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!

 

[markgholland]

If it is your water pump, you may as well do your timing belt while your in there... Just a suggestion.

 

[unlikely hero]

Would a coolant leak cause this problem?
=Jason-

 

[billdo_83]

Originally posted by unlikely hero
Would a coolant leak cause this problem?
=Jason-

Yes it could if you dont have any coolant in your car.

 

[unlikely hero]

No shit on the no coolant, I mean just a leak, would that cause it to act like that.
=Jason-

 

[billdo_83]

Originally posted by unlikely hero
No shit on the no coolant, I mean just a leak, would that cause it to act like that.
=Jason-

Well think about it.
if you are leaking coolant. that will cause you to not have enough coolant in your car.
So that will cause this problem.

 

[SpoolN]

Nah found out what it was it was a pin size hole in one of the hoses that was shootin fluid out like crazy fixed it and now the car is perfect. lets see how long it will be till the next problem

 

[stuffy1256]

Well as the title says my car is running extremely hot. The temp seems to be directly porportional to the amount of gas i give it. More gas, more heat. When i get boost, temp skyrockets. also when i am idleing sometimes or going really slow it starts to get hotter. The fans are not coming on but the motors work (ran wire from battery to fan plug and started spinning on both fans) but im not getting voltage to the fan. The computer is registering a heating problem and the heat it is at (hooked it up to a computer and i got this code " insuffcient coolant something for closed loop" and showed a temp of about 230*F) so im guessing some sort of sensor is out. Anyone know where this is located? Or what it is called so i can get a new one? thanks for the help.

 

[jfdid]

I think I could be your knight in shining armour. I remembered this post on another board:

http://www.speedstreet.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2877&highlight=closed+loop

I don't know if that link will work, so here's the just of it all:
crazyjoe over there has a 95, and got the error: P0125: Insufficient Coolant Temp for Closed Loop Fuel Control

Yet there seems to be some discrepency here as, he finally went through EVERYTHING, temp sensor, thermostat, etc...and found a page on Yahoo, that said the error really meant:
Excessive Time to Enter Closed Loop Fuel Control

Nothing to do with heat at all.....so something to check; your O2 sensor. It seems that if it's not reading correctly the ECU doesn't think your car's warmed up yet and won't run fans or anything. The original post is at
www.speedstreet.org/forums and "crazyjoe" posted it, called "I have CEL codes and a bump on my head"
And the follow up post was called " Holy @#$%^& "

Dude, I really hope this is the problem. I'd check your temp sensor before anything, but this could be your answer!

PS, if you're changing the sensor, you're probably going to need to splice in some wire as they only give you like 10 inches of wire. It's all in crazyjoe's post.

 

[BUCK]

For God's sake please jump out the Connector at the Rad Fan Coolant Temp Switch lower Passenger side Radiator before you KILL the thing.

 

[stuffy1256]

Originally posted by BUCK
For God's sake please jump out the Connector at the Rad Fan Coolant Temp Switch lower Passenger side Radiator before you KILL the thing.

so the switch is on the radiator? your post was kinda sporatic

jfdid: i dont even have an o2 sensor intalled. Just an open hole. The threads stripped on the exhaust and im taking it into the shop to see if they can re-tap it. That could be the problem. Thanks for the help

 

[jfdid]

I imagine no O2 sensor can't be a good thing! If you followed that link, there is two people who had the same kind of thing, so I'm sure that's your problem, if not, like I said, check the temperature sensor.

 

[supergoat]

Ok, here is what is new or cleaned on my car...
-New Waterpump
-New thermostat
-New Radiator hoses
-New turbo coolant feed/return lines
-Radiator flushed
-No leaks anywhere
-New radiator cap

Ok, here is the deal. Normal operating temp for my car puts the needle about 1mm past straight up. Yea I know, my pocket logger batteries are dead and I can't drive my car to go get some more so I can't give an exact temp right now. Also when I fill up the coolant and run the car, when I shut it off good bit comes pouring out the overflow.

Anyhow, that is fine and I can live with thet. However sometimes the needle climbs up to almost the red area, but only for about 30sec or so and then falls back to normal for the rest of the drive. But it climbs suddenly and falls back slowly. And earlier I stopped at Autozone and all was good. I get in my car and as soon as I start it the temp shoots to the red and slowly falls back down.

Does this sound like I have air in my lines? I'm pretty sure I "burped" the system properly but maybe not. That is the only thing I can think of. Any tips on getting air out of the system if that is indeed the problem??

