Overheating

solo92s10 · 09-07-2006, 03:07 AM

Ok my car is overheating but only after i drive it for 20 minautes or more and i come to slowly moving traffic or let the car idle. It doesnt matter if i am driving the car hard or not, just normal highway driving, or taking it to 6k rpm. I am losing coolant. All i have to do to get it back to normal temp is turn on the heat on the first notch and it goes to normal engine temp. I have a 2g and have the xs power fmic and i dont think my fans work. is this just a problem of my radiator not getting enough air? Should i wire my fans directly to always be on when the car is on? I am currently in denial that it is my head gasket but i already bought everything for i just incase, but if i dont have to i would love to take the parts back.
I am going to replace my thermostat and flush my radiator. Do you think that hardwiring my fans and flushing and a new thermostat will do the trick or are you thinking headgasket? Oh yeah it has a new water pump and timing belt and components.

smokey8667 · 09-07-2006, 07:46 AM

My 2g was also overheating and I had to replace the thermostat & also found that my fans were only working when the "HI" relay kicked on. They would not work when they should have turned on "low". The low relay was not making a good conectionin the fuse box under the hood. I also was loosing coolant, but that was from when it got hot it was leaking around one of the squeeze clamps on the top radiator hose. I thought I had a blown head gasket but thats what it was insead.

dave99gst · 09-07-2006, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by solo92s10

I have a 2g and have the xs power fmic and i dont think my fans work

So you know your problem and solution -

1990EclipseGSX · 09-07-2006, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by solo92s10

I have a 2g and have the xs power fmic and i dont think my fans work. is this just a problem of my radiator not getting enough air? Should i wire my fans directly to always be on when the car is on?

Constructing some ducting out of sheet metal to direct the air from the FMIC into the radiator will help out.
A switch to let you turn on your fans always in traffic will help also, once you get them working again.
http://www.vfaq.com/mods/wayback/2gcoolingfan.html

20psi_GST · 09-07-2006, 09:01 AM

I dont want to jump to conclusions to fast but i would have to say its your head gasket. The whole losing coolant thing is all i needed to hear. Unless you can see an obvious leak then it "has to be burning it somewhere". Hell it could be burning it and just simply dumping it out the exhaust so you will never see any evidence. Replace the thermostat and flush the radiator first. A thermostat isnt but about 12 dollars so it wont break the bank any if thats not the answer. But i honestly hope its not your head gasket cause thats a pain in the ass.

ddavisaf · 09-07-2006, 11:09 AM

Non-operational fans will cause your car to overheat. A FMIC that blocks incoming air to the radiator will cause it to overheat. A bad headgasket will cause it to overheat.
First thing you need to do is run a compression test. Service limit on your car is 133psi on any cylinder and there should be no more than 14 psi different between cylinders.
If your compression test results are good, then I recommend replacing the radiator cap. Replace your fans. If they don't work, then they need to. Some ducting to help direct air flow to the radiator is a good idea as well.

Also, next time you need to search. There is a walkthrough in the Tech Guide about overheating. It has everything that could be wrong with the vehicle.

VicBoost · 09-07-2006, 11:33 AM

I have the same problem when the car runs for about 20min or so in the summer it gets pretty hot but my fans work all the time when its hot. I have stock sidemount intercooler but my rpm's jump and my car runs rich. I'm guessing it might be the thermostat, just a quck question where is the thermostat and what you think my problem is?

ddavisaf · 09-07-2006, 02:05 PM

You need to start another thread. You have more than one problem that will need to be troubleshot.

smokey8667 · 09-08-2006, 07:21 AM

I agree on the compression test and by the way, why sont you go to autozone and get the cooling system pressure tester from there loan a tool program and test the cap and the entire system for problems instead of starting to buy parts right away. You wont be out anything when take it back. I swear it sounds like the problem I had and it was just the low relay not allowing the fans to come on until the coolant temp got over like 215 or so. By the time they came on the car had gotten to hot to really cool back down good. Just a thought.