Hey r/MechanicAdvice, I need some guidance. I have a Sliver Chevy Sonic 2012 Turbo that my mom used to drive. I am now faced with a decision to sell it, or to fix it for myself.
WHAT HAPPENED?? P1
So one day while driving, we smelled a strange scent. It smelled battery-egg-machinery. We then saw an engine light go off with tons of beeping. We immediately pulled over, and we saw white smoke from the hood. We got it towed home. Then, we decided to turn it on again. We heard what resembled engine knocking. Following the next time we decided to turn it on again, it wouldn’t crank. The battery would later on die, but we jump started it and it would make a clicking noise but the engine would not start.
Context?? This happened before P1
The engine light beeping happened before. Some guy said it was a coolant problem and fixed it. The problem would later show up again. Another guy put coolant inside of the car. We would drive home from the guy who put coolant in our car only for it to burst into white smoke followed by beeping.
INTENTIONS!!
IM going to college soon, and I think it’ll be cool if I could fix this car. However, I towed it to the same guy who “fixed” the coolant problem initially and he said that he cannot help, costing me 100 bucks. I am debating on fixing it, I have no knowledge on how to fix it. I genuinely think it would be cool to have this car running, but I don’t want to spend 2000 bucks on it. 1000 >= would be considerable. I’ve been stuck on this decision for a few months.
My research
Probably a blown head gasket or engine failure. Since the coolant problem never got solved, im assuming this caused the engine to have loads of friction or something: resulting in the white smoke, and resulting in the engine failure.
What I want
Give me advice please!! I’m willing to fix it. It has a turbo and I think I could have fun with it. But It’s not worth it if it’ll cost me too much. This could give me some engineering experience (im an engineering major) and this car will be super useful in college. Im debating on if fixing it could potentially cost less than a new used car.
Help me get this car running!!!
or give me the harsh reality!!!