Thanks guys. And help is very much appreciated.

 

[AwdEi]

Just let it idle with the radiator cap off and keep adding what until it is full. I may take a few minutes for the thermostat to open, so dont be impatient.

The radiator may be bad. Also, to check the thermostat, grap the upper hose when the car is at normal operating temp. If its hot, it opened. Or maybe you got a thermostat too hot, which doesnt open when it should. The people there could have grabbed the wrong one.

Hopefully, it is not the head gasket that is clogged.

 

[jpolizo]

When you put the thermostat in, there's a little hole with a dongle thingy in it; that hole needs to be at 12:00-high. If it's not in the right position, you will get an air bubble stuck at the top of the thermostat housing and any other bubbles in the system will get stuck there. That may or may not be your problem.

Get a kitchen thermometer and stick it into the radiator and idle the car -- see what temp you get.

Also, watch the coolant while it's idling and see if you see any bubbles coming up out of the engine.

Good luck!

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by supergoat
However sometimes the needle climbs up to almost the red area, but only for about 30sec or so and then falls back to normal for the rest of the drive. But it climbs suddenly and falls back slowly. And earlier I stopped at Autozone and all was good. I get in my car and as soon as I start it the temp shoots to the red and slowly falls back down.

Sounds like a sender or gauge going tits-up. Do you get overheating symptoms, such as pinging? Get batteries for that logger and find out what the coolant's really doing.

 

[Enigma_Man]

I know my temperature will climb up to around 206 degrees right as it's warming up, then come back down again to 200 or so, but the needle goes up about 2-3 MM past straight up on the stock gauge when this happens.

I had always just figured the thermostat just took a second or two to open, or the water took a second to start going through the radiator, so the heat kept going up for a second.

But... the gauge never has been near the red mark.

-Jesse

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

are the fans coming on???there a sensor on the bottom of the radiator too,might want to check that out ,and if worse come to worse,u need a new head gasket

 

[BUCK]

You may want to check your Base Timing.

Sounds like a sender or gauge going tits-up.

I concur there.

are the fans coming on???

Good question!

When you put the thermostat in, there's a little hole with a dongle thingy in it; that hole needs to be at 12:00-high.

The Manual is kinda weird on this - It shows the Turbo Thermostat Housing & identifies it as N/T Housing - The dingy-thing is positioned over the port in the Thermo Housing that ducts to the Turbo Coolant Line if I recall correctly (12 o'clock?) - I just cut my Dingy-Thing OFF with some Dikes (can't wait to see the replies on THAT) so it flows a little thru the small hole to the Turbo at all times.

The Manual then pictures & ID's as a Turbo Thermo Housing the plain-jane Thermo Housing with no internal ducts or ports for Turbo Coolant lines & a Thermostat with no-dingy thing.

 

[supergoat]

I should clarify, the thermostat is around 1000 miles old and this JUST started happeing in the last few hundred. miles.

I'll get batteries for my logger and see what my highest temp is.

Thanks guys!

Oh, and yes both fans come on.

 

[Defiant]

Originally posted by supergoat
I should clarify, the thermostat is around 1000 miles old and this JUST started happeing in the last few hundred. miles.

Thermostats have no wrists, so they have no watches. They might work ten days or ten years. They just don't have a clue.

 

[crankbender]

It seriously sounds like a thermostat to me. Or a pump is not flowing well.

As for burping the system there isn't much to it.

Star the car in hte driveway and watch the temp gauge. find out where on the temp gauge the water begins flowing through the radiator. I am willing to bet the radiator stays cold till you get too hot. This is a deffinate sign the thermostat is bad.

 

[Puller]

My car still overheats...i replaced rad cap, thermostat and radiator and hoses get hot...it went like 10 miles without overheating then all of a sudden it just did like i flipped a switch or something. then it blew cold air...when you go to start it, without actually starting it, the coolant goes right to the overflow...what does this signify? you can crank it for like 3 seconds...stop...then you can hear the coolant gurgle to the overflow...

 

[BUCK]

Replace Thermostat with Factory part.

 

[loreak]

water pump might have took a dump, mine went out and it would overheat pretty easily, it blew water out the overflow all the time, until it was nearly empty

eventually water started leaking from the water pump really bad

 

[AL92]

If the water pump is pumping water and there are no leaks in lines,rad etc than only things left to cause overheating is non working therm,bad rad cap or blown head gasket or non operating fan and of course low coolant.And rad caps and therms are pretty cheap..