With a vague question like that, Im going to give you the best vague answer I can.
You need to know how something works before you know why something isnt working. You will learn more as more stuff breaks and you get to fix it.
I started fixing my moms car when I was 14-15. From there it snowballed, I got lots of experience through highschool fixing all of my friends cars and eventually got to the point where I didnt work for free anymore because I was confident enough to tackle most problems, I was smart enough to know when something was above my head though and turned away work that I wasnt ready for.
As far as your current coolant problem, is the car getting up to operating temp? You need to know for sure, and many times the gauges are not accurate at all.(more on this in a minute) Im asking because you ran it low on coolant for some time and it possible that it had a fail safe thermostat in it. Fail safe t-stats will lock in the open position if they are over heated. That can prevent the car from getting to full operating temp. Over heating can also damage regular t-stats and cause those to fail open.
Back to the gauge. If its not accurate, it could have easily gotten hot enough to damage the t-stats without you noticing.
If you dont have access to a scanner to check the temp in the pcm, then you can go old fashioned and drop a thermometer in the reservoir. (IIRC those dont have caps on the radiator) Do this before you start the engine to warm it up. Otherwise you are opening a hot coolant system and that is never a good thing.
I stayed on top of refilling the coolant...it never RAN hot except for the day it blew...it ran fine on the freeway (enough air i suppose to keep it cool) but when i got onto side streets she started getting pretty high...the Big Fella up stairs must have been with me because, i pulled into the driveway...shut my door on the car and then SPLASH...she blew lol. It wasn't getting driven a lot during the time it had the leak...it was very small, but was in an area that couldn't be repaired.
Ill check the temp like you said, but from the checking i did after replacing the radiator and refilling it (and watching the level as the book described) it to be reaching the temp needed to have the t-stat kick in. I think i'll check the blend door first since it is probably the easiest to get to, if thats good then ill move to the heater core hoses and test them as DTT suggested, if thats good then i think ill move onto what you're talking about. I THINK its the blend door, i remember my buddy telling me a year ago or so on either this car or my moms van that the door wasn't working as well as it should, just cant remember which vehicle it was! I'll find out soon enough though
+1 on this. Hanging around people that have put the time in already and have the willingness to teach you something are the people you need to pay attention to. It can be aggravating but you'll be happy in the end. Just be sure to give back when you can, no one likes a leech.
But also don't be afraid to grab the bull by the horns either. Take on some simple jobs at first, learning how things work, and how to diagnose a problem. I remember my first big job when I was still learning cars. A clutch job on a 94 Honda Civic. I got everything together only to notice the fork that holds the throwout bearing wasn't attached all the way, and the whole transmission had to come out again. But i've never made that mistake again since. Good can also come out of failure. A failure is only a failure when you refuse to learn from it.
I agree. My godpapa knows a lot about cars...so im always watching him and picking his brain, he's done so much of it though that i dont want to drag him into too much of the WORK, hopefully i can do most of it and he can kinda guide me as to what to do. Ive learned a lot from him, hell mst of what i know.
I totally agree on a failure being a failure only if you give up (or dont learn from it). I try to relate everything to everything, so the same patience and dedication i show to my music for example, i try to put into everything else as well...and not be so arrogant that i think just because i did it or am trying to do it, that it'll just work the first time. I heard jay-z say something along the lines of success has really taught him nothing, but failures have taught him through his whole life. Im not a big jay-z fan, but what he said makes sense and pretty much sums up how i feel as well.
