97 catera overflow cap leaking. The gasket seemed to be jammed in incorrectly.I took the cap apart,(consisting of the yellow cap, rubber gasket, and some black piece)and now can't get it back together properly. The gasket seems TOO big. A picture, or any help would be greatly appreciated. BIG PUZZLE
OK, FYI for all those who have gone through the oil cooler blow out, and subsequent oil in the cooling system problem with the Cateras. I took this part (overflow bottle cap) to my local NAPA dealer (cause on the island here there is nothing else), he looked at it and said rubber expands due to a oily mixture, but he had only seen this happen in a brake system, by people adding something other than brake fluid to a brake system. He didn' know about the oil cooler leaking in my catera, and after I told him the problem, we concurred that this is what caused the rubber gasket to expand WAY beyond it's normal size. All of you who had all the hoses replaced, and the oil cooler replaced, should look at this cap and look for the expanded rubber washer to potentially keep you from either slowly losing coolant, or an overall blow out of your coolant around this expanded washer. The washer had actually worked its way AROUND the pressure insert of the cap, and was not sealing anything at all. Hence my misunderstanding about how this cap goes back together. I ended up buying a new cap, cause the rubber washer is not available by itself.
Good luck, and hope this helps someone in the future not get stuck on the side of the road with this bigpieceofcrap catera.
Yeah, I have had all the problems described in this forum with my 97 catera, and it only has 32000 miles on it.
Oh and for all of you that have replaced the 500.00 oil cooler in your Catera, I have a suggestion for you that I did. Since I have had this car, it has drained me of every penny I have, I can not afford to put any pictures, or art on the walls of my house. I took this oil cooler, spray painted it GOLD, and hung it on my wall. It is a great conversation piece, as well as a nice work of art. I call it my Vincent Van Catera.
Oh and for all of you that have replaced the 500.00 oil cooler in your Catera, I have a suggestion for you that I did. Since I have had this car, it has drained me of every penny I have, I can not afford to put any pictures, or art on the walls of my house. I took this oil cooler, spray painted it GOLD, and hung it on my wall. It is a great conversation piece, as well as a nice work of art. I call it my Vincent Van Catera.
