replace the coolant while i have it over at the mechanic? i only drove about 10 miles with it in there...and i didnt see anything in the manual about anything like this when i looked before putting the antifreeze in.

82k miles 1995 3.4l

 

I believe Dex-Cool (orange coolant) came in 1996, so you'll be fine.

Have your mechanic look at it though since you were low on coolant.

 

damn well i found out i need a new water pump and freezer line leak...in addition to a problem with my egr valve. can anyone give a rough estimate on the price range in getting this fixed by a mechanic?

 

An arm and a leg.

That repair isn't too hard if you are even a little mechanically-inclined.

EGR is 10-15 minutes tops.

 

so are we talking over a grand? if i dont do the egr valve myself?

 

Well, for approximate prices, water pump = $50 - $60, EGR = $170 - $190
and the book is about $15, plus about another $5 max for gaskets. So on the one hand, you can spend $250 doing it yourself, or spend probably minimum of twice that for the mechanic to do it. Now remember, I said approximate, so don't hold me to it!

Good luck

 

u sure about that?? i've heard close to 3 hours...

 

That water pump could go three hours, the egr sits on top of the exhaust and easy to get too. The wp on the other hand will leave some cut up knuckles.

 

I pulled my EGR valve for a cleaning, an all there was to it was pull the connector, and 2 bolts. The whole evolution took maybe 10 - 15 mins including cleaning the valve and scraping the old gasket off. Knuckles came out unscathed.

 

That Whole Job Shouldnt Take That Long Depends On How Fast You Work. Not That Hard At All.. Go To 1 Of Your Auto Parts Store And They Will Rent/lend You The Tools, Autozone-adavanced Auto, Are 2 That I Know Of