Still, I go in there initially and tell them the temp-gauge was in the red and the overheat light was on, though there were no vapors coming from the engine. They call me the next day, after testing the car, and recommend changing the thermostat, which we do. They -supposedly- test the car again with no problems but when I get it back the car gives me the same problems it had before, fluctuating temp-gauge. Take it in again, car never really overheats or sets off light, they can’t duplicate any real problems, their computer device isn’t showing excess heat, temp-gauge is fluctuating. Coolant flush and refill.
AGAIN the temp gauge overheats, this time a busted hose spraying the new coolant all over engine bay. This time, car is towed back to them, apparently a busted hose. (They said as soon as they put new coolant in the system it sprayed all over engine compartment.)
Take it to dealer, they say a clogged radiator.
So, really, I’m not entirely sure what happened here. I’ll own up to the clogged radiator since it’s been a couple years or so since I replaced the coolant in the car, fine. I’m just not sure how their “diagnostic” process works. The T-Stat change seemed mostly to come from it was a little gunked up (not because it was frozen closed or anything like that.) Why is it after they flush the coolant the hose breaks? And why is it through all of this they missed the clogged radiator and never fully addressed the problem of the fluctuating gauge. And after changing the T-Stat they said they test-drove the car and had no problems with the gauge? (I suppose they didn’t drive it long enough to cause the problem to crop up.)
To wesw, that’s been by position many times too, usually measured by other factors, though, mostly how close I am to a point where I can stop and get repairs or manage a tow. But the problems here seem to stem from ones much greater than driving with an “overheating” engine. As it seems the problem the entire time was the clogged radiator and not a cracked block or broken head gasket. (The car displays no signs of either.)
Personally, anytime the cooling system is opened up, the thermostat should be changed or closely looked at. It used to be a yearly event just as a precaution. Anytime I have flushed the cooling system it is unhooking the radiator hoses, and running water into to the hose with a fitting I made. I don’t do that anymore. The only way to really clean a radiator is to take it out, pull the tanks off and clean out the pipes. The shop should have been able to check the temperature at various points on the radiator though to see if there were cold spots or not. We’ll see.
I just hope that the thermostat wasn’t installed upside down.
While this mistake isn’t possible on some engines, it is possible on others, and this will severely impede coolant flow and lead to overheating.
I had a plugged up radiator once. I flushed the radiator out of the car with a garden hose, but couldn’t detect a plug. But, took it to a radiator shop that flow-checked it, and it only gave 40% . Aftr the ultra-sonic bath failed to clear it, I got a new radiator.
It’s possible as part of the initial work the shop did, they removed some hoses, and forgot to tighten the clamps when they put it all back together. Or damaged a hose in the process. Or they mis-routed the hoses. Any of those could cause a coolant spill.
It’s certainly the case whenever someone works on your car, a mistake is possible. One time I rotated the tires on my Corolla and forgot to tighten the lug nuts to their specified torque. And the wheel started wobbling one day driving down the freeway. I had to park my car and take the bus home. Anytime the status quo is disturbed, something untoward might happen. That’s one reason why a lot of folks prefer to drive only new cars, or cars less than 3 years old. Once they hit 4 years old they trade them in and buy another new car. It’s also a reason why a lot of folks prefer to do their own car maintenance and repairs. Most would be happy to pay to have their car work done, but they’ve discovered this problem of the shop possibly causing problems that didn’t exist before they worked on it.
Still, this is all speculation; it may have had nothing to do with anything the shop did. It’s quite possible the coolant spill was going to happen anyway, and it was just a coincidence it happened after they had worked on the cooling system.
At this point you best path forward is to discontinue the speculations, and locate a well-recommended shop with expertise in cooling systems on your brand of vehicle, and let them do a proper diagnosis. It may be that after the diagnosis you can still save some money by following their advice as to what needs to be repaired and doing some or all of that job yourself. But what’s needed first is a proper diagnosis.
I took it to a dealership I trust and, as I think I said above in an update, I need a new radiator due to it being overly clogged due to the jenky coolant I had in reservoir. The service manager at the dealership is going to advocate for me to the other service center that did the initial work since he agrees with me I likely didn’t need the new thermostat and they didn’t do a proper coolant flush, since if they did they likely would have seen the flow problem and knew the radiator was clogged.
An update, FWIW, after replacing the radiator the dealer determined that the engine head is warped. Due to the age of the car he thinks it’d be better to replace the engine as opposed to replacing or fixing the head as opening the engine may reveal other problems/damage needing to be repaired which may eventually total up to the cost of a whole new engine. And, obviously, the car is not worth enough to replace the engine on it.
The dealer is working with me and the Attorney General’s office in the state the car was initially repaired in as he agrees with me their work the first time I brought the car in was shoddy and resulted in the engine damage. And says that certainly they couldn’t have done a proper coolant flush or coolant exchange in the previous repairs given the nature of the clogging in the radiator.