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!

 

[DeadsEvolution1]

As long as you tighten down the hold properly there would be no reason to worry. And It does help a little bit

 

[southrneclipser]

iv got them on my car. some people say that doing this will make it act as a cowl hood and pull more air in the back which does not help. i use skateboard bearings as my spacers and they're small enough to not let air in or out of the back of the hood but it still creates enough room for hot air to escape from the sides of the hood. on the highway it made as much as a 10 degree difference on a 100 degree day. my car is N/A so you it might be more benificial to yours.

 

[paultheninja]

Your blocking to much air depending on what size of front mount you now have. Also (if you have one) move your front license plate away from the radiator. Other solutions are get a 13b radiator cap, 180degree thermastate, and have your fans come on about 20-30 degrees cooler.

Im about 100% sure the FMIC is blocking your airflow.

 

[DeadsEvolution1]

He knows the FMIC is blocking the airflow but that shouldn't be so drastic that the car over heats thats why you have fans in the car.
Do what I said up there. My FMIC takes up alot of room and the radiator is blocked, I was over heating but when I replaced all those things I told you to replace I had no more cooling issues.

 

[ApexVIII]

Do you know for certain your radiator is bad??
Start with the easiest things. Replace your Thermostat, radiator cap and your water pump. Also check to make sure your fans are turning on as well. Do a coolant flush to get all the gunk out of the radiator. You don't wanna spend the money on the radiator unless you were already in the market for one. If you are, than get a new one but still replace those things

wait replacing the water pump is a easy thing? not unless you are already doing the timing belt

does it over heatall the time or just when the AC is on?

and how hot is it getting?

 

[DeadsEvolution1]

I can get to my timing belt in 20 minutes and retime it put it all back in place within an hour. So Yes I consider it easy

 

[slickonice]

Sorry for the slow replies.. I'm offshore and it's very difficult to use a computer. My car never use to overheat with the A/C on full blast and I live in Louisiana where it's very warm. My front mount Isn't huge but it's just big enough to block the opening in my front bumper cover. I completely removed my bumper cover and that seemed to fix the issue.. But I don't really like driving around without a bumper cover. I'll order a new thermostat so when I get home I can put it on. My car would get to about 3/4 to the red mark. Thanks for all your help!

 

[DeadlyAKrunna47]

You maybe running lean which is can cause it to heat up quik. or water pump is going bad, should be replaced at 120,000k mile.

 

[Kruzy]

found out the overheating was caused by the thermostat. And the squeling of the belt is my alternator being loose. It shakes badly when even at idle, ive tightened it twice already but it seems to keeps loosening up.

 

[terrystalon]

Alright I have been searching through these forums for similar issues to mine...but nothing so far... so maybe someone can help me... my car seems to be overheating slightly...it happens to be doing so on hot days...but at night it is just fine, i can drive on the freeway and through town just fine...but when i come to a stop light the temp gauge needle begins to move hotter slowly at idle...as soon as i get going again the temp gauge normalizes... i need to replace my map sensor...which i know has nothing to do with the temp issues...but i don't know where to begin in trying to resolve this issue..any kind of help would be nice. I will be replacing my t-stat this weekend, along with my map sensor, also. i can faintly smell coolant burning from the engine bay, but not from the exhaust.... my car is completely stock... .any help or suggestion would be nice. its a 95 eagle talon tsi awd, but it does not have the original motor in it, a used engine and tranny from japan was put in about 30,000 miles ago, so i figure i have roughly 65k- 80k miles...but i believe they used a alot of the old sensors and parts with it... as i have replaced quite a few sensors already along with belts...

 

[my dreamt dsm]

Stop and go situation sounds like your fan is not working. Check your coolant fan sensor majiggy.

 

[96mitsugsx]

Flush your radiator using radiator flushand change your t-stat. Check for leaks if you are smelling burnt coolant. Make sure to bleed the system properly when you fill it up with coolant.

