I have a 1995 GMC Sonoma pickup truck with supposedly a blown cylinder head gasket. It only has 53K original miles on it. It overheated and I had it towed to a service shop. They put in a new water pump, new coolant, new thermostat, new radiator hose and did an oil & filter change. Well, 100 miles later, I noticed my water coolant was disappearing and the oil pressure was rising. I brought it back to the same shop and after looking at it for five minutes they informed me it was a blown cylinder head gasket. They said they had no way to determine this when they were doing the repairs the first time. So, I ask the following: 1-Was it proper for the shop to do the first repair without checking for a potential head gasket leak? 2-Is there some type of testing that could have been done by the repair shop to check for coolant leaks into the engine oil? 3-Would I have saved money (labor) by having this taken care of at the time of the initial repair? Thanks. ~bob
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No, a leaking head gasket is a common cause of overheating and is one of the first things that they should have checked for.
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There are several ways to check for a head gasket leak, including a pressure leakdown test, a coolant pH test for acidity, and a visual check to see if there are bubbles forming in the radiator while the engine idles. Not to mention checking the oil for the presence of coolant.
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Yes, if they had diagnosed it correctly the first time you would have saved the cost of the new water pump, etc, plus labor.
If your water-pump was leaking badly, it would have been impossible to do a pressure test until that was repaired and any other coolant leaks fixed…
What size engine is installed in the truck?
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absolutely not
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yes, there are a number of ways.
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absolutely
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the next thing you should change is your shop. This one clearly isn’t working. A reputable shop will diagnose the cause before trying to fix it. This one is trying to fix it without diagnosing it.