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!

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

I agree with talon187, there is a good possibility that its a bad temp sensor. Do you have dsmlink? I think you are able to find the temperature in that. Does the car smoke at all? Do you lose any coolant, or does the overflow stay at a pretty constant level?

I would just try an aftermarket one, something cheap just to be safe.

James

 

[mgsx98]

yeah i have the stock temp gauge.

and yeah the car does smoke but its not coolant its from the turbo the seals going bad.
you said a bad temp sensor? isnt there like three?

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

I wonder if the turbo is heating up so much causing the coolant to heat up and give you a bad reading? I think you need only the temp sensor on the water neck. On a 2g there should be an empty thread to put an aftermarket gauge in as well. Try that.

James

 

[akasoldats]

So last night I came home from work and left the car running when i took some things up stairs. About 20 min later my girlfriend tells me my car is smoking. So I go down and find the cap to the overflow bottle melted where it connects from top to the hose coming from the engine and the hose is pouring out steam. The overflow bottle is full and my thermastat read somewhere around the H. I shut it off and filled it back up with coolant this morning. It starts fine and seems to run ok but it is leaking on the driverside somewhere around the pulley area, a stteady drip of the coolant i just put in.I dont see any hoses over there so is this a head gasket problem? Also should I be worried about a warped head even though I think i cought it realativly soon? I need to get this fixed hopeully this weekend... and I dont even know where to start?!?

 

[92AWDHX40]

Hey i feel your pain and i live here in the zoo, your water pump is probably leaking drivers side
near your pulleys wp.

 

[akasoldats]

The problem is I don't have a jack to get under there. And to be honest I dont know what I would be looking for it was anything but a broken hose...

 

[EDM95]

Sound more like a water pump gone bad.
You should take a another look at it to see where it is leaking out from.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Well the wp is leaking, you dont need a jack. you can look on top and see the pump. Which if is bad you will need a new one and do the timing on it. Ill send you a pm.

 

[grans0o]

Been trying to tackle this coolant system problem on my Galant. Its a 1992 Galant VR4

3 weeks ago... Its been getting cold and there was a questionable coolant to water ratio in the car. So there's a possibility that this could have frozen on a cold night could be bad news there. Car was taken down the road to get food by my roommate, he had left it running awhile to let it warm up... came back out the car and there was no heat. Drove it to the store car got up to operating temp, still no heat, thing ended up overheating pretty substantially on the way back.

I look at it the next day, coolant is a little low but nothing major... I add a bit of coolant to top it off, burp the hoses.. go for a drive the car warms up just fine... it starts to get a little bit of heat and then right when it seems to be at its best it just goes away completely this is with the car at normal operating temperature. I shut if off and leave it alone to work on it another day.

Later in the week I completely drained the coolant, hooked the garden hose to the upper radiator hose had the radiator drain open and the cap off... let the hose run through it until the water was nice and clear coming out. Fill it back up with coolant, burp the system take it for a drive... same stuff happens.

I was told that this could be a thermostat issue by a friend (even though the thermostat is close to new) so I replaced that today. Same problems are still going on today after the thermostat change.

So:
Warms up fine

Heat works slightly if I'm actually driving around or have the revs up a bit, if its idling the heat will almost immediately get cold.

The thing doesn't really overheat that easily but it will a little bit the fans kick on and seem to do the trick of cooling it back down to normal operating temp, I'd have to check but I think I have my check engine light come on at 220-230 that came on for just 15 seconds or so when I drove it around just a little bit today.

Under the engine bay:

Upper hose is hot
Top of Radiator is hot

Lower hose is cold

One heater hose is hot
One heater hose is cold

My thoughts:

Could be an air bubble, but I don't think so.
Radiator could have some flow issues but that doesn't seem right either, this problem literally happened out of nowhere.
Ice formed when my mixture was questionable and screwed some things up!

Any help you can give is appreciated! Thanks

 

[blktalonawd]

Your water pump is for sure bad, make sure and get a new timing belt and timing belt pulleys (tensioner pulley and idler pulley) and hydrolic tensioner to do everything right once, unless you enjoy working on the car everyday. I have seen this too many times. goodluck

 

[Defiant]

Your thermostat is stuck open. It doesn't take much.

 

[akasoldats]

Yeah, I picked up a water pump today. So I need someone local to help me set the timing. Lol. I would rather not start slappin metal. Any takers?

