I thought that once this happened to me, it would be obvious that the intake gasket has gone bad.... but I'm not sure what I'm seeing here.
1999 Buick Park Avenue, only 75,000 miles. 3800 Series II, non-supercharged.
Oil (PP 10w-30) currently has 5,000 miles on it, and is right at 1 quart low (which seems normal for this car, after 5,000 miles of driving). Oil was last changed in early summer.
Coolant reservoir is empty (THIS is what bothers me.)
I don't know where the coolant went. Every time I lift the hood, I check the coolant in the overflow FIRST. Last time I was under the hood, it seemed like it was a little lower than usual.
Radiator is full.
My first thought was that the intake gasket finally went bad, but the oil level is exactly where I expect it to be. It is one quart low after 5,000 miles of driving, which seems normal to me for this car.
There was a small amount of clear condensation under the oil cap, but I'm not surprised by that, with a car that has most of it's driving done 2-8 miles at a time. (This car only sees about 7,000 miles a year).
The oil is not foamy or frothy, it looks completely normal on the dipstick... just a little dark, of course. I did not see any evidence of anything out of the ordinary when shining a light through the oil filler hole...which is quite large on this car. No appearance of water in the oil at all.
Dad commented that he has seen occasional small puddles of what he assumed was water under the car (under where the engine would be on the garage floor), but didn't think much about it.
If the engine had taken in a quart or two of coolant, shouldn't my oil level be higher than it is... and wouldn't the oil appear to be contaminated? The oil level is right where I'd expect it to be, and looks like I'd expect it to look.
I've told him to stop driving it at this point, until I can make some sense of this. It is ready for an oil change anyway, which I'm going to do on Monday morning.
Even though the OLM is still at 24%, with all of the short trips that this car does, and with winter around the corner, I'm going to change it now.
Unless something becomes obvious between now and then, I'm going to take a sample on Monday and send it off to Blackstone in Fort Wayne. I have a neighbor who manages a construction equipment dealership, and they have fluids tested all of the time. I may use whoever he uses for testing, I'm going to talk to him about this later tonight.
Right now, I'm planning on refilling it with whatever oil I can find that is cheap (Wal*Mart 10w-30) and a NAPA ProSelect filter.
Since it has been leaking small puddles of "something", I guess it is possible that there's an external leak... maybe a loose hose or the water pump is getting ready to go. When I get it up on the ramps in my garage on Monday, I'll be able to look everything over for a leak as well.
Thoughts?
1999 Buick Park Avenue, only 75,000 miles. 3800 Series II, non-supercharged.
Oil (PP 10w-30) currently has 5,000 miles on it, and is right at 1 quart low (which seems normal for this car, after 5,000 miles of driving). Oil was last changed in early summer.
Coolant reservoir is empty (THIS is what bothers me.)
I don't know where the coolant went. Every time I lift the hood, I check the coolant in the overflow FIRST. Last time I was under the hood, it seemed like it was a little lower than usual.
Radiator is full.
My first thought was that the intake gasket finally went bad, but the oil level is exactly where I expect it to be. It is one quart low after 5,000 miles of driving, which seems normal to me for this car.
There was a small amount of clear condensation under the oil cap, but I'm not surprised by that, with a car that has most of it's driving done 2-8 miles at a time. (This car only sees about 7,000 miles a year).
The oil is not foamy or frothy, it looks completely normal on the dipstick... just a little dark, of course. I did not see any evidence of anything out of the ordinary when shining a light through the oil filler hole...which is quite large on this car. No appearance of water in the oil at all.
Dad commented that he has seen occasional small puddles of what he assumed was water under the car (under where the engine would be on the garage floor), but didn't think much about it.
If the engine had taken in a quart or two of coolant, shouldn't my oil level be higher than it is... and wouldn't the oil appear to be contaminated? The oil level is right where I'd expect it to be, and looks like I'd expect it to look.
I've told him to stop driving it at this point, until I can make some sense of this. It is ready for an oil change anyway, which I'm going to do on Monday morning.
Even though the OLM is still at 24%, with all of the short trips that this car does, and with winter around the corner, I'm going to change it now.
Unless something becomes obvious between now and then, I'm going to take a sample on Monday and send it off to Blackstone in Fort Wayne. I have a neighbor who manages a construction equipment dealership, and they have fluids tested all of the time. I may use whoever he uses for testing, I'm going to talk to him about this later tonight.
Right now, I'm planning on refilling it with whatever oil I can find that is cheap (Wal*Mart 10w-30) and a NAPA ProSelect filter.
Since it has been leaking small puddles of "something", I guess it is possible that there's an external leak... maybe a loose hose or the water pump is getting ready to go. When I get it up on the ramps in my garage on Monday, I'll be able to look everything over for a leak as well.
Thoughts?