2001 Lanos 1.6 DOHC- Just bought this car not too long ago, and this is already my 2nd major problem
History: First I had an issue with the Thermostat Housing splitting... but I fixed that with a new thermostat and used "Quicksteel" putty to seal the housing. No leaks, and thermostat opens no problem. I flushed the cooling system with fresh water (thanks to the handy how-to post by MMamdouh), then serviced the system with a mixture of Prestone Cooling System flush/fresh water only (per the bottles directions... and suppose to drive 300-400 miles to let the cleaner work through the system, then flush again, then service it with 50/50 coolant/water). Only made it 250 miles before the problem below arised.
Now I'm pretty sure I blew the head gasket.
My car started idling rough when I parked it one night. I popped the hood, and the engine was unusually shaky.
Got in the drivers seat, and noticed the CEL popped on, and started flashing a few seconds later.
Next day I bought a code scanner and pulled two P0303 codes (Cylinder 3 Misfire) from the car
Car was also puffing white smoke from the exhaust, proportional to how rough the engine was idling.
Water level was good (right where I left it when I did the initial flush)
Oil was at the full line. (Was like this when I bought the car. I know I should have drained it, but I was planning on doing a full tune-up after I completed the cooling system flush)
So I inspected the spark plugs and wires. Wires look pretty new, and plugs looked normal. Note that the plugs were in the non-default range (Autolite Resistor 5224
, again, I was going to do the tune-up after the flush). Cleaned and reinstalled the plugs.CEL eventually flashed again, with the same P0303 code.
This time I pulled the dipstick, and noticed that there was a small amount of clean white greasy gunk on the top of the stick.
Also my coolant appears lower that the last time I checked it
...but the water in the coolant reservior was clean, no sign of oil.
Notes:
- A few days ago before the problem started, when I was about to start the coolant flush, I noticed this tube in the upper right corner on the head was slightly torn. So out of curiousity I pulled it off. There was a bunch of white greasy stufff coating the inside. Not thinking much of it since the tube wasn't even clamped on = not under pressure, I just reinstalled.
Also a few days ago, I pulled off the spark plug boots to just take a peep to see how long of an extension I'll need when I do the tune-up, there was a very, very small amount of oil coming from the valve cover gasket inside the spark plug cavities, but I wiped them clean and the leak didn't come back.
I put a bottle of Fuel system cleaner in the fuel tank and filled it up, because the car sat in dirty lot with a half tank of gas for about a month before I bought it.
Car only has 65,000 miles on it. Ran/idled/drove smooth and like a champ for about 500 miles before this problem started.
The temp. gauge during the entire driving period I owned the car never went past the middle.
The freeze frame data for the P0303 code states something like "Fuel Sys. 2 - CL-Fault"... if this means anything.
Need some experts to confirm the worst for me
I called some shops around, and to replace a gasket for this car I got quoted from $650-$1000.
