**Is 4 months a long or short time? Do you think some kind of quick fix could make it last another year?** Coolant doesn't belong in the cylinder period, so imo, any time is too long. If it were mine and I wanted to save the car, I'd find a shop that I trusted and knew had the equipment to test. If they confirm the diagnosis and the cost, then she can decide if she wants to spend the money. Cheep tricks to try would be some radiator stop leak, install a low pressure radiator cap, and install a 160* thermostat. None of that is intended to fix anything. I give the stop leak virtually no chance of doing anything for a head gasket. The other suggestions I made are aimed at reducing pressure in the cooling system. If she's not going to try to save the car and it still runs ok now, the cheepest thing to do is to monitor the oil and coolant and drive it till it drops. It might run like this another year or 10 years. It might go belly up tomorrow too. If it does, you can find another running escort any day for less than $1400.

I don't think you should automatically take it to another shop. You're already into it for $300 with these guys who thought they fixed it but didn't. Don't know what your engine looks like or what they did for sure so I don't have an opinion as to if $300 was reasonable or not. Could have happened like this. Your vehicle had a coolant leak and overheated for whatever reason. They fill it up and pressure test. Find that leak, repair it. Pressure test again, no leaks. Run it for a while, gets to normal temp and holds there. They conclude...maybe falsely, the leak was the only problem, that it overheated because because the coolant level was too low because of that leak they repaired. Under what conditions does it overheat and how long does it take? Idleing in traffic, or cruising down the road? AC on or off? Only when it's hot outside, or does it matter? Overheating usually isn't that tough to diagnose if given enough details. The coolant going away due to a leak would certainly be one of the causes. Other possibilities would be the thermostat not working, electric cooling fan(s) or fan clutch not working will do it. Radiator plugged up inside or a bunch of junk restricting air flow on the outside will do it. Even the cap not holding pressure can cause it. The shop you took it to is guilty at most of not being thorough enough. That would be easy to do if you came in and said something like you were just driving along and all of a sudden it overheated. jmo Glad to see you back earthworm. I was afraid something had happened to you.

I suspect that the system was not full, possibly air space in the heads. I don't know about the location of an air-bleed on the 3.1 L V6, but I think is is similar to the 2.8 L V6. My 2.8 l V6 did not have an air bleed. the drill was to fill it as much as possible with a top most hose removed and when coolant started flowing out the hose bib, re-attach the hose and fill as much as possible. Pre-mix the antifreeze and water, usually half and half (unless you purchased the pre-mixed stuff). Be on your toes when you purchase antifreeze. The 100% antifreeze and premix often occupy the same shelf space and it easy to get these mixed up. Use this mix to add coolant to the system. Do not try to mix in the radiator since it is too difficult to get the desired mix ratio. Fill the overflow bottle with coolant to a level above the full mark. With the heater control set to high heat, radiator cap off, start the engine. Add coolant as the level sinks (for short period of time) and then put on the radiator cap. Don't remove this cap again during the filling process. Don't run the engine no more than 5 minutes because there is probably air in the heads. Stop the engine and allow to cool. You should see coolant being drawn out of the overflow bottle. Check the level in the bottle and start the engine. Allow it to run long enough to open the thermostat. The upper radiator hose has a significant rise in temperature when the thermostat opens. Stop the engine and allow to cool. As the coolant cools, it will suck more fluid from the bottls, that is, if the fill cap is in good condition and there are no air leaks in the line running from under the cap to the overflow bottle. You can hasten the first two cooling periods by running some water over the radiator core. Check the fluid level in the bottle. Always add coolant to the bottle, never at the radiator cap. The cap must remain in place to keep from admiting new air into the system. After these first 2 minor thermal cycles, there should be enough coolant in the system to run the car for a short time. Drive the car until the thermostat opens and the temperature comes to near normal. Park it and allow to cool. Resupply the overflow bottle and after this 3rd thermal cycle, there should be enough fluid in the system to drive the car at mild service conditions. Watch the coolant level in the bottle for the next 2 to 3 cool downs, add coolant as needed, and when the level stabalizes, you may go back to the normal check schedue. Because the intake manifold was disturbed, keep an eye on the oil level and condition over the next few days. We're looking for possible coolant leaks into the crankcase. On this engine, the intake manifold sits between the heads, acts as the valley cover, and has coolant passages. A rise of oil level and color change may indicate coolant leak into the crankcase. Oil contaminated with ethylene glycol will have a brownish color and may...

