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!

 

[Boosted98gsx]

White smoke from exhaust = Head gasket gone KABLOOOEY!

 

[paintball4fun21]

also theres no oil in the coolant or coolant in oil.....Ill probably just replace the headgasket and water pump

 

[2gmummy]

If you have a leak and its not visiable then it has to be internal. It sounds like a blown headgasket to me, i would do a leak down test to varify if it is the headgasket. If your going to check and replace definitly look at your thermostat and the sensor, most of the time when your car overheats those go bad as well. Also i would check to make sure your radiator isn't clogged.

 

[chenk18]

My problems started when I installed a fmic. Before that my temps were from 194-199. After, they were 202-204, they climbed under acceleration, and I couldn't drive on the interstate or if it was above 80 or so because they would not go back down. So I figured if I got a new radiator with some slim line fans, it might bring the temps back down or at least make it so I could get on the interstate and drive during the day. Well that didn't happen, it actually got worse. Now I can't drive at all because the temps will just keep climbing. It will idle at 194-199. I don't know if this helps any, but after my car cools down, the upper radiator hose is empty and all the coolant that was there is in the overflow bottle.

Anyway, the radiator and fans are Mishimoto. There is a 195 thermostat in it, tried a 180 but it was worse. I have 50/50 antifreeze in it with wetter water. I am 90 percent sure all the air is out of the system, rubbed and shook the radiator hoses with the heater on, not sure of the proper way to burp the system, that was all the info I could find on it. I left the oil and tranny coolers there because I was told I didn't have to relocate them when I installed the front mount because it wouldn't make me overheat. I also left the ac in.

So I need some ideas on how to get the temps down. The Mishimoto guy said I need to mount the fans on a sheet of aluminum and then on the radiator, but I don't see how that would help. He also said the fans should be blowing towards the motor. The place where I bought the radiator said it should be blowing on to the radiator.

Thanks for any help
Michael

 

[shockracer]

the sheet of metal will act like a fan shroud, it helps the fans draw air. i take it that the fans are mounted on the engine side of the radiator, if so they need to be drawing air from the front of the car blowing on the motor.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Have you checked the obvious things like head gasket, and thermostat? Did you install it in some way that blocks all airflow to your radiator? I won't even comment on where your fans should blow; I figure you must be kidding on that one.

 

[1sttimedsmr]

Try removing the thermostat and run it like that. Look for water movement in the radiator hoses. If no movement is present maybe your water pump is going bad.

Also try driving it with out a thermostat and see if it over heats. Also having no water in the hoses could mean a bad gasket. Check for steam coming out of the exhaust.

 

[chenk18]

Yes the fans are on the engine side and yes I was serious. I figured they would blow toward the motor, but I had two people, my dad and salesman on here, say it should blow on the radiator and then the Mishimoto guy, didn't know if a Talon and Eclipse had the same motor, saying it should blow toward the motor, well you might see who I would tend to believe. The thermostat does open, sure it isn't a head gasket, and the front mount takes up the whole front opening of the car. I aslo replaced the water pump 4000 to 5000 miles ago.

 

[shockracer]

maybe try a 160* thermostat. has the cooling system ever been fully flushedm, may have some blockage some were?

 

[chenk18]

I thought about a 160 thermostat, but the guy that sold me the intercooler said the lower thermostat I get, the less time the coolant has to cool in the radiator, therefore I will still overheat. I thought it might work, but when he said that I gave up on it. I flushed it when I changed the radiator.

 

[shockracer]

i had isuse with mine when i first bought my talon, but it was the other way around, it would not stay warm for anything , pulled the T stat and it was in peaces . only thing i can think of would to be fabing up a shroud. i would check to see if you do have proper curculation in the system, i have seen water pumps fail after only 1,500 miles, and thats OEM pump ( on different cars and trucks).

 

[CrankWalkerX99]

Try removing the thermostat and run it like that. Look for water movement in the radiator hoses. If no movement is present maybe your water pump is going bad.

+1, good idea.

Also try driving it with out a thermostat and see if it over heats. Also having no water in the hoses could mean a bad gasket. Check for steam coming out of the exhaust.

It will probably overheat with no Tstat as the coolant will be flowing too quickly through the radiator and not cooling down.

Yes the fans are on the engine side and yes I was serious. I figured they would blow toward the motor, but I had two people, my dad and salesman on here, say it should blow on the radiator and then the Mishimoto guy, didn't know if a Talon and Eclipse had the same motor, saying it should blow toward the motor, well you might see who I would tend to believe. The thermostat does open, sure it isn't a head gasket, and the front mount takes up the whole front opening of the car. I aslo replaced the water pump 4000 to 5000 miles ago.

There really shouldn't be much confusion on how to wire up a fan. It is extremely simple.

IF the fan is between the front bumper and radiator (on the front) it should be "pushing" air into the radiator.

IF the fan is between the radiator and the engine (on the "back" of the radiator), it should be pulling air through the radiator.

