No. I never said that I put this in with a messed up system. I made sure the system was perfect before putting this coolant in.

When I bought the car, the whole THING was messed up.

When I got the car, it would normally run at about 220 degrees. Pretty high, even on winter days. In traffic in the summer it would climb close to the red zone.

I should clarify what I did.

I ran cooling system flush through the system, then fully flushed it with water. Then replaced the radiator and thermostat. I then continued to ran water through it, filled it with straight water and cooling system flush, took it for a 10 minute drive to get all the gunk broken up. Came home drained the system completely and then refilled it with a 70/30 mix of this Dex compatible prestone coolant. I then took it out for ANOTHER drive, this one I somehow managed to not do SOMETHING right, and it overheated. So hot that it was preigniting and basically wouldn't run anymore. It just quit. So I shut it off and sat there on the side of the road cursing at myself for about 10 minutes, then started her back up and GENTLY got her back to the garage. Well SOMEHOW, the draincock opened. And drained out the coolant as I was driving. SO I reclosed it and refilled the system and took it around the circle, keeping extremely close to my garage...the car was pissed, I could tell. It was running cool now, but it now had an SES light SO thats when I joined the club. And I could not figure out what the heck was wrong. And so Spring 2006 I replaced the MAF and that fixed it. So apparently by overheating the car, I killed the MAF.

So that was all on Aug 16th 2005 IIRC. Ever since then the coolant has been dropping slowly. And yeah. I should add that it currently runs VERY cool and I have sat in traffic when it was about 90 some degrees and it never got above maybe 210.

Tomorrow I will smell the exhaust.

Thanks for the help guys.

Ok, I just went for a 30 minute/25 mile drive. Came home, checked...

Power Steering - normal level
Master Cylinder - normal level - dirty fluid, needs bleeding
Engine Oil - halfway in hashmarks (1/2 qt low) and the color of caramel and smells really nice.
Transmission Fluid - 3/4 in hash marks and the color of marachino cherries. No tinge, just nice and red.
Coolant Recovery Tank - 1 inch above full hot level - tank needs cleaning.
Exhaust test that was asked of me - no steam from exhaust. I was mistaken. and did the smell test, once with my nose right near it to smell the fumes and once with my hand to smell the condensation. Fumes smell normal, condensation smells like burned gasoline and mobil 1.

I...had my car just slightly backed out of my garage, so i was walking where my engine and such would usually hover...and slipped on a small dried spot of something. I got down rubbed my finger in it, and it smelled of prestone long life coolant. For some reason this orange stuff leaves a oil spot, whereas green doesn't seem to do that.

Regardless, I am going back out in a little bit as soon as she cools a bit from highway driving and check my hoses and my 16 month old radiator for leaks.

You will want to check the heater hoses and water pump also.

umm, heater core...there doesn't seem to be any wetness on my carpet...could it be....UNDER my carpet inside??!?

And I will check for those other leaks.

If you are sure you have no external coolant leak, then the most likely cause of an internal leak is the LIM gaskets. This is not nearly as expensive as the LIM/UIM repair in a Series II, because you will only have to purchase and replace the gaskets. I'll check the prices, but I'm guessing that you can get it done for less than $100. Because you will need to drain the coolant to do the work anyway, it offers a good opportunity for you to flush your cooling system to get rid of the orange Prestone (that many of us believe to be Dex) and replace it with a 50-50 mix of G05 spec "mixes with any color" antifreeze (that no one believes to be Dex.)

Unless you are in some special situation, the 70-30 mix is not a good idea. Why? Because at temperatures low enough to require a 70-30 mix to prevent freeze-up, your car is unlikely to start without supplemental heat, anyway. And more importantly, because pure water is a much better heat conductor than any mixture of common anti-freeze agents and water. The more anti-freeze you add, the less efficient the mixture is in removing heat from your engine. So, as the limits of the cooling system are approached on a hot summer day, a car with 70-30 will run hotter than the same car with 50-50. Yeah, the anti-freeze increases the boiling point, allowing temperatures to exceed 212F, but that does not make it a better medium for removing heat from the engine in the first place.

You may have damaged the LIM gaskets when the car overheated.

[edit] If you had a coolant leak to the interior of the car, with cold weather, you would smell it for sure and see it as condensation that was difficult to clear on the inside glass.

I never overheated mine to that point. I overheated the corsy real bad, ever since then the spark plugs don't thread out of the head smooth. Do your spark plugs thread out smooth.. mine do. My oil doesn't smell or look like coolant, and no smoke out of the exhaust [steam, yes]. Condensation smells very faintly of coolant... but I am the only one who can smell it.

No codes, but when it'* warm and it idles for a few minutes above 1500RPM i'll get a QDM code. That QDM crap is going to be the death of me. I've just given up on the problem. I run 45/55 mix antifreeze/water [just a tad bit short on coolant], the gauge sits just above 1/4 after it'* warmed up, but heatsoak goes over 1/2 and takes a few slow minutes to drop down. Oil pressure is 45-50PSI cold [any RPM], 40PSI hot [at cruise]. Sometimes if I am doing some city driving, it'll drop down to 30PSI [city driving]or so... 10PSI [idle].

EDIT: Oh yeah, I have two tubes of alumaseal, due to my waterpump not sealing up. Not sure if that makes a difference at all.

Heater hoses are under the hood. Pass rear corner of the bay.

What area under the car was this deposit on the ground in? Try to imagine where it came from.

LN3 does not have a UIM, it'* a one piece manifold...

right from the engine coolant exhaust hose (upper rad) from the hose to radiator connection. right where it was before. I still have not had a chance to get all up in there and attack that leak but umm, thats for tomorrow.

oh and THANK you for the info on the LIM. I had some idea, but was not sure. its good to confirm that. wow, that thing looks really heavy.

They aren't that bad, and the actual removal of it isn't that extensive either. But it isn't an oil change. I think the intake weighs in around 30lbs.

It'* not uncommon for old hoses to leak, if that is the original hose it may be time to change it, along with that crappy two string clamp that came from the factory. If you are super cheap, just changing to regular hose clamps may fix a loose connection. I've got a new lower hose but the original upper [both have regular hose clamps too].