Hi everybody. Been lurking on this forum for some time and actually have a question now... [8D]

My fiancee has an'04 SS which was blowing cold air when the heat was on.

I checked coolant level and it was way low, so I added coolant at the radiator and bled it (and made a really nice mess on my garage floor as well! [:@]). No change.

Put in a new thermostat and it blows a little warmer than before when idling but doesn't really heat up. If I rev the engine or am driving, it warms up as would be expected.

My guess is that the water pump is going out but would rather get some input before just tearing into it. Am I on the right track or do I need to remove my head from my ****?

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this.

P.S. While doing this work, I have noticed an high pitchedengine whinewhen you step on it. Could this be thebearings in the water pump or is this somethingcompletelydifferent?

 

Any coolant in the oil?

 

see if you can pinpoint the wine under the hood(try a peice of hose to your ear and move it around the engine compartment, it will basically point to the noise). but from what you have explained it sounds to me to be the water pump

 

sounds like a water pump to me dealer put me a new on at 27,000 so i wouldnt rule it being bad

 

first off dose she have any warrenty left?
if so go have it checked out. think it also might have been apart of that recal that was otu for the 3.8 litter

the reason why i say this is they have a presure checker and can add pressure to the system. if it starts to get wamer with the higher RPM's it most likely is a water pump. but it also could be that it is being restricted or you have air int eh system and there for it cant heat up the water. but when you get some past the blockage it is turnign to steam and being sent threw the over flow and out of the rad.

yeah i knwo it sounds far fetched but i have seen this happen in a older monte of mine. and found out someone when working on the car had droped a bunch of crap in the ater system on the car and it would block it off as it moved around. took forever to finally figure it out. also took a good tech with a presure tester.
i was ready to rip out the heater core and start there on it.

but air in the line can do this same thing also.

 

if you do end up putting a water pump in (sounds like thats what it needs to me, i had a whine in my truck and let it go for too long then BOOOM!!!! water pump exploded) make sure you puta new water pump on not a rebuilt one, and you dont have to get it from gm, because if you get a new one from any auto parts store it comes with a lifetime warranty on it not just a 1 year

 

Thanks everyone!

Since the consensus is the water pump and since I have a cousin who's had his own shop for the past 20 years, I'm taking it down to his shopthis weekend to have it pressure tested among other things.

re: recalls; Where can I find the recall notices for this car (as the owner does not recall recieving any)?

AND,

Since I will be inheriting this car through marriage (pretty sweet deal if you ask me! She likes my Blazer better!) am an RTFM kinda guy, which manual would you all recommend for continued maint. & troubleshooting?

Thanks again everybody!

 

get the three book set of factory manuals.
i know you can find them on Ebay.also check i think i saw a ad her eint eh forsale section.

they are worth the money for the motne carlos. i have foudn that the other "normal ones have been more of a head ach then use.

 

If it persists after the water pump is changed then i would ask for the heater core to be back flushed just for the hell of it. a lot of crap can flow through the system so blowing some pressurized water through the core won't hurt and it helped on a blazer a few days back that had heating problems.