05 Chevy Impala

Hey all just bought an 05 Chevy Impala with 90K on it for my younger daughter. It has a few issues I need to resolve. It definitely needs some brake work. It has a belt squeal sound from the engine I need to track down, hopefully just a new belt. I think I have a slight clunk in the front suspension, may be a ball joint or track rod end. Anything else I should check on this car before I let her loose with it?

Thanks Jon

If you have the 3800 engine, be sure to examine the coolant elbow as shown in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX__c6HZuCQ

Replace the factory plastic unit with the aftermarket metal unit.

This elbow provides coolant to the serp belt tensioner. You mention belt noise so I am wondering???

Just watching the video above was enough for me to repair my own on my Buick LeSabre with 3800

Once you refill the coolant, there is a convenient bleeder screw on top of the thermostat to bleed off the air in the system.

The belt tensioner is actually cooled by the coolant? Never seen that before. Very interesting. I hope the belt tensioner is not bad.

Thanks Jon

Yes, tensioner cooled by coolant. I know, right?
I also find odd that the hoses have no actual clamping of their own. The hoses are inserted with no gasketing other than the tiny red rubber band surrounding them.

When these hoses begin to leak they do not as much drop coolant but more so they steam-off coolant. They get the area wet and to the unknowing, it looks like head gasket leakage. This can be a good bit of knowledge for getting a good price on a car from and unsuspecting seller who wonders why his low coolant light is coming on ever other month but he never sees any coolant leaking.
Left to go long enough the hoses will actually leak a stream. Replace with the metal version and never have to worry again.
As an additional note: it is very rare to have real headgasket issues on a 3800.

If there's a front end clunk and it's not ball joints or rod ends, and it sounds a bit like a CV joint, there's a good chance it's actually strut mounts. Made that mistake before, and the aftermarket parts didn't last. naioa.com used to be the go to forum for w-Impalas. Not very active any more, but tons of good stuff if you search.

Thanks all for the info. I am going to do the brakes and accessory belt this weekend and then see where to go from there.

Thanks Jon

You are joking, right? The tensioner isn't cooled, they just used the tensioner bracket to route coolant to the heater hoses, which are attached to the other side of the bracket.

But his point on changing the elbows is good, they do leak. The metal ones are the way to go.

jonsteckelberg wrote: The belt tensioner is actually cooled by the coolant? Never seen that before. Very interesting. I hope the belt tensioner is not bad. Thanks Jon

Actually at first I was not sure, but either way it seems like a daft idea to me. Does anyone know if you can just change the idler wheel and bearing on that or do you have to replace the whole thing?

Thanks Jon

In reply to jonsteckelberg:

You can replace just the pulley/bearing.

I'd pull the oil fill neck off the front valve cover and look inside it for evidence of oil/coolant milkshake. The plastic upper intake manifold eventually cracks where the EGR dumps in, which can allow a small amount of coolant to end up in oil. AT 90K, this is unlikely, but still possible.

Suspension clunk could be the sway bar end links. I'd use Moog as the replacement choice as the cheaper brands don't seem to hold up anywhere near as well.