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!

 

[pagan]

I have a 98 Eclipse RS, 420A. This is going to be a long one.

My power steering belt came off over a year ago. Every time I put the belt on and rev over 5-6, the belt flies off. I finally had enough and drove without power steering for over a year. In the interim, my cam shaft seal came loose and we had to change the timing belt in my garage when we replaced both seals. We did not change the crank shaft seal, nor did we change the water pump (stupid, I know). The harmonic balancer chipped in a couple of places where the puller was, but it did not damage where the belt goes. We got the harmonic balancer on, and apparently it was not all the way tight because earlier this week I was able to tighten it further with an impact gun. The pulley still has a little bit of play. You have to really look to see it. THe car also has a slow oil leak just above the pan because that is what we used to jack the car up and down to get to the timing belt and seals.

With the temps over 100, I attempted to put the belt on again. I did and now it ran for about a day with horrible grinding noises when turning left and right. The belt finally fell off again, which is OK with me. BUT today I was driving home and my car went really hot, and the oil light came on (which is not unlikely as I go through about a quart a week with the leak in the pan), but I stopped at the gas station and put a quarter in but the light came on a few miles later. I did put the heat on thinking it might be the radiator, but the air was not hot at all. Then white smoke started coming out of the area between the timing belt cover and the front of the engine. I let the car cool down, I put another quart of oil in and drove the last 3 miles home when it started to overheat again.

I called my friend at O'Reilly auto and while I was talking to him I did mention that sometimes when my car runs for a while, the radiator overflow gurgles really bad. But this has been happening since I got the car. He said that it might be the Head Gasket, but the engine sounds like when I first got the car 6 years ago. Nothing wrong with it. I did just replace the upstream O2 sensor too.

Can anyone tell me what to do? I cannot afford to take it to a mechanic at all. I have absolutely no money, but I can borrow some for some easy fixes if that's what you think it might be.

 

[96' Eclipse GS]

All I can tell you, is start to tear it down and go from there on the damages.... You can do a "Combustion leak down test" to see if it is truly a BHG. You need to stop driving the car and look at the timing belt. Again, WE can not see what you have, if we do not have photos & videos. All we can do is "Guess in the dark"......

 

[green97gstspyder]

All I can tell you, is start to tear it down and go from there on the damages.... You can do a "Combustion leak down test" to see if it is truly a BHG. You need to stop driving the car and look at the timing belt. Again, WE can not see what you have, if we do not have photos & videos. All we can do is "Guess in the dark"......

What he said youll have to get in there and start looking around.

 

[green97gstspyder]

I know this is stupid but be sure your coolant level is full. Could be on the cusp of being too low.

 

[007jimmy]

sounds like you had a bad harmonic ballancer. i would pull your upper timing cover if you have one and check your timing belt for wear on the sides. the bad harmonic balancer could have destroyed your front main seal again but there really isnt a way to tell until you look for the oil leak. maybe the power steering belt took out the sensor or feed line on your oil filter housing or something. those are all suspect areas i would look at.

edit... sorry scratch that on the feed line but still check that area where the powersteering belt could have hit something when it flew off..

 

[Davids97Eclipse]

Update: I ran it without the thermostat and tested the thermostat it still over heats. However i don't get any leaks from the water pump pulley but the pulley is squeaking (not a grind) like most people have when water pump is bad. Hmmm... any input would be great!
I'm gunna flush radiator tommrow i'll get it updated.

 

[pagan]

I have a 98 Eclipse RS, 420A. This is going to be a long one.

My power steering belt came off over a year ago. Every time I put the belt on and rev over 5-6, the belt flies off. I finally had enough and drove without power steering for over a year. In the interim, my cam shaft seal came loose and we had to change the timing belt in my garage when we replaced both seals. We did not change the crank shaft seal, nor did we change the water pump (stupid, I know). The harmonic balancer chipped in a couple of places where the puller was, but it did not damage where the belt goes. We got the harmonic balancer on, and apparently it was not all the way tight because earlier this week I was able to tighten it further with an impact gun. The pulley still has a little bit of play. You have to really look to see it. THe car also has a slow oil leak just above the pan because that is what we used to jack the car up and down to get to the timing belt and seals.

With the temps over 100, I attempted to put the belt on again. I did and now it ran for about a day with horrible grinding noises when turning left and right. The belt finally fell off again, which is OK with me. BUT today I was driving home and my car went really hot, and the oil light came on (which is not unlikely as I go through about a quart a week with the leak in the pan), but I stopped at the gas station and put a quarter in but the light came on a few miles later. I did put the heat on thinking it might be the radiator, but the air was not hot at all. Then white smoke started coming out of the area between the timing belt cover and the front of the engine. I let the car cool down, I put another quart of oil in and drove the last 3 miles home when it started to overheat again.

I called my friend at O'Reilly auto and while I was talking to him I did mention that sometimes when my car runs for a while, the radiator overflow gurgles really bad. But this has been happening since I got the car. He said that it might be the Head Gasket, but the engine sounds like when I first got the car 6 years ago. Nothing wrong with it. I did just replace the upstream O2 sensor too.

