@Tester also the thing I put in my engine is called stp heavy duty ceramic oil treatment and it shows the front of the bottle its for pickup trucks SUVs and commercial vehicles. Honestly that could be the reason since it doesn’t say for regular cars. I did not see that. You still think that wouldn’t be the reason?
@George_San_Jose1 so I checked again and my coolant level is still at max level so it stays at max level now. Doesn’t go down when it’s running and I haven’t put any in for a long time it was always at minimum level then out of nowhere it’s at max level. Think that could be the reason my car is doing this? On top of the stuff I put in my oil?
Not needed, but shouldn’t have caused the problem.
@texases ok I just hope it’s not a huge fix cause by that point I’m definitely not spending money on it to have it fixed I’ll just try to lease something. But damn I wish I can find something that will last. This is my longest car and it’s been maybe like 2 yrs never had anything go past 5 yrs. But then again this is only my 3rd car.
hmmm … well, that’s a puzzle. Coolant can’t appear out of nowhere. If your coolant cools another fluid (like the transmissin fluid), a leak between the two could make it appear like the coolant level was rising. But if that happens it’s pretty obvious b/c transmission fluid doesn’t look, smell, or feel like coolant. Could someone have topped the cooling system off and not informed you? How is your cooling system configured? My truck & Corolla, both have a plastic overflow bottle attached to the radiator’s pressure-cap neck. When I check the coolant level I look at the overflow bottle AND I remove the radiator pressure cap and inspect the level inside the radiator. The radiator level is always right at the top, unless there’s a cooling system leak. IN which case the plastic bottle level might still look ok, but the radiator level is low.
It may be that coolant from the radiator is being pushed into the plastic bottle due to a unexplained pressure increase in the cooling system. A faulty radiator cap for example. Or a head gasket problem. Shops can test the radiator cap, or you could just replace it w/a new one. Head gasket leaks often produce visible bubbles which seem to be coming up from the bottom of the radiator, usually they appear as a lot of very small bubbles.
When my plastic bottle level doesn’t agree w/the radiator level, the causes for me have been
- Leak in cooling system
- Radiator cap seal problem
- Hose between radiator neck and plastic bottle clogged
- Plastic bottle vent hole clogged.
Seems very unlikely the cooling system symptoms are related to the oil treatment product. For best engine longevity, – speaking as a diy’er — I wouldn’t recommending adding anything to the oil beyond what the owner’s manual says.
I’ll be honest w lot of that I wasn’t sure how to comprehend because I literally don’t know anything about cars. But yeah I have the coolant plastic thing right when I open the hood attach to where the back of the front bumper is. I’m the only one who drives my car. Unless they did it when they changed my oil because honestly I didn’t notice the change until the other day when my car started acting up. But hopefully my mechanic does come tomorrow because I need to know what the issue is ASAP. I really don’t want to take it to a shop cause I know they’ll probably charge me a ton for something that’s probably a part from the actual issue
I expect that’s the explanation for the unexplained increase in coolant level. Suggest to ask them.
The poor performance, that’s going to require a pro-assessment. Which it sound like you’ve schedule already. Best of luck.
I’ve always checked that part on my older vehicles during routine tune-ups by manually applying vacuum to the EGR valve at idle. If it is working, this will usually stall the engine. Not sure if that method works (or is advisable) on your car’s configuration. If the EGR valve is positioned in a place in the engine compartment I can see it clearly, I can watch it move with manually applied vacuum too, engine off, another idea for your shop to test.
Hope they remember ha, it was like a month ago almost
The code is p0404
The exhaust gas recirculation valve is stuck open, this will cause rough idling and engine stalling.
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@Nevada_545 just bought the part and having my mechanic put it in. Thankfully that was the only code that popped up. I’m happy it was super expensive. I just wish I knew more about cars
I presume you mean you are not happy about the high part price. For some reason those replacement EGR valves seem quite expensive, relative to other car parts.
Asking here or searching via Google or Wikipedia will provide helpful explanations about your car-repair questions. Here’s the Wikipedia link for EGR
That’s not the common advice here for the best way to fix your car. Best to tell your shop the symptoms, what it does you don’t want it to do, or what it doesn’t do that you do want it to do, then let them fix it for you. You shop is happy to replace the part for you of course, but that’s all they’ll claim to do; i.e if the part replacement doesn’t fix the symptom, that’s on you. And such a thing is possible. The EGR valve is controlled by other gadgets in the car, so the fundamental problem may be one of those other parts, and not the EGR valve.