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!

 

[Bluefire16]

Ive had the same problem...somewat. I believe i am pushing coolant however, ### only on boost and load my bottle fills. So im replacing my headstuds to see if that helps (mines only on long drives thoug...)

 

[jm1080]

Wow hopefully it's not the headgasket but mine is perfectly fine. Post a pic to see how it looks like.
I think since it's hot out here in south florida these last couple days, the heat is started to take it's toll on my car wit hthe huge fmic. Time for some REAL fans after i change those above parts.

JM you said you had an aluminum radiator ? Did this really help cool your temps down ?

And yes my needle goes well above the middle but ONLY after hard driving it hard.

Yep bought from some new company called blackworks, won it through auction for like 130 bucks, looks good. I thought too my problem would be the radiator, so I changed it out and found out my stock radiator was in great condition . I really didn't see any difference if I looked at the stock gauge because it was always in the middle. I forgot to log it with dsmlink, right now I don't have a laptop so that's why. I'm sure it did have some improvement.

I think when I set my factory boost gauge to read coolant temp, it isn't as accurate maybe? Because when my fan wasn't working boost gauge would read all the way positive and CEL would go on, then after a while with the CEL on stock coolant temp gauge would raise.

Anyways I took pics of the oil dipstick:

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and here is another one, how it is supposed to look like (just dipped it in the extra oil I had):

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Looks kind of clear must be reflection, but it is way lighter color and more watery feel (how it should be)

 

[Dsmj89]

Hmm that looks normal JM... Don't forget oil gets darker as the miles rack up.

 

[96eclipzGsT]

If its not boiling over or anything. I would say something is restricting the air through the radiator. Maybe the fans motors are weak, going out, or not working at all. Dirt caked up in radiator/fmic/condensor fins. Radiator itself might be clogged. Is the coolant nice and green? With the car at operating temperature with the radiator cap off, can you see the water moving well through the housing?

 

[Hubbell91Tsi]

get a leak down tester. when i blew my headgasket it made it very clear. nothing ever got into my oil and the compression was fine but it just coming out of my over flow.

 

[Dsmj89]

Like i said my car has no leaks and nothing comes out of my coolant overflow bottle.
And yes my coolant is nice and green and it flows with no problem.
I am starting to think my radiator is bad and probably really dirty and clogged as mentioned above.
I will go ahead and buy a new one.

 

[jm1080]

Hmm that looks normal JM... Don't forget oil gets darker as the miles rack up.

Yea but I just changed my oil like 500miles ago. Maybe I just got paranoid when they said if oil is dark milky it is headgasket. Are there any other symptoms for a bad headgasket? Anyways good luck with that and let us know, probably just the weather here for us, will get cooler soon hopefully .

 

[nyTalonTsi]

Yea but I just changed my oil like 500miles ago. Maybe I just got paranoid when they said if oil is dark milky it is headgasket. Are there any other symptoms for a bad headgasket? Anyways good luck with that and let us know, probably just the weather here for us, will get cooler soon hopefully .

Bad overheating, thick white smoke out the tailpipe, when you smell its sweet.

 

[RayBan GST]

first off sorry if i have a similar thread before, but now i really need your help i am going crazy.

i have a strange overheating problem, my car does not really overheat but it really gets hot and the stock gauge is reading 3/4 hot . once the meter gets above normal my fans kicks in and will put the tempreture back to normal. so my fans are basically kicking in LATE????

here is a list of what i have done:
1- compression test 168 - 165- 163- 168
2- new water pump
3-new radiator cap
4 blitz lower and upper radiator hoses
5- new thermostat ORIGINAL
6-new coolant tempreture sensor original
7- radiator flush
8- im running straight water and then i tried also some coolant but no FIX.
9- checked fuses and fans relays and they are fine , they both kick in but late
10 burbed the system from air


im not pushing coolant and no oil in water or water in oil and my car does not overheat its just my fans are kicking in late ?? why

what is left? could it be my ECU what shall i check ?/

 

[96eclipzGsT]

When you say radiator flush did you do it yourself or take it to a radiator shop?

