Newbie here with a cooling problem - Have read many threads, still need help please

[bamaguy]

Hello All! I'm a newbie here, though I have been observing for quite some time. There is an amazing wealth of knowledge on this Forum.

The car is a 2001 LS v6 and it is my fiancée's car. We have had a heckuva time with it, though I must admit that at 205,000 miles, it still looks great on the inside.

I have been struggling with the cooling system. I have read MANY threads on it and have done the following over several different weekends:
- replaced DCC valve
- replaced degas bottle
- bypassed throttle body from upper radiator pipe directly to degas bottle
- replaced upper radiator pipe and hoses
- replaced hydraulic fan with electric fan
- degassed the system a BILLION times!

At this point, I will degas the system and it will run fine for a few days - she has a 6 mile drive to work in heavy traffic. Then she will drive it a substantially longer distance (she is in graduate school and it is an hour and a half away) and/or after a few more days we will notice one of all of the following conditions; the coolant is very low, the car starts to overheat, there is steam in the system, smoke on the passengers side front area, and coolant sprayed on the passenger side front area.

I am actually quite a gearhead (used to be an engineer at Mercedes, built a Factory Five Cobra from scratch, and built three Corvettes), but this car really stumps me. The cooling system is grossly overcomplicated and uses poor materials, but anyway... The last time it happened was last night after a long trip the night before and heavy rush hour traffic home from work. The system was VERY low on coolant with LOTS of steam. I noticed coolant sprayed on the passenger side front area again and smoke from the passenger side up by the radiator. NOTE: As I type this, I now seem to remember seeing some white chalky material on the passenger side of the radiator - perhaps the side tank?

My guess is now that the radiator tank(s) is/are cracked and leaking and possibly also sucking in air depending on when the stat is open.

Please provide any insights on this as it is driving me loony!! Also, how much of a job is it to replace the radiator? Any "secret" connections down there? Can I do it at home?

 

[jjcool00]

Based on your description I would say the radiator is cracked. How I spotted mine was by doing this:

Had a buddy sit in the driver seat with the car on and press the accelerator down. While he was doing this I was crouched in front of the car (like a tiger or hidden dragon) looking directly at the front of the radiator. When he pressed the accelerator down I could see a crack spread open on the radiator side tank (towards the front of the car), that only spread when the accelerator was pressed. Try that, but I am going to guess its your radiator.

I am unsure of how difficult/easy it is to replace the Gen I v6 radiator, but if it is anything like the gen 2 v8, it's not easy. It CAN be removed from the top but it is difficult to do so and most remove it from the bottom. It was the hardest thing I've done on my LS to date.

 

[LS4me]

Plain and simple, there is a leak somewhere. Put a little dye in the system to find the leak.

The radiator removes easier from the bottom.

 

[scottmccoy]

I also stucked with the smoke leakage problem in my vehicle, so I replaced the radiator and get done the servicing.For more helpful suggestions visit https://plus.google.com/103587002729772197042/about

 

[1LoudLS]

sounds like you already know exactly what the problem is...



as with every other thread on overheating, you have a leak...
you know this because at times you are low on coolant, its leaking out and spraying stuff and letting air in

you will continue to have these problems until the leak is fixed




it has been observed over and over that ALL of the plastic cooling parts have the exact same life span.

when one fails, the others will soon follow.

if there are parts of the cooling system that are made of plastic that you have not replaced, then there is your problem(the radiator is one of them).

the good news is that you know that the leak is in the front pass area, so if you dont want to follow the recommendation from those other threads by replacing all of the cooling parts at the same time and being done with it. then just replace what's in the area of the spray. you can fix all the other parts when her car breaks down again in days... weeks... or maybe even months...