Can someone please help me with advice?
 

First of all, thanks in advance to any replies or suggestions that any of you out there may leave, I'm really in a bind right now. I have a 99 STS with 115k, I've always driven her slow and steady, regular oil changes, up to date etc... All of a sudden my car started to overhead abruptly, I obviously stoped the car, however it continued to overheat when I started her back up after ten min or so and even told me I had 0% engine oil even though I had just gotten an oil change a few weeks before this overheating madness occured.

Anyhow, took the car to midas but they said to take it to the dealer since the "service engine soon" light had also come on. The dealer did an inspection, replaced the temp guage, did TWO coolant flushes, and yet it's supposidly still overheating. Thus far the bill is around 450 for just the inspection, 2 coolant flushes, and temp guage. Seems kind of high but at this point since the engine is overheating on low range they told me that a gasket is blown, and said it will cost 4k to replace that or I can pay 5k for a new engine. After doing a lot of research on the net I've come across many people who blame the infamous gm recommended Dex-Cool coolant as the culprit of many ruined engines. Regardless of the dex cool implication, I'm thinking of just paying the 400 for the services up to this point and taking it to another dealership, or maybe just to a local mechanic that could possibily diagnose the problem for cheaper. And is 4k for replacing a gasket accurate? Or 5k for a new engine? I defineatly think I need to get a second opinion, part of me is paranoid that perhaps the temp thermostat was just stuck. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm leaning toward taking the caddy to a smaller mechanic and paying another few hundred bucks to get a 2nd opinon before I either fix and replace the gasket or buy an entire new engine.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this and possibily give me any advice or comments!

RE: Can someone please help me with advice?
 

Hey man. I'm no expert on the pricing of head gasket jobs, but the 4,000 - 5,000 range sounds about right. I've heard of other people getting the job done for 3,000-ish.

Either way, a good rule of thumb seems to be when your car, regardless of make or model, blows it's head gasket then it's time to trade that puppy in. Defintely do your homework before shelling out thousands of bucks for a job that might not really help in the long run.

Anyway, I'm replying to your post today b/c I have a slightly similar problem with my 1999 SLS. I have what is called an internal coolant leak via a blown headgasket. The symptoms I have oberserved are a very rough idle when I start the car, large quantities of white steam that smells like antifreeze coming from the tailpipe, and intermittent episodes of the car getting a little hot when I'm stopped at a red light for a long duration.

This is what I did: I'm planning on trading it in for a certified used cadillac with a decent warranty. In the meantime I added some Bar's Leak Radiator Stop Leak to my coolant system. For about a week now I have not observed any rough idling or steam coming from the tailpipe. I have not had to add any coolant, either. However, the car did get a little hot today while I was idling at a red light.

As for the Dex-Cool topic, there is a thread here somewhere that warns users should not leave thier Dex-Cool coolant in their system past two years because it WILL gunk up the system, contrary to what GM says. I still use Dex-Cool in my Caddy, but I will be changing it more frequently than recommended.

I hope this helps.

RE: Can someone please help me with advice?
 

The headgasket cost seems about right, since its probably all labor hours that raises the price. The only thing that I have read upon was what already deadgirl stated about changing coolant every 2 years or less if you use dex cool. I actually did my own flush one day and used the regular prestone coolant and that was the worse mistake ever.!!!!! I usually work on hondas,nissans, etc. mainly japanese cars. So I jumped to conclusions and assumed using the same coolant is fine. But anyways, after changing the coolant to the prestone stuff I always use, I notice my car was overheating FAST. I only drove around my block and it was already at 3/4 to hot. So quickly I turned off car and looked in the manual and did some research, it seems like that GM requires Dex-Cool, so I did another flush using dex-cool and its back to normal now. I took the car on highways, idle, wot and it won't overheat. Hope this helped a lil, moral is read our manual before doing anything, ahahha