Car Overheated / Overheating / Overheats [MERGED]

[NTRCOOL]

OVERHEATING? The issues and their solutions have remained the same- either you don't have enough cool air reaching the rad, there's a cooling system obstruction which is preventing coolant from circulating, or your head gasket has failed and is allowing coolant to be consumed or pushed away from the engine.

Discuss all possible overheating problems and solutions here.


OK,
I just left my house to go over to my GF's,and happen to look down and see my needle right before the red mark. This just happened out of nowhere. I stop the car as quickly as i can, and pour in some coolant(Coolant a little low). Still same thing. Welp im in the middle of the road, and HAD to get it home. Im only 5 min from my house. I decided to try and make it(I really had no other choice). Welp I drive no faster than 20mph, and the temp needle is BARELY into the red the whole way.And occasionaly to the left of it. Am I ok?? Do ya think any damage was done?? And im thinking either thermostat, or water pump. For each of those, whats a round about $$ figure to get replaced?? Any info you have would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Defiant]

Next time you're at the gf's, stop by Wal*Mart and get one of those big jugs of kitty litter. When it's empty, flush it out and fill it with water, put it behind the passenger seat on trips. Even if you don't need it, chances are good that someone you run across on your travels will, and there's nothing so good for your car-ma as being the one to show up out of nowhere with plenty of fresh water. They'll be saying nice things about you long after you're dead.

 

[supertalon132]

i have a 94 talon tsi and this time im am clueless on whats goin on. it overheats really bad and the fans don't turn on. but the thermostat works fine and the fans work when i turn on the AC. it overheats both at idle and while driving. im pretty sure its my headgaskets cuase my compressioin is only 120 all the way across. but shouldn't the fans turn on anyway?
any bits of help would help.

 

[redlined_GS-t]

Sounds like your thermo-fan switch is bad. An easy way to check it is put a paper clip in the connector for the fan switch to see if the radiator fan comes on and if it does then you know the switch is bad.

The switch is located on the lower passenger side bottom of the radiator. If that still does not work then maybe the radiator fan relay is bad.

The other cooling fan comes on to the A/C condensor and is actuated by the A/C system.

Hope that helps,
Terry

 

[supertalon132]

so how would i check to see if the relay is bad/good?

 

[redlined_GS-t]

Well if you stuck a paper clip in the harness for the switch and the fan did not come on that would be a good sign that the relay is bad.

You could always jumper across the relay at that point to see if the fan comes on then. Sounds like a repair manual is definitely needed if you have to go any further than that.

Hope that helps,
Terry

 

[echo]

it is most likely the relay. i had the same problem and a new relay fixed it. just goto any autoparts store and pick up a relay for like $25.

 

[krosTSI]

Basically i just want to know if the factory temp guage is accurate cause when i drive my car for like 15 minutes and i open the hood (to disconnect my battery cable) the engine is EXTREMELY hot filling like its overheating, but the guage says its below halfway. Tomarrow im getting ALL the fluids flushed. Also what oil should i use.
weather:warm 70-85 Thats warm for oregon
mileage:110,000

i was thinking 10W30
sound good?
Thanks in advanced,
-KY

 

[Colossus]

Ive only over heated a car once in my life. I was driving a 67 Camaro, 2 gear automatice. When I put it in drive, I accidently put it into 1st (its shifter was a bit off, so I had to count to tell which gear I put it in) I was running at 75 mph in first gear down an interstate.....it started smoken w/ white smoke filled up the inside of my car. Pulled over and popped the hood, and it just kept on smoking for a few minutes. Then, the car would stall out everytime I put it into gear for about an hour. Took a while to cool off.

 

[RipperXX]

No, your car is not overheating. On all first gen DSM's the engine bay gets much hoter than on the 2G's, this is becouse of poorer air flow.

There are a few things you can do to cool down the engine bay. But the easiest IMO would be a vented hood.


And about the oil, you COULD try a full synthetic oil like 10w-30 Mobile 1 but chance's are it will use the oil bad. If it does, flush it and put a meneral oil back in, 3,000 miles later it should stop useing oil again.

The reasion is the meneral oil will build deposets and seal everything up, so the engine does not leak, or use near as much oil. Full syn does not do this, and thus on a older engine it will use it.

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by krosTSI
Basically i just want to know if the factory temp guage is accurate cause when i drive my car for like 15 minutes and i open the hood the engine is EXTREMELY hot filling like its overheating, but the guage says its below halfway.

The factory gauge is a good approximation, but not any better than its sender. If you've never replaced the sender, it's probably coming on to about time.

More important on a factory gauge is where it is in comparison to where it _usually_ is on any specific car (not in comparison to your buddy's "same" car). If it starts running in a different spot on the gauge than where you're used to seeing it, things need to be checked out, starting with the gauge, which means starting with the sender.