Either way the fan is still technically "blowing" air to the motor. It sounds like you are confused on that part. After checking out the Mishimoto site, it looks like all of the Talon parts are non-exsistent, but labeled as Mitsubishi, I bet the Mishimoto guy was just making sure that they were the same. Do you expect them to know the ins and outs of every single vehicle? I can imagine that is a lot of information to remember.

You mention that the FMIC takes up all of the room. I assume the radiator is not getting any airflow to it? If you do not have any type of fan controller, the fans are probably shutting off after a certain speed, thus no air flow while driving (with the addition of a blocked radiator). Once you sit at idle, the car sees 0mph from the VSS and kicks the fans on. There is a point at which the airflow from driving is "better" than the what the fan can do, so the car shuts the fans off. No fans and no air flow means overheating.

 

[Klubbhead]

Ok, so my car started overheating about a week ago. I did some research and checked and started replacing the basics.

At first i thought it was a bad thermostat because temperature kept going up and down. So bought and replaced that. Next day same thing happened, except this time the coolant tank was BOILING and spilling nothing but STEAM.

I found out that the fans didnt turn on at ALL, so i replaced the fan switch, ALONG with the coolant temperature sensor. Fans turned on but the car still overheats!

I let it cool down overnight and started checking it next day, i turned it on and let it warm up for a bit, then i started reving it a bit and saw a bit of smoke coming out of the exhaust (this also happened when the car was really hot). Went and checked the hood and saw that when i revved the car, some of the coolant would spill from the overflow hose. And that the UPPER radiator hose was leaking. All the clamps are well tighten and none of the hoses have leaks.

I dont know what else i could do and would really appreciate any help.

 

[DSM315]

take off the upper and lower radiator hoses and run water threw them (a garden hose works great) see if the radiator is cloged. the radiator itself cold have alot of corrosion built up on the bottom of it causing no flow or little flow.

 

[Klubbhead]

I will try that today and see if that works. thanks

 

[chenk18]

I took out the thermostat yesterday and the coolant was flowing. I put the thermostat back in and put the stock fan back on to see how much difference the shroud would make. The temps were 204 in 77 degree weather. So I am going to fab up some shrouds the fans. The temps probably was still to high for me to get on an interstate or drive when it is hotter, so I put the 180 thermostat back in it today to see if it would make a difference. The hottest it got was 194 in 82 degree weather and the fans came on at 190, normally came on at 199, I don't see how changing the thermostat for a lower one would make the fans come on earlier, I thought I was controlled by a sensor. But the thermostat got hung open somehow. So I guess I'm going to go and get another 180 thermostat and see how it works. Oh, and the upper radiator hose is full of coolant after cooling down now also. I don't know how that get fixed.

BTW I don't expect the mishimoto guy to know every car. He actually told me the way I was thinking, which was pulling the air through the radiator to the motor. He just didn't seem to know about cars, another example is not 5 seconds after I told him I installed a front mount intercooler, he asked me if it was a turbo. My dad, which fixed every car we owned in my 20 years of being alive, and the vendor on here, which seems to know a lot about cars and has 400 to 500 tech post, was telling me that the fans should blow on the radiator. Where I got confused was two people telling me one thing and the Mishimoto guy and I thinking it was the other way. So, I just wanted some more input on which way they should go.

Thanks for everyones help,
Michael

 

[CrankWalkerX99]

Wow... sounds like a lot of confusion amongst the masses.

Glad you got it all cleared up.

 

[winkdogydog101]

check the water pump if its bad even if nothings clogged its really not going to be moving that much

 

[LiquidX]

Defiantly do the flush first and see if it is infact clogged. The fill cap, is that corroded at all or leaking? Fix the leaking hoses and check the water pump as well.

The coolant doesn't happen to be discolored or if you take the cap off and turn the car on, do you see bubbles at all?

 

[Dizorganizer]

Yes i had this samething happen to me. I had to get a new hose and water pump to fix the problem

 

[Klubbhead]

Well the thing is i had replaced the water pump when i bought it about 4 months ago, brand new.

Could i go bad in that short of time?

 

[BIGBLAZE79]

Sounds like your water pump is on its way out. There is a little weap hole on the side of the water pump housing. If its comming out of there your pump is bad. That's what mine did at 57K miles. Same symptoms.

 

[BlackMount]

Sooo, After hot runs, like fun road course's and such. If I cruise at 2500 rpms around that range. The car will start over heating, and even more at idle regardless of road speed. But if I drive around and let the car hit 3-4.5k and shift it will cool back down to optimal temps. Doesn't overheat badly, just slowly starts to overheat. It doesn't over heat during long runs where I'm driving the car more spirited, its only when I cruise normally for awhile after a hot run..

Fans kick on properly
Don't know how old my thermostat is but I plan on replacing it.
Always check coolant, and add water if it seems like it needs any but it rarely does.
Waterpump fairly new
Coolant sensors all new.


Any Ideas? besides thermostat?

 

[risnerry]

There is a little weap hole on the side of the water pump housing that likes to go out. so it could possibly be your water pump

 

[Indian]

Are you reading off of the stock water temp gauge? Or are you clearly overheating?