MY 2005 VIBE WITH 60,000 MILES ON IT HAS DEVELOPED A SWOOSHING SOUND IN IT THAT SOUNDS LIKE WATER SLOPPING AROUND. I have looked in the doughnut hole and the back of the trunk floor is dry. The gas tank is about the right location for the sound and it may be that the baffles in the tank have broken loose (I assume the tank has/had baffles). Any other ideas. If the baffles have broken loose I wonder if they represent a problem as they should be plastic to match the tank.
Be very careful about where this noise is actually coming from. I had a GM product that made swooshing sounds about 2,000 miles before the headgaskets blowing out. GM is notorious for cooling system malfunctioning. Not overheating, just malfunctioning. A recall for this design flaw would be devistating - the straw that broke their back. Pockets of air get trapped between the engine and the heater core, and even “Burping” these air pockets out won’t solve the issue because there are no bleeder valves in the areas where the air pockets develope. The only thing that will really solve the problem is filling the radiator yourself (So that you know it is done right and repair shops wont blow you off because they think you’re crazy). Have radiator fluid on hand, at the ready. Warm up the engine and CAREFULLY remove the radiator cap… slowly. Rev the engine up pretty high and while the engine is at high rev add the radiator fluid you have at the ready and do not stop the high revving util you replace the radiator cap. Yes, you’ll have to do it rather quickly. This proceedure forces the air pockets into the radiator and it is vented out through the overflow reservoir.
Trust me, it will work. But, get rid of that GM product as soon as you can. GM hasn’t made a reliable product for over thirty years and their compesation packages to their employees and retirees will be their death within the next couple of years - regardless of the government bail out. Proof…did the government bail out save Chrysler or just postponne the inevitable? How many buy outs has Chrysler been involved with since the Iacoca days, and now even Dimehler-Benz is going bankrupt. Trust me.
The Pontiac Vibe is hardly a GM product, it is a Toyota, it even has a Corolla engine. But you know that already considering you know the locations of the cooling system bleeder valves. And you must also know that since it is a Toyota engine, Toyota red coolant is to be used, not DexCool, which is the culprit in the GM issue. The Vibe is actually built by New United Motor Manufacturing Inc in Fremont California, which is a joint venture between GM and Toyota. Don’t be such a GM hater, they really aren’t all that bad.
To the OP, can you hear the water sound while you’re driving, or only just after you stop and turn the car off? If its the latter, it’s normal, I can occasionally hear the fuel sloshing around in my Vibe’s tank.