 

[forcedfedgsx]

car was running good i was only boostin 10 psi went to pass a car and i saw some smoke and at the time the car was at normal operating temp via the stock gauge, but then it did start to overheat, the coolant resvior dump tube blew off due to the steam exiting. i took out th thermastat but it still over heats in about 8- min of driving, also burning oil immediatly after the overheating. i dont think i ran it hot enough to due serious engine damage cause i shut it down pretty much immediatly. so why the burning oil all of a sudden, blown head gasket?? i ve heard it will overheat and burn oil if the gasket goes??. it doesnt seem to be leaking coolant untill it blows it out to the coolant dump tank as steam. any ideas, water pump? gasket? other?
2g gsx

 

[chazz79]

Hopefully someone can help me here!! I just got done replacing my head gasket with the SCE copper and an ARP stud kit, the thing is overheating like mad now. I switched to a 180 deg thermostat and used water wetter but it still steams out all my water when it gets hot. I can usually run it at idle and watch the fans cycle on and off and it moderates temperature very nicely, it's when I'm driving it craps out on me. It runs fine has 125 compression on all cylinders please help!!

 

[turbo92rs]

just put on new head gasket,rebuilt head,new water pump,radiator,and thermostat.let the car sit and idle for 45 min. never got hot.as soon as i drove it down the street,got hot.blowing steam out of the overflow,water girggling and the upper radiator hose was swollen from the pressure.can't seem to figure out my problem.

 

[me612]

WOW, talk about dejavu. Ya i had exactly the same problem as you just a week ago... when i blew my headgasket. both upper and lower radiator hoses have massive amounts of pressure, bubblin coolant in my overflow bottle. white steam pourin outta there. Yup, happened to me in the middle of nowhere too. But this is what the mechanic told me. We did a quick compression test, had 2 cylinder at 90 and 100. I left the car with him so he could do more tests while i continued my trip back home to MN. Called him the next day, he told me it was the head gasket. Where it blew, it is causing some of that lost compression to go into the cooling system, which is why there is so much pressure built up in the coolant system. Hope that helps. If you just changed your headgasket thought then that's kinda odd, cuz im talkin i had the same symptoms you are talking about. So ya, had to replace the upper radiator hose too cuz it expanded so much during that lil episode. But hey good luck, that's all the light that i can shed on this.

 

[askpoc]

You probably didnt put the head gasket on correctly. Redo it just to make sure.

 

[jpolizo]

Yeah, my first reaction is the head gasket is in wrong. Check the water pump belt, first, just to make sure it's not too loose and slipping.

 

[iisbernhard]

u got enough water in there....? i did that with my friends car...filled it up adn then ran it and had to keep filling it for the longest time till it was full....note; has to go in the radiator cap not the overflow tank

 

[forcedfedgsx]

hello??, can anyone tell me if it is a common head gasket problem to become overheated and burn oil when the head gasket is bad

 

[chazz79]

The headgasket is installed correctly, believe me because I did do it wrong the first time. I just bought the studs and SCE gasket and tossed it back together-no go- wouldn't even run. The head was warped and needed .015 milled from it. This is my second run at installing the headgasket. I used Mopar MLS steel gasket spray when installing it and all is sealed properly. Before I took it apart I had huge amounts of compression in the cooling sytem-now all that's gone, it runs great. I replaced the radiator cap (13psi) and did the 180deg superstat with water wetter. I'm not sure of the conditions that popped the gasket in the first place as I wasn't driving it when it blew. MY "friend" borrowed it and brought it back to me non-running. I just assume that maybe it's something that I did when I installed the head gasket that caused the problem. The car does exactly what it should exept for overheating 15 minutes into a drive. Keep brainstorming for me as I'm completely clueless as to how to get my car back.

 

[jpolizo]

OK, let's step back a second and look at the original problem. If you don't know why the head gasket went to start with, that means the original cause may not have been fixed.

Assuming that the head gasket is OK, and you've replaced the radiator cap, I'd look at the radiator and at the water pump. If the radiator is clogged, that could be why you are overheating. Did you replace the water pump when you did the head gasket? IIf not, it could be experiencing reduced flow from impeller erosion or plain old rust clogging. Also make sure the belts are properly tensioned so that it's not slipping.

Also, have you pressure tested the cooling system to make sure you don't have another leak someplace?

 

[forcedfedgsx]

^^^

 

[spcebrd]

what's the mileage? and have you overheated it before this?

 

[eric95]

it all depends on where the head gasket failed. on neon's, they fail on the rear driver side engine block all the time, so the oil seeps out nicely and burns off the block, big cloud o smoke.

 

[forcedfedgsx]

im talkin burning oil out the exhaust and my car has a newly rebuilt engine (8k after rebuild) but i come to find out they didnt do a very good job and i think the gasket was reused from an earlier rebuild, it just started doing this and i know the rings arent bad or atleast sould be brand new, i still am unsure if overheating and burning oil can be caused by a hg but i believe so although i dont think i got any milky white stuff on the dipstick and my coolant tank is cracked right now so i cant tell if there is oil in the coolant

 

[chazz79]

When I got my car back the water pump and two hoses had blown-the car was leaking water from every place possible. During the gasket job I replaced both timing belts, water pump, ALL hoses, and that's about it. The radiator is less than a year old and it does get as hot as the engine when things go wrong so I'd think that means there is adequate flow. I'll get my pressure tester and check things out later after work Thanks for the suggestions and please keep em coming. -Chuck