Can anyone tell me what to do? I cannot afford to take it to a mechanic at all. I have absolutely no money, but I can borrow some for some easy fixes if that's what you think it might be.

 

[eclipse420ags]

Whats sup Ga boy! Dude I think its your headgasket to. Check your dipstick after you get done driving it, does it look like chocolate milk? If its not that I would run a radiator flush. If still does it I would think water pump.

 

[pagan]

I looked under the car and the only oil leak is the one I already know about. There is no more or no less than normal. Can it still be an oil leak?

 

[007jimmy]

well you seem to be adding oil at an alarming rate so id assume thats the smoke your seeing. its going somewhere its not supposed to

 

[pagan]

I just went and checked all the lines and to see if there was fresh oil anywhere near the harmonic balancer. Nothing is loose and there is no fresh oil. Just the stuff from when we changed the timing belt and cam shaft seals due to a blown cam shaft seal.

The oil leak I speak of is from using the oil pan to jack the car up and down to do the timing belt. It's a small one. I am just too lazy to fix it by taking the pan off, bending it back and replacing the seal.

I did notice that it smells like anti-freeze coming out of the tail pipe and it's definitely white smoke. Not billowing, but when you step on the gas. I did take off the radiator cap and it's working fine. I am waiting for the car to cool off before I attempt to take out the temp sensor and put it in boiling water to see if the springs move.

Any other suggestions while I wait?

I pulled out all the spark plugs and checked the oil. No anti freeze smell/ no water in either area. I also checked under the car and there is no oil leak near the harmonic balancer. Any other suggestions?

 

[KewlWinter]

+1 on it probably being the head gasket. And the engine will sound fine... until it doesnt and starts knocking. Like he said, check that your oil still looks like oil and not milky brown sludge. I wouldnt think water pump, because they usually leak water, not white smoke. White smoke from the exhaust or engine area is usually caused by a head gasket failure that allows water to leak into the cylinder and become superheated to steam. The steam under high pressure then either exits through the exhaust or back into the water passage causing bubbles in your cooling system or into an oil passage or directly out between the engine deck and cylinder head. Take your pick, none of them are good as far as cheap easy fix.

 

[KewlWinter]

Your fan(s) are coming on when you go over operating temp right? If so, then I would start looking at the water pump as being worn. The fact that you can rev the engine and see a reduction in temperature means that with the water pump turning higher rpm, you are getting more flow through the radiator. A flush might improve things a bit if your coolant system was nasty, but probably wont fix your problem.

 

[Iroc_g]

Water pumps don't always leak or make noise when they go bad. I flush is a cheap try it job to save yourself the headache and/or cost of the water pump and timing belt.

You may also try jumping your fans on full time. If you eliminate the radiator and fans from the equation, there isn't much left. If the fans are always running and it still gets hot, then the water isn't moving properly.

 

[unplugged]

most likely WP or something in the way of it

 

[Davids97Eclipse]

Okay thanks for the input i'll post when i get it figured out.

 

[AlbeUrDemise]

Time for a "Water pump". You can flush the system and see the results, if they do improve, it is a blockage or worn water pump.

I agree sounds to be a waterpump blockage. I would change out the waterpump and do a system flush to clear any extra debri left behind. You might want to do your timing belt enless you think it's fine or have changed it recently anyway.

 

[dietsoap]

so I've recently installed 16g with fmic not to long ago.. during this time the car worked fine, with the exception of a boost leak but my car did not overheat, even under load. (uphill, full car, a/c) no overheating. Had stock exhaust and pretty much everything as far as engine is concerned. About a week or so ago I had a cat back 3" exhaust system installed and then the overheating issues began to occur. The car will warm up to normal operating temp, when just driving but after about.. lets say 10 minutes the car starts overheating, and it spikes up above the 3rd tick. apologies for the lack of knowledge of correct names but i'm kinda new at this. . then when i hop on the free it it'll go back down but not much. I've replaced the radiator, t-stat and hoses. water pump was done earlier this year. There are no air bubbles running in my system either. Also replaced the radiator cap, still stumped on what the problem is. After looking around and trying all sorts of tricks on previous post nothing works. I'm just all kinds confused on after putting on the exhaust, it starts to overheat.

 

[kronus]

You didn't remove any heatshields from the areas close to the das did you? Did you replace any ducting after you installed the fmic?

 

[dietsoap]

nope, i put back on everything except the duct.

 

[Chrispy0530]

Make sure your main/condenser fans are working properly.

 

[idkiliketurbos]

I had a similar issue to this with just a fmic, stock everything else. I did manage to get some air out of the coolant system when I bled it, but I also did some air ducting. Check out this thread and consider making some.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/turbo-system-tech/245981-fmic-ducting.html

 

[dietsoap]

Weirdest thing is that right after i put on the exhaust the overheating began... how is the exhaust a cause of this? or just by coincidence other parts just began fail. Fans are working 100%

 

[Chrispy0530]

Is this happening with A/C on only? or all the time even with AC off?

 

[dietsoap]

all the time. I looked around and thought about purchasing an aftermarket t-stat so it'll open up more, hoping it'll fix the issue.