 

[RayBan GST]

radiator shop and proper flush , again if my fans are on i will never overheat its just my fans are kicking in late. if i unplug the coolant temp sensor my fans will run all the time and i will never overheat but i will have a cel which i dont like.

 

[heckles]

Id go with a lower temp thermostat and call it a day.

 

[RayBan GST]

man please understand my problem, im not overheating its just my fans are kicking in late making me overheat . i even tried to run without thermostat but still the same.

 

[96eclipzGsT]

man please understand my problem, im not overheating its just my fans are kicking in late making me overheat . i even tried to run without thermostat but still the same.

One fan should kick on at 205F the other comes on with the a/c. You sure the fan motor is not going out?

 

[RayBan GST]

sometimes and i mean really sometimes my radiator fan on the passenger side will kick in alone on low when the temp is normal nd then when the tempreture is above normal both will kick in and will put my temp back again to normal. if i switch on the ac one fan will work which is on the driver side and then followed by the other one again once the temp is above normal.

its really rare seeing the main rad fan kicking on low, i mean it its really rare.

 

[DGajre777]

6-new coolant tempreture sensor original

There are 2 coolant temp senders/sensors on the car. One 2 wire sender is for the ECU and one 1 wire sender is for the stock coolant temp gauge. Which one did you replace?

 

[RayBan GST]

ecu one 10803

 

[boostedjay32]

just rewire them to work with a switch so they can be on all the time

 

[RayBan GST]

just rewire them to work with a switch so they can be on all the time

why cant we find the problem instead? i can get them on all the time by unplugging my coolant sensor but i will get cel.

 

[DGajre777]

ecu one 10803

Are you sure you are over heating? It could just be a faulty water temp sender causing an incorrect reading in the instrument cluster. Try replacing it or check the water temps with a logger or a different gauge.

 

[RayBan GST]

Are you sure you are over heating? It could just be a faulty water temp sender causing an incorrect reading in the instrument cluster. Try replacing it or check the water temps with a logger or a different gauge.

yes iam sure iam overheating, because when the car is cold the temp gauge is reading cold , plus when my fans kicks they put the gauge back to its place in the middle so it goes like this no fans its overheating fans on back to normal.i even unplugged this guage sender and cleaned it but still.

could it be my ECU ? What else should i check ? iam dying to fix this issue please

 

[Dsmj89]

Thanks jm hopefully it gets cool soon. Nontheless i still have plans to go dual 10" pusher fans.

 

[DeadsEvolution1]

Ok first off no offense but I think you are over reacting a little bit. Like the wiseman said, there are 2 different sending units. 1 goes to the ECU and the other goes to the stock temp gauge. If you already replaced the ECU one than what's it going to hurt to replace the one that tells the gauge what temperature you are at?????? Than if your problem persists you know you are getting a little too hot.

I do not see why you are not willing to run your fans all the time. A lot of DSM'ers do this including myself and it keeps my temperature perfect all the time and never tries to over heat.

Replace the other temperature sending unit, than get back to us about this.

 

[RayBan GST]

Ok first off no offense but I think you are over reacting a little bit. Like the wiseman said, there are 2 different sending units. 1 goes to the ECU and the other goes to the stock temp gauge. If you already replaced the ECU one than what's it going to hurt to replace the one that tells the gauge what temperature you are at?????? Than if your problem persists you know you are getting a little too hot.

I do not see why you are not willing to run your fans all the time. A lot of DSM'ers do this including myself and it keeps my temperature perfect all the time and never tries to over heat.

Replace the other temperature sending unit, than get back to us about this.

well iam not over reacting my friend, because iam fed up from paying money and waste my time and effort on parts than i dont need , i spent a lot of money man changing so many parts and then they did not fix the problem, i wish iam in the states cause these parts will not cost a lot of money but here other than they are extremly rare they are way over priced. trust me man . there are around 20 DSM in all over UAE and these cars were imported from japan so no market for them here in DUBAI. however i will do what you say and will change it and will report tomorrow if i find this part. if not then iam gonna go to faq to check how to wire your fan to be on all the time.

 

[JEFFREYCASTGSX]

When your car started overheating, did you replace the temp sensor before or after? Where did you get the sensor from(brand)?