Tigerdunes brought up demand defrost versus timed defrost. For the past 18 years, I have dealt with my Lennox defrost scheme. The only times I heard it go into defrost mode were when the unit was first running in heat mode. The unit would switch over from heat to defrost, the defrost cycle would complete and everything would turn off. I never heard it run a defrost cycle when it was not first heating. I rarely heard it go into defrost. I never heard it defrost on a fixed cycle such as every 90 minutes. Am I to understand that a Carrier will just go into defrost mode every X minutes whether it needs it or not and is not in a heating cycle; just turn on and defrost itself? I found this information in the Carrier 25HNB6 heat pump installation instructions: AUTO defrost adjusts the defrost interval time based on the last defrost time as follows: When defrost time When defrost time 3-5 minutes, the next defrost interval=90 minutes. When defrost time 5-7 minutes, the next defrost interval=60 minutes. When defrost time >7 minutes, the next defrost interval=30 minutes. The control board accumulates compressor run time. As the accumulated run time approaches the selected defrost interval time, the control board monitors the coil temperature sensor for a defrost demand. If a defrost demand exists, a defrost cycle will be initiated at the end of the selected time interval. A defrost demand exists when the coil temperature is at or below 32_F (0_C) for 4 minutes during the interval. From that description, if the time interval elapses and the coil is not at 32 degress, then no defrost will take place. That, to me, sounds like a form of demand defrost. Is Baldloonie saying that the coil could be at 32 degrees or less without frost and, therefore, a defrost cycle would be unnecessary? What kind of ambient sensor detects presence or absence of frost? Neohioheatpump asked, "When your old A/C would run, was it producing water?" It was producing water and I saw it dripping from the condensate drain. One weekend I went out of town and came back to find water on the floor around the return box that the fan coil sits on. I opened up the access and found the interior insulation of that box soaked. Turns out the condensate line was plugged. Took awhile for that to dry out. On the other hand, this past summer I did not see water dripping from the condensate drain. The drain line was not plugged and the drip pan seemed dry. I thought it was because I had dried out the air so much with the two dehumidifiers that there wasn't enough remaining for the A/C to remove. Cooling was normal. Running the fan on manual started with the installation of the Lennox and an associated Honeywell Electronic Air Cleaner. The house suddenly became dusty and I blamed the EAC for not doing its job. The Honeywell zone representative came to my house, sized up the situation, and told me to run the fan on manual so that the dust would remain suspended in the air and available to be captured by the EAC. I did that and it was of no help for the dust situation but it did help reduce the temperature differential between the first and second floors during cooling so I kept doing it as a matter of routine. Thus, I cannot say that not running the fan reduced the humidity. Though I complained about humidity, the heat pump contractor never told me that I was humidifying the house by running the fan (on orders from the Honeywell rep). I will continue to run at least one dehumidifier in the completely below grade basement during the summer because I want that area to be warm and dry to avoid mold and mildew. I've been in the basements of other houses in the area that don't use dehumidifiers and they stink. Mike Home said, "You stated in an earlier post that you run the fan in the summer because the upper floor is 2-3 degrees hotter than the lower floor. I think adding the attic insulation will help this." I agree that adding attic insulation could help. But, having a Dutch Colonial house with a barn-like roof that is covered in dark shingles on the east and west sides causes a lot of heat gain through the second floor walls. I'm not keen on opening the walls to determine the amount of insulation or add to it. Changing to a light-colored roof would make the house look out of character with the neighborhood. There are newer shingles that reject heat gain that I will investigate. Mike Home also said, "You could also zone the first and second floors, but this is expensive and probably not feasible with your current duct work." There is but one main feed duct and it runs through the basement. There is no way to segregate the room feeds in this scheme without doing each one individually. I'll leave that expense to the next owner.