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!

 

[0r1landoDSM]

sounds like a bad sensor. If your gauge is going up over half way and anywhere close to the 'high' mark, it is too hot. If the unit is bad, it will vary even if the temp stays the same. Both fans should be working when temperature reaches around 200.

If it gets fairly hot again, check to see if anything might be boiling out around the resevoir, if not, more than likely a bad gauge.

For good measure, I would replace the sensor and thermostat and see if that fixes the problem as well. Better for the gauge to be malfunctioning than it actually be overheating and you not realize it and mess something up permanently.

how much degree's is normal? only 1 of my fans kick in when the temp goes about 10 or 25% over the halfway point.. is that normal that 1 fan kicks in or should both fans kick in?

 

[BiggD]

Is your car actually overheating? Are you losing fluid at all? My Avenger was constantly overheating and it turned out to be just a bad radiator cap. Never had a radiator cap go bad until then on any car Ive owned but glad it was a simple fix.

 

[Alan11]

yours sound more of a ECT problem.
Normal temperature is between 200 to 212 degrees. Only one fan should tun on. If your car gets hotter for example with the a/c on then both turn on.
Make sure you have no leaks.
Try replacing you thermostat, its the most common issue in 420a engines.

 

[0r1landoDSM]

yours sound more of a ECT problem.
Normal temperature is between 200 to 212 degrees. Only one fan should tun on. If your car gets hotter for example with the a/c on then both turn on.
Make sure you have no leaks.
Try replacing you thermostat, its the most common issue in 420a engines.

well, i replaced thermostat a few months ago. and when i get out of my car i sometimes smell coolant i dont know where its coming from though. i dont see any coolent on the floor under the car so its kinda hard to know.. the weird thing is my car only overheats only once in a while, it can be fine for about 30 or and hour then it goes a lil higher then normal when i turn the a/c on it stays in the middle and never moves.. sorry but whats ECT?

Is your car actually overheating? Are you losing fluid at all? My Avenger was constantly overheating and it turned out to be just a bad radiator cap. Never had a radiator cap go bad until then on any car Ive owned but glad it was a simple fix.

i replaced my radiator cap a few months ago as well when i did thermostat.

 

[Alan11]

An ECT is the Engine coolant temperature sensor.
You have a leak if you can smell coolant. Today i smelled coolant in my GSX and looked around and one of my radiator hoses has a minimal leak. there is no need for coolant to be on the floor.
If you have a leak you might be low on coolant, causing the temperature to move up and down.
Check you Heater core hoses those are a PITA but they are possible to be leaking. Check the rest of the hoses to.
Also i went through 3 new thermostats on my old gs.
Check leaks on you water pump too.

 

[0r1landoDSM]

An ECT is the Engine coolant temperature sensor.
You have a leak if you can smell coolant. Today i smelled coolant in my GSX and looked around and one of my radiator hoses has a minimal leak. there is no need for coolant to be on the floor.
If you have a leak you might be low on coolant, causing the temperature to move up and down.
Check you Heater core hoses those are a PITA but they are possible to be leaking. Check the rest of the hoses to.
Also i went through 3 new thermostats on my old gs.
Check leaks on you water pump too.

im gonna flush and refill my coolent system to see if i have any air inside cooling system and fix leak b4 i buy a new ECT, thanks for help

 

[Suckitup]

If you are facing the front of your car looking to the back, the left fan should be coming on when temp gets hot enough. The right fan is usually your ac fan it will turn on when your a/c is turned on.. I could be wrong but the a/c fan will not turn on no matter how hot the sensor gets..

If you have hooked up any gauges with water temp and you hooked it up to the ecu sensor wire that is your prob. I had done that being stupid and it stopped working until I unplugged it from the wire and just ran it straight. Not saying you did just a thought....

 

[streetstyleauto]

my car overheats when i drive it on the highway 80 mph
drivers side fan doesn't kick in but the other one does. needle stays at 3/4 of the way thru the whole trip (60 miles) but when i was getting home the needle when all the way up then i slowed down and it when down to 3/4 quickly then up again and down again.
what could this be?
needle stays in the middle at idle

 

[phunny]

At highway your fans do nothing, the incoming air is what cools the engine. Does it only do it under boost?

Are you constantly adding coolant? If so then you might have blown a headgasket.

 

[marc97gst]

could be faulty thermastat

 

[streetstyleauto]

what should be my cooltemp at idle and under load
mine is (203 F) at idle with dsm link

 

[phunny]

what should be my cooltemp at idle and under load
mine is (203 F) at idle with dsm link

203 is fine for idling.

 

[GRAVEDIGGER]

First and foremost make sure the coolant is all the way topped off.

 

[forcdndukshun]

First and foremost make sure the coolant is all the way topped off.

Next step would be to check your thermostat.

 

[phunny]

Next step would be to check your thermostat.

Hey guys, lets not crowd the thread with useless info just trying to get more posts... His thermostat is fine.

 

[forcdndukshun]

Hey guys, lets not crowd the thread with useless info just trying to get more posts... His thermostat is fine.

Just because it's fine at idle doesn't necessary mean his thermostat is fine. Don't think because I don't have thirty posts on this forum that I am a newbie. I have owned dsm's for the past ten years.

 

[phunny]

Just because it's fine at idle doesn't necessary mean his thermostat is fine. Don't think because I don't have thirty posts on this forum that I am a newbie. I have owned dsm's for the past ten years.

Actually that is exactly what it means. I couldn't care less about your post count as that says nothing about your knowledge.

Here ya go
YouTube - Car thermostat opening and closing

 

[streetstyleauto]

coolant its full
now its at 210 F - 213 F at idle which is 3/4 and when it goes all the way up it says 216 F.
here is a log

 

[phunny]

Log didn't post

 

[streetstyleauto]

here is on this link.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/399530-car-wont-go-pass-4000-rpm.html

 

[Alan11]

I went throught 3 brand new thermostats. The tend to come defective.
It is still probable that the thermostat is not openeing correctly.
Air pockets in the system can cause your neddle to move up and down.
A faulty Rad cap can also cause the neddle to move.
Start with the basics first.
Ultimatley make a compression test to make sure if it is your Head gasket or not.

 

[MotoEclipse]

could it possibly be a failing water pump?

 

[dsmrollerz90]

FMIC not allowing air to flow through, clogged raditor, clogged heater core, faulty thermostat, water pump belt slipping, bubbles in coolant. Could be anything. do a whole radiator flush and find out if any of your lined are clogged. It's not expensive.

 

[Boost-Junkie]

+1 on doing the radiator flush, apart from that you should try a pressure test on the coolant system and look for any leaks. I had some of the same symptoms you had i would get on the highway and my 1g would overheat resulting in boilover but it would occasionally drop back to normal temps at idle as you describe. I ended up replacing my headhasket it was warped just enough to where coolant would not leak into the oil or into the combustion chamber so it didnt smoke.

 

[FUZZYDESERTDSM]

you can also check out the temp sending unit , i had a similar problem, and ened up being that (brass piece that sits on the water neck that tell your fan when its hot). good luck.