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| - My '97 Saturn with 180,000 miles is a clunker, and when the repairs add up to more than the car is worth, I'll just scrap it. So I wasn't expecting miracles, and he delivered adequately (but not exceptionally.) His shop was friendly and quick, and did the work I asked for. But he missed a problem, and I wish he had paid better attention when diagnosing it.
The car was overheating constantly, and I was filling the coolant tank with a gallon of water every day. I didn't see any obvious leaks, and I had replaced the tank and tubes last year, so I took it to Dave's on a recommendation from a coworker. I asked if it might be a bad thermostat, since the temp gauge always says "normal" but the coolant is boiling out onto the ground whenever I stop at lights or in drive-thru.
After keeping it a few hours, he determined it did need a new thermostat, and the whole radiator was shot -- hundreds more than I wanted to invest. So I had him do just the thermostat, and I'd drive the car till the "bad" radiator killed it.
Within a couple days, the coolant was back to boiling out onto the ground, and I decided to sit and watch under the hood to go from cold start to boiling over. I'm not great with cars, but I understand the basics. I thought about how even when the car is hot, I could remove the cap, but shouldn't this system be pressurized? Air and water must be escaping, and the lack of pressure might be preventing the system from functioning properly. It only took a few minutes before I noticed the boiling out wasn't coming from the overflow valve ... it was steaming out around the cap!
A $6 visit to the Auto Parts Store and it never overheated again. I wonder if the thermostat ever needed replacing, and I'm glad I didn't go for the new radiator. It might have been a bad cap the whole time, and I wish I'd wrapped my brain around the problem more before seeing a mechanic. He did the work I asked for ... but nothing more. Shame he didn't catch that simple fix, or I'd have never known the difference and gave him 5-stars.
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