hey guys,

New cobalt owner here, it's a 07 cobalt ss supercharged. I got it from a Manheim auction when it had 45,000 miles on it. $12.8k . I've only put about 500 miles on it. I love the car so far. Fast, manual, sharp, get compliments on it all the time. But I do have a few concerns about it...

When I first got it you could visibly see dex-cool for the intercooler system. red-orangish fluid. After a few days of driving, I popped the hood to show a friend. The dex cool level had creeped down to about where the T is, you could see some but not as much. I thought this was probably normal as maybe it had overheated at one point and some came out of the overflow.

Few more days later I check the fluid and it's pretty dry. So I add some GM dex-cool to the IC, so now it is visible again to the fill line.

Check it again later and its pretty much dry now again

pic here


another



the whole engine



When I opened it I heard a slight gurgle sound like there was still some dexcool still possibly in there..

Possibly a leak?

Is your dex-cool visible?

Thanks for anyone who reads this and can provide me insight, I don't really know much about cars I'm just trying to take care of this one cause I love it.

I'm bringing it to a GM dealer Monday but I wanted to get more insight first and possibly more info on maintanance around the 50k miles point(perhaps change the "engine air cleaner filter")

I have to go to work soon but I'm certainly not abandoning this thread

Peace

 

It had probably been flushed and freshly re-filled, but not bled. The stock system takes a very long time to bleed. The coolant is "gone" because some of the air in the coolant system has been bled out. If there are no obvious leaks, just keep refilling it until it no longer goes down.

You may also want to make sure the coolant pump is working.

In this picture, it is at the very bottom of the engine, directly below the supercharger:



The pump is a Ford Racing M-8501-L54 and looks like this:



Just feel any of the coolant lines coming off of it to see if coolant is flowing. If you dont feel anything it might be dead. These pumps have a life of around 25,000 miles, give or take. A pump like this would really be measured in hours but I couldnt find a published value.

 

It it still needs bleed fully or the pump is bad ans the fluid is boiling out. With the car running you should see the fluid swirling. If it isnt then hit the pump with a hammer and see if it changes. If not then you need a new pump or have an electrical problem.

 

What Pyros said.

 

I have about 50 miles of driving since I installed my dualpass and mine is still bleeding air and I can hear a little gurgling in my ZZP H/E when I turn the pump on. Option B would be nice. I am sick of checking the level.

Also, youcanhaveitall...your sig is awesome.

 

I agree with the statements above. Try filling and purging the air out. This may take several refills.

 

could also have a small leak on one of the lines.. took me a while to figure that out, when mine was apperantly "bleeding" for like 3 months lol.

 

thanks for the input guys

got somewhat of an update here if anyone is interested,

took the car to the GM dealership earlier today, they were really nice. Got a few standard things done first off, spare key made, oil changed. I was going to get the engine air filter replaced but they didn't have any filters in stock. The tech didn't charge me any labor for the filter but said he had taken it apart so he could see how to do it for next time(lol?). They also told me they had checked the supercharged oil, and that was fine. But now i am just ranting.

As for the intercooler fluid, they said they did a test to see if there was a leak and couldn't find any. Told me they had topped off the fluid. I suggested it could be the ic pump. They said they didn't really know, he would keep an eye on it next time I bring it in. Wish I could have spoken directly with the tech who did the work cause the guy i talked to didn't really seem too confident. Aparrently someone there knows what they are doing if he is able to check the oil in the supercharger.

Well anyways ordered the filter I needed then decided the get the GM Stage 1 Mod Kit(not really sure what I'm gettin myself into lol)

They are supposed to call me back in about a week when they get the parts so I can schedule a time to install it.

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