 

[akasoldats]

Or does anyone know of a sop thats not going to charge me $500 to take it in and have it done. I have the parts already

 

[Boost92awd]

Or does anyone know of a sop thats not going to charge me $500 to take it in and have it done. I have the parts already

When getting a timing belt done I would be careful on where you take it. I would only trust a shop that has worked on DSM's before and is known to do a good job. Start a thread in the midwest section and see if you can get some local people from your area to chime in and help you. You could also try your local dsm forum.

 

[No_Skillz]

You should definitely do a compression test before you do the waterpump/timing job. Overheating to the point of the H on the gauge is pretty severe and the aluminum heads warp easily. If it turns out to be the head, you will have to redo the timing.

 

[akasoldats]

Yeah the pump is leaking. And has been it looks like which would explain the squeaky belts. I'm going to have the pump switched out first and if it ends up being the head ... we'll be starting back at square one. The only problem is i am out of a DD for now.....

 

[Boost92awd]

Yeah the pump is leaking. And has been it looks like which would explain the squeaky belts. I'm going to have the pump switched out first and if it ends up being the head ... we'll be starting back at square one. The only problem is i am out of a DD for now.....

Save yourself a headache and do what no_skillz suggested and do a compression test before you rip anything apart.

 

[CJTurbo]

How about the heater core. If the 2 hoses are not both hot the coolant is not flowing through.

 

[GSXtacy724]

Ok guys, got a 2g gst that tends to get like 3/4 of the way up on the stock temp gauge, my question is why? Thought it was the thermostat so we changed it and its still doing it. The fan is working and the coolant is filled up. It does it while driving, it'll get hot and then slowly fluctuate. Doesnt sound like a waterpump to me...what do you guys think? Thanks in advance

 

[loba]

Causes for overheating:
-Thermostat installed backwards
-Fan not engaging
-Water pump going bad

HOWEVER - Your temp sender could be bad.

What I would do:
-Verify thermostat installed correctly
-Verify fan's engaging
-Check temperature sender with an ohmmeter

If all those check out I think it's time to replace the water pump

 

[BoostFrenzy]

Did you make sure to get all the air out of the system? Also, is your radiator cap sealing properly?

 

[GSXtacy724]

Causes for overheating:
-Thermostat installed backwards
-Fan not engaging
-Water pump going bad

HOWEVER - Your temp sender could be bad.

What I would do:
-Verify thermostat installed correctly
-Verify fan's engaging
-Check temperature sender with an ohmmeter

If all those check out I think it's time to replace the water pump

I put the thermostat in with the tab thing facing straight up and down. Is that right? Also the temp sending unit is brand new from autozone, I was wondering if that was reading wrong. How could I check the temp besides buying a water temp gauge?
Boostfrenzy, how do I get the air out, or check for it? And I believe the cap is sealing properly, its not leaking atleast...

 

[_sonic_]

ok. over heasting on a GST.
1. do you have an extremely large front mount intercooler that blocks your air intake to the engine bay??????????????
2.is your radiator clean? is there leaves,debris,lil insects ect. in your radiator blocking air???
3.where is your timing set to, have your used a tuning device or piggyback???



lets start there

 

[BoostFrenzy]

Boostfrenzy, how do I get the air out, or check for it? And I believe the cap is sealing properly, its not leaking atleast...

Take the cap off, turn car on and let it get to temperature. Turn car off. Fill with water/coolant mix to level. And keep checking it when the car is cold to make sure it is at the fill line.

The easy way to check if your cap is working right is to get a new one . They are so cheap anyway even for an aftermarket one. They are important because a weak cap (or one with too low a pressure rating for the application) will lower the coolant's boiling point and can allow coolant to escape from the radiator.

 

[GSXtacy724]

ok. over heasting on a GST.
1. do you have an extremely large front mount intercooler that blocks your air intake to the engine bay??????????????
2.is your radiator clean? is there leaves,debris,lil insects ect. in your radiator blocking air???
3.where is your timing set to, have your used a tuning device or piggyback???



lets start there

Nope, no front mount. I'll be sure to check the radiator tomorrow. Timing is stock. Its got a 1g CAS. Could that be wrong? I know it runs like its got a boost leak and doesnt have anything until after 2000rpm. Would that cause the car to get so hot?
Ok Boostfrenzy, i'll get a new cap. thanks man.