 

[brassc2007]

check your radiator cap while you are at it if it will not hold the pressure than it will slighltly overheat same issue i had with mine threw on a new cap and it worked fine

 

[notverygood]

turn the ac on. If the fans dont come on, you're that much closer to fixing the problem! (the ac forces the fans into high speed operation-if they dont come on with the ac (assuming it works) then we can bet theyre not coming on when the temperature dictates.)

 

[terrystalon]

Well i do know that the extra fan turns on when the car is all the way warmed up and im idling... i have been losing coolant though which leaves me to believe that i do have a coolant leak somewhere... or that my t-stat is not working properly and its just burning up on the inside somewhere. How do you test your radiator cap to see if it is not holding pressure?? I was gonna get my coolant serviced as well. last time i took it to oil can henry, they said the coolant is at the proper temp.... ill be doing some things to it this weekend to see if the problem still continues, just want to figure out the problem before i start spending money on trying to fix it... i've learned my lesson to many times..buying parts and it not fixing the problem, and it always ends up being something else...

 

[frankenstein406]

how many miles? leakdown test for headgasket?

 

[terrystalon]

my car has roughly 65k-80k, dont know how to do that test...

 

[crash89]

i've learned my lesson to many times..buying parts and it not fixing the problem, and it always ends up being something else...

Live and learn my friend. Weve all had situations like that. Its always most likely that the weakest part of the system goes, so changing all of that may make you have to change more parts but in the long run ull be rewarded with a fresh system. But like all the others said, get a flush, check your t-stat, rad cap, your fans and for leaks.. get them fixed and your golden.

 

[terrystalon]

how do you check your radiator cap to see if its holding pressure or not?

 

[boostd_mitsu]

The First Thing I Would Do Is Just Let Your Car Run And See If The Fan Kicks In On Its Own. Be Sure To Watch The Temp Guage Just In Case It Doesn't And If Thats The Case Jump The Fan With A Battery To See If It Even Works, If It Does Then You Know Where To Go From There, If It Doesn't Then Its The Fan

 

[terrystalon]

the problem on seems to be happening when its hot outside, at night when its cold the problem does not happen...

 

[boostd_mitsu]

Well When Its Hotter Outside Your Motor Will Run Hotter Then Normal, Did You Check To See If The Fan Was Kicking In When It Was Supost To?

 

[notverygood]

the fans have 2 speeds. High and low. Turn on the ac when the fans come on. If the fans dont speed up, they could still be the issue.

 

[beniger]

maybe the water pump is not cycling. Turn the car on and watch it look at the fans if the fans run then move on to the next item see if the thermostat is working. But to me it sounds like your waterpump faulty. Leaking or not pumping because it cools when you drive overheat when still. I would let the car run and watch the water pump look for a leak while it idles.

 

[Nofear20]

Long story short... was getting in the 206 to 215 temp range a few months ago. Didn't like that so I put in a 170 thermo and set the coolant offset to +20 in dsmlink so the fans kick on quicker.. Temps were good after that never went over 190 really..

Ok so fastforward to now.... I have to refill my overflow about once a month becuase it empties out. The car doesn't seem to be overheating... meaning the stock temp gauge stays at about half... But I got back from a trip the other day and I could hear and feel coolant boiling/bubbling around. I attached a pic of the hose circled in the pic in which I noticed this.
When I had my car up for a tune my mechanic told me that has had been replaced. Thought he said something about it not being the perfect one but he made it work. Why?

Ok so, I didn't pay too much attention to the coolant boiling in that hose, but it still made me think. I decided to "burp" my coolant system bt leaving the radiator cap off and refilling it everytime the coolant level dropped. I read this is how you were supposed to do it, well everytime I would fill it up the level would just drop again. Why?

So today I took another 1 1/2 trip. I stopped once at when I went back to restart the car, it turned over pretty slow. It reminded me of when my starter went out. I drove home about another 45 minutes and let it sit outside for a few. I went back out to start it again, turned it over and it did absolutetly nothing. It just sat there and made no noise at all the same way that it did when my old started died. I tried it again a sec later but held the key for longer. It started up and ran fine. Why? Overheating is what I'm thinking...

Can you guys please help! Thanks.