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I have a 2006 Hyundai Santa Fe, 208K (mostly highway) I'm the second owner - bought in 2010. Car ran GREAT all these years; replaced timing belt, changed oil, every service you can imagine.
As I said, 208K now. Saturday, car overheated - huge coolant leak. Kept adding coolant over and over....kept overheating (like 10 minutes after adding coolant!) Finally, stopped. Had it towed to my mechanic (closed for the weekend), so it's sitting outside the shop.
My gut feeling: headgasket is about to go. No water on the oil dipstick, no white smoke from the exhaust, yet with that many miles....
Maybe my mech can fix the coolant leak and I can continue to drive until the headgasket completely goes?
Can I just continue to drive it (locally - NO road trips!) UNTIL it finally goes kaput?
ETA: I'm in New Jersey, and a LOT of flooded cars here now in the wake of Ida, so this would be a BAD time to find another vehicle!
Assume you inspected as much of the cooling system as possible? I'd let the tech weight on it. Junking a functional car because of something as straightforward as a radiator leak?
Assume you inspected as much of the cooling system as possible? I'd let the tech weight on it. Junking a functional car because of something as straightforward as a radiator leak?
Please read my post again...I wrote about junking IF it's a HEADGASKET issue.
With a blown headgasket you'd notice a huge white cloud out of the tail pipe . Ten minutes to go hot is a big leak, blown hose or cracked radiator.
Fill it up, put back the radiator cap, start the engine and watch with a good flashlight. If you want to get technical raise the front on jack stands for better access/visibility.
If the headgasket is gone, the rest of the engine might be suspect, so not sure if the engine is worth fixing.
If the car market was not as crazy as it is, I would say move on. BUT, see how much it would cost to put a used engine in it. It might get you around for another 6-8 months until the world around us becomes less crazy/hopefully.
If the headgasket is gone, the rest of the engine might be suspect, so not sure if the engine is worth fixing.
If the car market was not as crazy as it is, I would say move on. BUT, see how much it would cost to put a used engine in it. It might get you around for another 6-8 months until the world around us becomes less crazy/hopefully.
By the time you’re done paying labor, you might as well go with a rebuilt engine with a warranty. With a salvage yard engine, you still have to change the timing belt. It really depends on what shape the rest of the car is in. In my zip code, a 2006 is typically having corrosion problems. It’s not worth to to put a $2,000 rebuilt engine in it with the big labor charges and other replacement parts. If the body is is good shape and the tires & brakes are recent, you’d have a reliable car for a bunch of years.
Hopefully, it turns out that this is something simple like a hose or a radiator. Most people with a snapped timing belt on a 2006 Hyundai with 200k miles on it scrap the car.
I never use the value of the vehicle as a criteria for a a repair. I look at the cost of the repair vs replacing the car. If I spend $2,000 on a repair, and get 3 years out of the car, I am ahead of the game since that's far less than a payment would be.
I didn't see any symptoms that indicate there might be a headgasket issue in the OP's post. If they had continued to drive it while it was overheated, there might be good reason to be concerned, but it sounds like the OP did the right thing by adding coolant frequently and finally taking it to a mechanic. The coolant leak could be something very simple like a split hose. I wouldn't write off the car yet.
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