Coolant Repair Leak: $800 vs. my oil leak repair of $430 at a repair shop?
 

hi,

i will make this direct as possible

my car is leaking coolant, it did so less when a new radiator cap was put on to replace the cracked one

also a coolant temp sensor reduced high temps since it activates the Camaro's air fans.

so i thought everything went well until just 2 days ago I drove 9 hours off an on in the hot sun and the temp gauge went to like 265 a couple of marks below the red zone

and I also had to add 8 oz. of coolant after 9 hours of driving off and on

so i go to the repair shop which charged me $430 to seal my oil leak and now they tell me well in addition to the 1) new radiator cap, 2) the coolant temp sensor, 3) we now need lots of labor to seal a coolant leak because its behind covers and gaskets.

So, the total cost is $800

they told me gm usually puts in "k seal" tablets with these models since I don't know I think the coolant system on a 4th Gen has inherent flaws / defects?

so, he told me to wait a couple of days because he added k seal tabs to my car and then save up $800 to have a permanent fix.

my car has an external leak where the coolant leaks on to my pavement when I park so it's not a blown headgasket or a cracked block\

my car has never overheated btw
\
MY question basically is.....does this sound reasonable? did anway come acrosss this problem before and have to pay that much at a repair shop?

$800 is like almost a 1000 bucks to fix a blown head gasket.

does a coolant leak fix involving getting behind covers gasket and the water pump really entail so much labor that with parts and labor it comes out to $800?

thanks again for any helpful advice.

Try somewhere else and get a quote from them also. What are they doing for 800.? Replacing the water pump? That is a pain but can be done at home,go online watch a vid and decide if you want to give it a try.

some shops do selective up-pricing I guess; 430 bucks for an oil repair leak to hook u in as a regular customer and then on a repair that may cost $350; they will up sell me to what $800? the camaro's guts is hard to get into. lots of ppl know that. In fact, Midas and other places wanted to charge at least $700 to repair my oil leak (because they had to actually hoist the engine to get to the oil pan etc), so I was way hooked into this repair shop which was favorably reviewed lots of times on yelp dot com at that $430 super deal price when the going rate probably was a lot higher. now they want to really slap on a higher cost ? i don't know who to trust, but another guy his neighbor (a repair shop neighbor adjacent to him) and he is older and i am taking it to him tomorrow, he's a dale earnhArdt sr. fan and is old school. so he probably has a lot of experience. i want it done right. this is an annoying problem.

I have hot heard of fixing leaks permanent without replaceing parts ,like if it your water pumps weep hole could be leaking ,if it was the radiator there like $60.00, the thing is to figure out where it is leaking youself with a friend ,then you know if this shop is telling the truth ,try another shop too,sounds weird ,if there not clearly saying you need a head gasket or manifold most replace them all,but yes take it to the older guy too

therer many places where coolant can leak, hoses can have tiny holes, weep hole from water pump as mentioned, the overflow reservoir as there is a thin hose underneath that gets corroded, a leaky radiator etc. As hard as it can be, u need to determine where the leak is to properly fix, a pressure test can help too, it may not b a head gasket but if left untreated will eventually f up cooling system and blow head gasket, if u go to shop make sure they guarantee the fix. Not too many places like the LT1....

GM puts K-seal in their cars? That is news to me. I have never heard of that mentioned in any GM class or read it in any GM manual. In fact GM is very clear when you have a coolant leak you fix it. Sealer tend to plug up smaller passages and is cause for rejecting a warranty claim.

I have seen customer ruin their engine to seal a leak that ended up being a loose clamp.

i am not even putting in Bar's Radiant Stop Leaking Sealing tablets, a highly rated product on my own, despite great customer service reviews on Amazon dot com & elsewhere.

it's on to the dude with more experience, not the guys I thought I trusted, he did great work on replacing a cracked radiator, replacing the coolant temp sensor which activates the cooling air fans, which all reduced the high temp.s significantly and which showed more coolant in the reservoir after a few days,

but now the coolant leaking from the reservoir after parking onto the pavement is way too much

1 day After 9 hours not of continuous driving but of driving for the most part with chunks of 1 - 45 min. breaks, I should not be losing 8 oz. of coolant. That's what I put in after I parked at the end of that day.

also these guys I spent 430 bucks on an oil leak fix and to replace my coolant temp sensor didn't top off my coolant after they did that diagnosis which came out to $800, the coolant reservoir was near empty and the head dude behind the desk, the manager tried to upsell me on a New water pump and later admitted nothing was wrong with the old one

I am not making an exact analogy, but let's say in the on-line world there are selective scammers: those that do impressive and right by you 7 out of 10 times, then screw you on the 8 , 9, and 10th time with royally high prices or they just don't plain deliver.

by the way , a pressure test was done obviously before and I specifically requested one be done after the coolant temp was replaced (this was 1 - 2 weeks ago), now as mentioned, the last 2-3 days, coolant in the reservoir has for some strange reason been leaking more and getting worse.

the good news is the temp is not really too high too many times as before the cracked radiator cap and before the broken coolant temp sensor which activated the fans.


so the 4th gen. is not easy to get to, I guess the cooling system is Even Worse than the oil pan system or worse than how to get to and reach and oil leak and fix it since the oil leak repair at the same shop was $430 now they want to charge me double that--800 bucs to fix a coolant leak.

thanks everyone.

i am not even putting in Bar's Radiant Stop Leaking Sealing tablets, a highly rated product on my own, despite great customer service reviews on Amazon dot com & elsewhere.

it's on to the dude with more experience, not the guys I thought I trusted, he did great work on replacing a cracked radiator, replacing the coolant temp sensor which activates the cooling air fans, which all reduced the high temp.s significantly and which showed more coolant in the reservoir after a few days,

but now the coolant leaking from the reservoir after parking onto the pavement is way too much

1 day After 9 hours not of continuous driving but of driving for the most part with chunks of 1 - 45 min. breaks, I should not be losing 8 oz. of coolant. That's what I put in after I parked at the end of that day.

also these guys I spent 430 bucks on an oil leak fix and to replace my coolant temp sensor didn't top off my coolant after they did that diagnosis which came out to $800, the coolant reservoir was near empty and the head dude behind the desk, the manager tried to upsell me on a New water pump and later admitted nothing was wrong with the old one

I am not making an exact analogy, but let's say in the on-line world there are selective scammers: those that do impressive and right by you 7 out of 10 times, then screw you on the 8 , 9, and 10th time with royally high prices or they just don't plain deliver.

by the way , a pressure test was done obviously before and I specifically requested one be done after the coolant temp was replaced (this was 1 - 2 weeks ago), now as mentioned, the last 2-3 days, coolant in the reservoir has for some strange reason been leaking more and getting worse.

the good news is the temp is not really too high too many times as before the cracked radiator cap and before the broken coolant temp sensor which activated the fans.


so the 4th gen. is not easy to get to, I guess the cooling system is Even Worse than the oil pan system or worse than how to get to and reach and oil leak and fix it since the oil leak repair at the same shop was $430 now they want to charge me double that--800 bucs to fix a coolant leak.

thanks everyone.

so the coolant is leaking from the coolant reservoir area? if so i would say the pipe/hose that runs from the radiator to it is most likely the problem. could also be the coolant res itself. pressure test should show where leak is if its a hose or such but if its in the overflow it won't.

thanks, Craby, i just got this now and will share with a mechanic. :)