Hey guys, i have 01 mirage ES Manual transmission with 80000 miles on it.....the car recently started to overheat at idle. It drinks a lot of coolant i dont know why. There are no leaks under the car. I got a check done at firestone and the car failed the pressure test. Also i noticed that the oil is really low on the car now. The coolant in the radiator is kinda thick light brown in color.
Please help me out with this....i dont know what the problem is

 

Does it smoke at all? Try a compression test sounds like you have a blown head gasket.

 

Go to autozone and pick up a compression tester for $20.

 

no it doesnt smoke at all. I got the pressure test done at firestone. is compression test something else??????

 

i want to know if it is really serious that i should sell the car.....

 

a head gasket is not an easy job for a beginner. Alldata calls for 5.4 hours of labor (if the car has A/C) and figure roughly $150-$200 for parts. At a labor rate of $100 per hour, which is cheap some places, you're looking at a $740 job easily.

 

Do the compression test yourself. I don't know what test they performed at firestone.

 

You should have done the compression test not the cooling system pressure test.