Well, I should've taken my own advice- Hence, the reminder of the title of this thread. My 2012 plug-in threw the orange triangle of death About a year ago. Traced it back to a clogged ERG from cylinder one, along with high consumption of coolant. Indicative of head gasket failure from what I understand. I didn't have the time or money for a head gasket Overhaul, so what did I do? Replaced all my sparks and coils, took out the EGR and cleaned it, put it all back together, and put head gasket sealer into my coolant. Worst choice ever. The head gasket Sealer additive that I used, said you could leave it in, but I decided to flush my system anyway. A week went by and I noticed a lot of the additive had solidified at the bottom of my coolant reservoir. I replaced the coolant reservoir and flushed the system again, finding small pink rocks throughout. Then sometime past, and the triangle of death returned, check hybrid system error, and engine code for Water pump. Removed the water pump and found small pink rocks in the impellers. I took the rocks out and hobbled back home, flushed the system again, and got another month before the same code came up. Remove the water pump again and found the rotor was seized, so ordered a new water pump. I have now flushed it again, and have run it in maintenance mode for a while, squeezing the Coolant lines going into the cab to try and get air bubbles out for my cab heater. About 20 minutes of squeezing these coolant lines, and air bubbles are still coming out into my reservoir, and there is no cab heat. I'm wondering if there is a better way to clear Any air bubbles out of the coolant lines in the cab heater circuit? if so, what is the procedure you would suggest? Also, if any advice on which areas most probably have the coolant head gasket, additive remaining, as I'm sure this problem of little pink rocks clogging my water pump is Going to happen again. I have also thought of placing an in-line screen filter that can handle the high temperature of the coolant to constantly be Filtering. Does anybody have an idea for this? At least the head gasket repair seemed to work! For now....
