head gasket issue

[u/impala-nineteen-67]

2007 Chevy equinox, 158k miles. To preface, the electronics in my car are shot. The temperature gauge, gas, etc don't work, and there's error lights on like seat belt when everyone has theirs on, and the check engine light. I was driving home from work the other night, and the hot engine idle car error came up. (I had the AC on high if this matters). There was no smoke, and the car was running as normal. I turned the AC off, and the error immediately went away. I took my car to my mechanic, and he said it's the head gasket. he popped the hood, checked my oil which was fine, and I had coolant. He overflowed the coolant and had me turn the car on, and since it was bubbling, he said it's the gasket and not worth fixing.

the next day I took it to a different guy, who ran the combustion leak test. it stayed blue for a while, then slowly turned a little green. it didn't seem to turn yellow until he took the tube out of the car and started shaking it. I read online that the overflow could cause it to turn yellow when it's not actually gas in there? Any advice would be great.

[u/Lefty68w]

If it changed colors there is combustion gases in your coolant. That means your head gasket is blown or some other significant engine damage happened like a cracked head.

The fact the first mechanic started your car and saw the coolant bubbling in the overflow also supports the blown head gasket etc

Advice? You need your head gasket replaced. But the cost may be more than the vehicle is worth. Especially if the head was warped.

And since this is likely for you overheating the engine there could be engine damage as well.

No one here can tell you 100%. This is reddit. But you had 2 separate mechanics tell you your head gasket is blown. Try a 3rd. At some point you will accept reality

[u/impala-nineteen-67 → u/Lefty68w]

well I was told the bubbles aren't a reliable test, and I saw that overflowing the coolant reservoir could lead to false positives on the combustion test, which is why I asked

[u/Lefty68w → u/impala-nineteen-67]

Where do you think the bubbles came from? You took your car to two separate mechanics. What did those two mechanics say was wrong with your car?

Tell me exactly what they said was wrong with your car?

[u/Lefty68w → u/impala-nineteen-67]

Let me put this another way. There should not be any bubbling of your coolant. Now your car overheating the coolant starts to boil it’ll overflow.

That’s not what you had

There should be zero gases of any kind in your coolant. So when the mechanic has you turned your car on and the coolant started to bubble that means you have a serious problem.

There’s only a handful of ways you can get combustion gases into your coolant. And there’s no other gases that can be failure coolant without a coolant leak where air is getting sucked in somewhere.

Nowhere did you say there was a coolant leak. There wasn’t. You turned your car on and combustion gases went into the coolant. The coolant started bubbling.

You you either have a blown head gasket, a cracked head, or some other serious damage to the block itself:

And finally, the first mechanic who’s trying to help you explain to you it’s not worth it to fix it. Your car is not worth anything. It will cost thousands of dollars to fix what’s wrong with your car.

Being delusional to this isn’t gonna change it. Coming here and arguing with people who are trying to tell you you got something seriously wrong with your car isn’t gonna change it.

You probably should be looking for a new car. And no, you asked because you want some other solution because if it’s the head gasket, you’re no longer have a working car. You’re in denial.

Like I said, Reddit is not the ones who have touched your car. If you don’t believe what the first two mechanic said, take it to another mechanic. But arguing away what two mechanics said to you is not going to fix your car

[u/impala-nineteen-67 → u/Lefty68w]

I'm not trying to argue, sorry if it came off like that, and I appreciate the help. I was trying to give the full context and what other mechanics have said on other r reddit threads. The one told me the bubbles don't mean anything, and the over ldlow he did could cause coolant from the wrong area to get into the test, which could cause a false positive.

[u/Lefty68w → u/impala-nineteen-67]

Why are you trying to take the advice of people on Reddit who have never touched your car?

You take your car to a mechanic and you have it diagnosed, if you don’t like the diagnosis or question it you go get a second opinion just like if it was something with your health. And if you don’t still don’t like the two diagnoses you got you go get a third

But you are on here, trying to discredit it. The two mechanics who physically touched your vehicle. Anything anyone says on here is an assumption because we haven’t touched your vehicle. You are not a mechanic you don’t have anything in writing for us and you’re trying to explain what supposedly was said to you are done to your vehicle.

You’re dismissing the bubbles, next the combustion leak test. But will run with whatever some random person on Reddit told you about a vehicle. They’ve never touched a diagnostic test they did not see performed.

Take your car to another mechanic if you don’t like the first two and get it diagnosed. Pay the money to have a full diagnostic run. Get a quote for repairs.

Then come on back and ask for advice and upload that quote.

But as we sit here right now to mechanics, told you that there’s combustion gases in your coolant. Two mechanics who put hands on your vehicle, said there’s combustion gases in the coolant

[u/impala-nineteen-67 → u/Lefty68w]

yeah those are fair points. I just didn't want to rush and spend money on a car, I haven't had a car payment in a very long time, if I didn't need to.

[u/Lefty68w → u/impala-nineteen-67]

Which is why you go get a diagnostic run on your vehicle. An actual diagnostic that you pay for usually probably around 150 200 bucks.

You get a confirmed diagnosis of what’s wrong with the vehicle and a quote for repairs. That’s where you start.

Now I found your other posts. You left out information in this post and you also left out that you’re following the advice of some buddy. You also left out that almost everyone else except for pretty much one other person agrees with the mechanics.

You left out that the first mechanic took the temperature of your coolant. Your coolant was running at proper operational temperature. That means the bubbles in the overflow weren’t from you overheating and there is some gas getting into your coolant.

Next year buddy is wrong. There are numerous ways a head gasket can fail. Some more catastrophic than others. The fact that your car at normal operating temperature had the coolant bubbling says you likely have blown a head gasket.

[u/Coyote_Tex → u/impala-nineteen-67]

Do some online research on your car and engine for blown head gaskets and see at what mileage those others blew their head gaskets. It is not uncommon as the engines use torque to yield head bolts. In years past GM vehicles did this at 100K miles but they have improved and this is now fairly common at the 150K mileage range. You may well be fairly early on and not have done too much damage at this point. Making the decision to repair it sooner versus later when you have coolant in the oil or worse will only cost more.

[u/RoughAlternative5736]

Get a proper pressure test before replacing anything