Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Anyone with automotive knowledge?

iowabucks

iowabucks

Member
My daughter has an 01 PT Cruiser. 80,000 miles. She got it about a year ago but has always had an overheating problem. Not all the time, just occationally. Sometimes it would just boil out the overflow when she shut it off. I thought maybe it just had some air trapped in the cooling system.

Now, her car has been really hard to start in the cold weather, not sure it that has anything to do with it. I just tried to start it this morning and it would not start. It would try to fire, but wouldn't take off. The thing that troubled me was i kept hearing bubbling in the radiator overflow. Kinda sounds like a blown head gasket, i hope not. Why else would air be going into the overflow while cranking over?

The bad part is i know she has no money, just had a baby, and needs her car for work. If it is a head gasket, looks like i will be footing most all of the bill. I don't have money coming out of my a$$ either. I am pretty competant when working on cars but have never repaired a blown head gasket. I have done a basic rebuild on a couple engines back in my younger days, and we're talking 70's musclecars here. A whole lot easier to work on. Never done too much with newer cars. They seem to really pack alot of crap under such a small hood. I want to tackle it myself to save some money, but not sure how major of a headache it will be. I have a Chiltons book and plan on reading up.

Anybody else every tried this? How much would a shop charge for it?

I would love to hear from anyone with any insight on this problem. THX, Jerry.
 
It will be a decent size job. I assume it is an overhead cam. Is it a 4 banger?
You'll have to pull the timing chain cover and water pump (probably) and break the timing chain, all to remove the head. Plus removing the intake and exhaust manifolds. Chiltons does a good job of walking you through it. If you have a tool box full of tools it shouldn't be to bad. Take your time and do it once. Hurry and do it more than once. I did a Toyota pickup last year and it's still running. I didn't even have any parts left over so I must have did something right.
 
A blown or bad head gasket should have water in the oil(check the dipstick for milky look) or pull the sparkplugs and look for white color on each of them.
 
I have worked on and put in a few engines but mostly on older muscle cars. I agree with the other posts. If you take it some where depending on the shop you can look at $1500-$2000. Atleast thats what a couple of shops wanted to do a buddies a few years ago on a little Pontiac something or other. If have the tools and a good place to work on it shouldn't be too bad just time consuming. Good luck.
 
Bottom line, the radiator is getting pressureized above the limits of the radiator cap, used to be 15psi I think. Symptons sound a lot like head gasket or maybe a cracked head. Does she loose antifreeze with out seeing a puddle? Is her exhaust white? Like HCH said any oil in the antifreeze or antifreez in the oil? Be sure and check the plugs too. I'm sure there is a color chart on the net on how to read your plugs. Might even be one in your Chiltons.

With the new tech out there is there anything else that could be pressurizing the radiator other than engine compression? Does it have an intercooled turbo?

As far as cost, I'd have to guess it would be well over a grand. More if the head is bad.

As an aside, old Oliver diesel tractor heads all cracked just under the injector hole. They said it was OK because they would seal up when the head got warm and expanded. Must be true. All six cylinders in the head have the crack and it still runs.

The 'Bonker
 
Like said before,was there white smoke from the exhaust when running?
Oil in coolant or coolant in oil?
Bulged or swollen coolant hoses.
If you have a Auto Zone in your area they may have these tools to use with a deposit down.
Coolant system pressure gauge. Pressurize the system to check for leaks.
Gas Analizer,will check for HC (Hydrocarbons) or exhaust in the coolant. If does head gasket leak or craked head.
Headgasket kit should run about $100.00,have heads checked for cracks and resurfaced at local machine shop,price varies.Replace the timeing belt.It needs replaced with that many miles on it.If it breaks after you do the job you will be back a square one with bent valves and cracked heads.
 
dont start it unless you have to, im sure it has electronic ignition, but get it to somone that can hook it to a computer, there is a chip that somtimes just needs reset. but it sounds like more, but worth doing, if it is a cracked head, it should of been leaking a lot at some time or another, & got over heated. if tou have a cracked head, or water pump prablem, it will not hold water, where is it leaking from?
 
You have a blown head or a cracked head. Either way, no fun. I work on cars every day, and the PT Cruiser is one of the worst cars there is to work on. Go trade it in. As is.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kansasdeerslayer</div><div class="ubbcode-body">the PT Cruiser is one of the worst cars there is to work on. </div></div>

Just what i didn't want to hear. lol.
 
Iowabucks,
You are not alone. This has been a widely documented problem on '01-'03 (at least) PT's. The bad thing is that there doesn't seem to be a widely accepted fix that always works. If you catch it quick enough, you may save a head gasket failure or a cracked head if it hasn't already occurred. If so you're into bigger bucks, and I don't mean the whitetail variety. Here is a must read thread for you... PT Overheating Below is my effort to paraphrase what others found:

1.) The carbon brushes on the fan motor wear out, causing radiator fan problems. I'm betting on this being a real possibility because a lot of people were originally looking at the 2 fan relays (for high/low speed) and the fan sensor. Few seemed to find the fix there however but it appeared to be tied to that. Solution: test and replace the fan yourself if bad on either/both speeds.

2.) Bad thermostat. Solution: replace yourself...inexpensive.

3.) Radiator fouling...a lot of fouling. Some people found that there was so much rust buildup that the lower section of the radiator core was getting mostly plugged. The problem is that most of them seem OK and pass the psi test because there's no leaks...yet. Not sure how good you could visually see in there by draining product and a bright flashlight but one mechanic evidently found it with an infrared imager which was a really good idea IMO. Solution: replace radiator...not by yourself or at least I would never attempt it.

4.) Flush radiator and/or replace radiator cap. I'm not buying into that personally unless it's overheated a bunch but then it's not a fix, it's maintenance due to past problems.

5.) Cracked head...pray it hasn't come to that. May have occurred either just because or due to one or more of the above problems happening first. Good advice already by others here at IW in diagnosing it.. white, sweet smelling exaust.

Hope this helps and good luck,
Iowabowtech
 
Almost all of the Chrysler 4 bangers are prone to blowing headgaskets. Here's what you need to do.

Tow it to your local repair shop. Make sure they have a gas analyzer before you tow it there. They will use it to see if there is any exhaust gas in your cooling system. If there are over 50 PPM of HC's(hydrocarbons) you have either a blown head or a cracked head. The head will need to be sent to the machine shop to be pressure tested for cracks and milled for straightness if not cracked. Timing belt, water pump, and radiator need replaced at this time if you don't want to be doing this again in 6 months. At the shop I work this would be over $2000 and not worth it in my opinion. It can be done much cheaper at home, but you will be tempted to put the car in the river before you finish the job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom