So a few days ago i'm driving my car on my lunch break and it pops "low coolant" on the DIC, pull over and look at the antifreeze tank and its almost empty. So i drive to my local autozone to get some dex-cool since i wasn't near my apt where i have some. Fill up the tank and head back to work. Drive home that night no real issues.

Next morning driving to work and "low coolant" pops up again, well i still have the bottle of dex-cool i bought the day before, when i get to work i pop the hood and the antifreeze is once again pretty much empty, fill it up and place some cardboard under it to make sure its not a leak. Check the car before i go home and no leaks and the tank is still full. Start driving home and "low coolant" pops up again, get home pop the hood and the tank is pretty much empty AGAIN! Poor in what is left from the new dex-cool bottle and some from my bottle i keep at the apartment.

Check the oil cap and it has water in it and when i pull the dipstick and its grayish, def not black, so i'm thinking to myself, S#$T , porous block! At this point its to late to call the dealer, so i figure i'm going to be making a visit to the dealer the next am. I check the coolant tank and just top it off to make sure it has enough, get to the dealer and check the tank and it had lost half the tank.

I explain to the service rep what is going on and that i have checked for leaks and looked at the oil and they took note of the oddly colored oil. They give me a rental and say that they should have some info for me later on in the day.

Fast forward about 8 hrs get a call from the dealership and the first words out of the reps mouth are "just go ahead and keep the rental for a while because we're probably looking at a new engine here", i'm like well do what you have to do to fix it. Rep said that they will be checking the head and testing the oil, said he was pretty sure the head was going to be fine and if thats the case they will be putting in a claim for a new engine. Rep said that all checks and tests will be done on monday and should call me with an update.

Porous Block Issue may have claimed another 2009 SS/TC.

My Car Service Record to this point:

1) Transmission grenaded itself at 10,000 miles and had a brand new transmission installed under warranty.
2) Sunroof has been repaired or replaced 4 times.
3) E-brake replaced after cable snapped.
4) Various panels and clips replaced due to just randomly falling off.
5) Possible engine replacement at 43,000 miles

Clifnotes for those who don't care to read the whole thing: Car made 1 and 1/2 Gallons of Dex-Cool disappear in 2 days, dealer believes its a block issue and will be inspecting head(because they have to) and testing oil for antifreeze, if head is fine they will be putting in for a new engine.



Once i get it back i'm pretty sure i will be getting rid of it after winter is over, its a great car, when it works

Update: Got call from dealer yesterday that car was ready to go, picked it up and everything runs great except for one weird thing, so car has GM Stg 1 and used to only boost to 5psi in 1st gear but now with the new engine it will boost to 20psi in first, am i looking at a new problem? or nothing to worry about? thanks for info in advance.

 

Yeah, you definitely have a cracked block. Sorry, man. This is my biggest fear with this car. It is what has kept me from modifying too much.

 

Yea pretty much sucks and i consider myself lightly modded GM Stage 1 and a hotpipe and this happened to me, idk how the guys who are heavy modded keep theirs alive.

At this point i'm planning on getting rid of this one sometime next year and possibly looking to get into a WRX 5-door Hatchback, they look so good

 

had the same issue at 36,000km. they told me the same things... sounds like a new engine for you

 

my engine went at 49k miles under warranty... i think we can begin to guess when they will break down lol!!!

sorry to hear this man, hope all is covered!

 

mine lasted till 91k but only went because of a dealer screw up. for as hard as i am on my car the engine is pretty stout....but there are isolated issues.

op...definitely sucks but at least warranty is fixing it and you are getting a new engine

 

Thanks all, and yea i think we are starting to find the fail time on these engines, like a ticking time bomb.

Also it will all be warranty covered dealer already told me i'm fine just a matter of the results of the tests and checks if the engine gets replaced or not.

 

must be nice to have a rental during this process....i didnt get one for some reason

 

I told the dealer that the cobalt is my only car and that since mine was pretty much DOA i had to have something to get to work with, so they hooked me up with the rental.

I really do hope this process goes faster than when my tranny went, took GM a month to finally apporve the new tranny, so i'm hoping this won't take that long.

 

guess i should have made it clear like you did

took em 2 weeks for me dropping it off and picking it up fully swapped and such..

 

Did this issue start in the 09's or does it affect 08's too?

 

from everything i've found it looks to be 09's mainly, but i'm not 100% sure on that

 

mines 08

 

Well that answers that

 

prolly has an 09 block in it now tho hahahaha

 

Oh, f%%ing joy. This is what I have to look forward to? I've been babying mine; only have 16k on it, and I'm stepping **** up.

 

Hopefully its not all 09. I have almost 30k on my car. No problems so far. Fingers crossed.

 

It's a cracked block. It's not porous.

 

Yea hopefully more people aren't affected, but mine ran completely fine even as it was making antifreeze disappear, it never acted like there was a problem.

 

Look up your production date if your worryed. I believe a few guys have linked it to a certain time frame. Other than that you just have to wait and see, keep an eye on your coolant and oil.

 

cross my fingers for ya too lol

 

an issue like this makes me want to return to stock. that way if something does happen there is no reason to deny the claim

 

Tow the car home and back to stock a tow bill is better than a voided warranty

 

Any idea what that affected window is? My HHR was built in May of 08.

 

Idk I'm on my iPhone it'd take me a minute to find the thread, but it was mainly 09s from what I remeber someone said the casting temperature was off and I think it was the early 09 models. You'll know if you have this issue, your coolant will vanish with no leaks and you'll be able to tell when you check your oil. I was worryed about it when I first got my car but everyone that I can remember got a brand new engine with no cash out of there pocket so I wouldn't sweat it.