r/ChevySonic • u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC • 3d ago

inconvenient timing

Post image

just went and got my dinner. on my way home, a block before i get home, my engine temp goes off. so i pull over. coolant is gone. bone fucking dry. waiting for my mom to get here so i’m not standing out here by myself 🧍🏻‍♀️

52 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

31

u/TwiggytheDragon 3d ago

Welcome to the Sonic club! You'll wanna keep a spare jug of coolant in the back just for situations like this. If you can, I highly recommend swapping out the coolant tank, thermostat housing, and coolant outlet with metal ones asap since the stock ones are made of crappy plastic and are prone to cracks and leaks; ZZP makes great replacements. Don't let a dealer sell you on factory replacement parts, they're not worth the money.

10

u/facebace 2d ago

Ha! I thought I was the only one who kept coolant in the trunk!

7

u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC 2d ago

thanks! i’ve had my sonic for 3 years and have already gone through this last summer. my grandpa is friends with our mechanic so he’s the one who brought me to him, and grandpa & mom both didn’t quite understand what i meant last year about swapping for aluminum parts. this year i will not be allowing anyone to push me i will go buy the parts from ZZP myself and just get my mechanic to swap it out! i thankfully did have a jug of coolant in the car from last year, so it was just about waiting for the car to cool down a bit so i could open the reservoir, i was just not comfortable at that gas station alone. thanks so much for the tips though, i definitely will not be doing factory parts again lol

1

u/ColJake 1d ago

Do it yourself, it is easy.

2

u/lorenzoverde 2d ago

This for the 1.8 or the 1.4 thank you

1

u/TwiggytheDragon 2d ago

1.4L, I don't know much about the 1.8

2

u/lorenzoverde 2d ago

Gotcha thank you! I've experienced the bone dry coolant resivoir, and it was the throttle body hose to top of resivoir. I seen my car had the metal thermostat housing as well.

2

u/Jackalope121 CHEVY SONIC 1d ago

Better suggestion, have your coolant system pressure tested and inspected on every oil service or every 90 days, whichever comes first. 

If youre not doing it yourself its worth it to pay the ~hour of labor that the shop may charge you. 

24

u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC 3d ago

holy shit y’all i left my phone at the gas station 😔😔😔 thank goodness for the worker who took it and brought it inside and kept it safe for me

18

u/Inevitable_Button506 3d ago

Buckle up kiddo

5

u/stealthvibe '17 Premier | 1.4T 3d ago

Glad you're safe! Once you get that repaired, I'd suggest getting some sort of temp gauge. I have an UltraGauge, personally.

2

u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC 2d ago

yes i do need that, thank you! was there a specific website for the UltraGage or just like amazon?

2

u/stealthvibe '17 Premier | 1.4T 2d ago

Yes, they have their own website! And the UltraGauge EM Plus v1.4 is the version I bought, as it's the recommended model.

6

u/Edwardvansloan 2012 Sonic LTZ 1.8L 3d ago

I keep gallons of spare water in my car for this exact case

3

u/Euphoric-Coffee-7551 3d ago

yeahhhhhhh your car looks the same as mine down to the color, you're gonna need to get that fixed

4

u/pizzystrizzy 3d ago

This is why the standard advice is to replace all the plastic components of the cooling system with metal.

4

u/pnap13 3d ago

If you’re not capable of fixing it yourself, don’t let them fix just one part because you’ll forever be chasing the problem. Learn from me. I did it all myself but first I replaced the water pump then it was pumping more coolant so then a hose blue then I replaced that hose and more flow was going and I got another broken hose. Have them just replace everything Except for your radiator probably I have an 06 hatchback… it was a really great car for a long time now crap all be it cheap starting to break down. I’m dealing with air conditioning issues as we speak and I just fixed an oil leak leak shocks struts. I need this car to last me about another year or two so I could fix another vehicle and trade them both in or sell one sell them bothand get something better. There will be a day when I leave this group but not today. Good luck dealers aren’t cheap so once they’re in there, you might as well have them fix the whole system.

4

u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC 2d ago

thank you!!! i believe my mechanic did replace the therm housing and hoses, and i replaced coolant reservoir myself with one from amazon. i figured it would last me a few years to save up the money to go ham on ZZP and splurge on all the parts i needed, but i was quite clearly wrong. i will be researching and purchasing the correct parts to have my mechanic swap out for me. i also want mine to last, she’s my first car and she’s been so good to me other than coolant issues which is so common i can’t even be mad. thank you for your advice and kind words!

1

u/pnap13 2d ago

The scariest leak is on the water pump. Housing, because it's behind your exhaust manifold. So usually if your car is hot and it's dripping, you don't see the drops on your driveway, and you don't see it while you're driving. Because it's constantly getting steamed off. That could be the last piece that is going to be. What's needed for you? If you already have had everything replaced beforehand

1

u/madyadynes CHEVY SONIC 2d ago

i still need everything. i got it replaced with factory parts, aka the plastic shit. it was just more cost effective at the time to just replace it for the time being, and work on getting the aluminum parts from zzp, but it didn’t even last long enough for me to think about it

1

u/jivefox 2d ago

I kept coolant in my car after this happened to me at midnight. And then had to have all those parts replaced.

1

u/Confident-Primary-54 2d ago

I got the new aluminum parts, but the problem was the overpressurization from the PC V component valve that destroys every gasket and rubber housing. So you have to get the pcv, fix kit from cruise kits dot com. I haven't had a single issue since I put that on.pcv fix kit

1

u/Confident-Primary-54 2d ago

Literally if the pcv fix kit is installed your golden.

1

u/Grouchy-Weakness-665 2d ago

You about to drop a bit of change into your car

1

u/Yakubian88 2d ago

Same thing happened to me. The plastic part on my radiator was busted and was leaking antifreeze pretty bad

1

u/jokelord69420 2d ago

I keep a tube of gasket maker and a bottle of dexcool in my trunk along with a basic socket set. It's part of the sonic experience

1

u/piecesofadream 2d ago

Mine did the same thing like 3 weeks ago. Why do they do this? Now it’s continuing to overheat even though the thermostat and housing have been changed and the coolant bled 😭

1

u/Global-Structure-539 2d ago

Save up and buy a good car, one that's NOT a Sonic

1

u/SecondtoNone38 1d ago

I loved this car but this kind of shit happened too many times. The final straw was when the turbo blew on me and took out my catalytic converter.

I traded that in after that.

Its a shame because the design and size are what I loved, but mechanically its a ticking time bomb.

1

u/BrushLatter1974 1d ago

Thank God I work at bumper to bumper auto parts and we have standard products.from coolant tank to radiator to thermostat has gone out.