Fluid mystery

ablandin · 05-23-2008, 02:04 PM

Okay, more questions from the novice... I have water, a little, dripping from two small holes of my muffler. I thought those hole were rust outs except they looked manufactured and on looking at my other Saturn, I own three SL, SL1, Vue, it has the same holes. So with that being said, First question-Why? Second-Why is there water dripping from one? Also, the SL1, with the runny muffler, has a slight roughness to its idle and I have replaced the ECTS and the Idle control with a total tune up. All this took it from running like crap with overheating problems and bad gas milege to that slight roughness. I heard that if it was a head gasket or cracked cylinder that I would get fluids out the back end and/or fluids in the oil. Oil is clean and the fluid looks and smells like water. Would it smell like coolant? I get that stupid SES and its code is the same for ECTS, bad gas cap, etc. I know I can take it in for a compression test and I will if need be but I am trying to save some money if I can.

RC1488 · 05-23-2008, 02:47 PM

what is the fluid?

more than likely its just water. water is a by product of combustion however it can condense from the gas phase to the liquid phase thus that is why the two hols in your muffler are there. they are just drain holes, just like the two holes in the bottom of your airbox.

You did not post your vitals! Especially when you have multiple saturns. Do this as there are certain issues that associated more with certain cars. Since you have a SL and SL1, my first guess for roughness after the tune up would be the intake manifold gasket. However they are more common to go bad in the third generation models. I do no know the year of the car so this may not be the issue.

Replace you top engine mount. This will help eliminate the vibrations in the car. Rockauto.com has the mount for 15 bucks and they are having a sale untill june 3.

ablandin · 05-23-2008, 04:28 PM

Sorry. The vitals: 2000 SL1 SOHC Automatic 79000 miles.

ablandin · 05-23-2008, 04:31 PM

Oh and also there is an rumbling noise like when you have a exhaust leak, but I cannot find it.

RC1488 · 05-23-2008, 08:03 PM

'00 SL1 = bad Intake manifold gasket.

Spray some carb cleaner around each cylinder at the gasket during idle. if you hear the idle change then you found your issue. replace it and then move on from there. Its 15 bucks at rockauto.com. I also posted a how-to for this with pictures in the How-to library

ablandin · 06-11-2008, 10:03 AM

Thank you Sir.

ryan · 06-11-2008, 10:01 PM

You know, this isn't the first place I've heard of this.

ryan · 06-11-2008, 10:01 PM

Well, this problem I mean.

RC1488 · 06-12-2008, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karp2381

You know, this isn't the first place I've heard of this.

Definetly not. Third gen SOHC s-series are notorious for bad intake manifold gaskets. Have two of them now and both needed new gaskets

ablandin · 06-12-2008, 09:45 PM

Well I scanned it and it say cyl 1 misfire. I did the test of spraying at each intake and 3,2 did nothing. 1 started to bog the engine down and 4 almost stalled it. On my nifty little diagram under the hood it shows the fire as 4,1,2,3. Could a leak at the 4 spot be leading to the 1 and causing a misfire code? I know it could be a crack in the block, cyl or head gasket, but I am not losing any coolant, there is not bubbling in the purge, nothing out the backend and nothing in the oil. I figured with all troubleshooting...Go with the easiest and in this case cheapest, 24.99 and see how that goes. If not, I am going to take it behind the shed and shoot it!