{"id":30,"date":"2009-07-17T15:13:12","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T22:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/?p=30"},"modified":"2017-01-16T14:40:22","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T21:40:22","slug":"fixing-an-older-astro-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"Fixing an older Astro van"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend’s 1997\u00a0 Chevy Astro had some understandable problems after 197,000 miles and over ten years of service. It also had some not-so-understandable problems.<\/p>\n

In the course of repairing some wiring, I noticed that the coolant in the reservoir looked very different from the coolant in the radiator. The reservoir looked great, the radiator was filthy.<\/p>\n

Hmm. There must be an obstruction or problem somewhere.<\/p>\n

Check the connecting hose? It was unobstructed. Will compressed air clear the obstruction in the reservoir? Nope.<\/p>\n

OK – I removed the reservoir for inspection, with particular attention to the squarish section between the small hose spigot and the bottom of the tank. When I tilted the tank, the orange coolant would move most of the way up that passage, but not all the way. The passage that should have gone all the way through – didn’t.<\/p>\n

Can’t get air through passage, can’t identify any contamination or debris in the passage. What ???!!!!<\/p>\n

Try drilling through the passageway? I got plastic shavings, but couldn’t make it through due to the way it’s configured. The passage is blocked by original plastic. As far as I can tell, it was made wrong at the factory<\/strong>, and never could have worked<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

How many dealer visits and repair shop visits must have occurred in ten years and 190,000 miles? Quite a few. Did anybody notice? NONE of them caught it.<\/p>\n

For now, the hose just goes into the fill opening, and that works.<\/p>\n

\"pristine

pristine coolant in reservoir<\/p><\/div>\n

\"ugly

ugly radiator coolant<\/p><\/div>\n

\"reservoir

reservoir side passage<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Factory defective part only found after ten years and 190,000 miles. Coolant loss and overheating problems weren’t good enough clues? Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1574,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/1574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/laserpubs.com\/techcomm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}