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!

 

[onefast2gdsm]

Is there an accurate wiring diagram simewhere for slim fans

 

[I-DSM]

Ok, here is my scenario:

Drove the talon to school yesterday, as I was pulling into the parking lot i noticed the temp gauge going up. I was on a single lane road that leads to the parking lot with 6 cars behind me, so stopping wasnt an option. Once I started getting into the parking lot, the car started bogging a lot. When i popped the hood I noticed coolant all over the place, to make a long story short, the coolant line that runs from the thermostat to the engine block was ruptured. So after replacing the hose, refilling the cooling system, i'm having this problem where I will start it, the car will run perfect for about 10-20 seconds, then start sputtering horribly, and then eventually stall out. Did I screw up the head gasket with this? Not sure where else to start looking

Also, I checked the dip stick and the oil cap and found no traces of coolant mixing with the oil. So i'm not 100% on where I sit with this right now,

You sound like you have timing problems or its indeed mixing water and gas. HG failure means it doeant work properly most people say you blew it but Ive rarelly seen a blown one. Could be a warped head. Also, you either messed with timing or aome coolant fell by the spark plugs. The best HG test is to let it run. Look for smoke, water evaporating (not necesarilly visible and with no leaks) and overheating, and if its really bad you will see collant/oil mixtures. Note that all this can be happening together or only one of the above.

 

[lovehatedsmRS]

Hey guys,
I've got a 93 Laser RS Turbo AWD and since I've had it I've gone through 5 radiator fans, 4 of them have stopped working after 2 or 3 days and 1 had all of the blades snap off. Because of this my car has overheated (were talking in the red) several, several times, so I'm pretty sure my head it just about shot, however I've never had overheating issues while the car is moving. I replaced my starter the other night and when I took it out for a test run I was overheating within 5 minutes of driving. So after driving it to work, and pulling into the parking lot this morning pouring steam from the hood I talked to some guys at work and we all figured it was the thermostat. Well I pulled it out and it was actually jammed half open and closed, so I put it back to it's normal place and put everything back together, still I overheated about a half mile away from home (thank God). I called a couple friends after I pulled in the driveway and they are all telling me that maybe I didn't put the thermostat back in the right way. And others are telling me that maybe the thermostat is shot. And others are telling me to just run my car with no thermostat in general. I've put $50 worth of coolant in my car today (literally) and I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions.
Thanks everyone!

 

[drewboi]

Clogged radiator or bad water pump? Is the colemt flowing at all?

 

[Bud92gsx]

Have you flushed the radiator..Open that small plastic nut on the oil filter side..Let some coolant out.

Repalce the thermostat..I've had 3 bad thermostats in a row before.

 

[J_HEATH]

Replace the thermostat, flush the system. Do you have a FMIC? And what fan are you running? Stock, aftermarket? If/when you flush your system see if there is any clumpy rust goo that comes out. If so your water pump blades could be covered in it or rusted to crap and needed to be replaced as well.

 

[mantega4g63]

It probably heats up so quick due to a bad head gasket, you're getting combustion gases in the cooling system. Check to make sure your water pump is circulating, take off the cap and crank the car. Watch the coolant and see if it moves or circulates. Also grab the bottom hose and you'll know if the thermostat is working, if it is it should be just as hot as the top hose. Check your overflow tank and see if there are any dark oil deposits, that's a sure tell way to know if you have a BHG

 

[trillatl]

I had this same issue and just fixed it yesterday... Over heating could be a number of things... Make sure that water pump is flowing, buy a new radiator cap, test the thermostat by dropping it in very hot water and see it opens, Do the basic things first like checking the hoses... Hope its something simple I had to replace my cylinder head. When my car was getting hot like that it will make other things start to fail... If you have the money and you tried all the simple things go get it pressure tested...

 

[casperfast]

Ive had s thermostat stick closed. Is one radiator hose hotter than the other?

 

[born2tune]

idle engine temperature is about 205*F, however to cook a steak well done is at 165*F, even at normal engine temperature you will char and ruin your steak.

But on a serious note, a few steps to take is to "burp" your cooling system, and actually replacing your thermostat, not re-installing a bad one.

another thing you should consider is to source a coolant pressure test kit. this way you can find out if your head-gasket is blown and/or loosing coolant from somewhere else.

 

[lovehatedsmRS]

idle engine temperature is about 205*F, however to cook a steak well done is at 165*F, even at normal engine temperature you will char and ruin your steak.

But on a serious note, a few steps to take is to "burp" your cooling system, and actually replacing your thermostat, not re-installing a bad one.

another thing you should consider is to source a coolant pressure test kit. this way you can find out if your head-gasket is blown and/or loosing coolant from somewhere else.

Hahaha smart ass! But yeah I am going to run downstairs now and burp it for a while and see what's up. And yes I'm running a FMIC, why? And I got a new radiator cap from AutoZone but I think it's a crap one, it wiggles when its on without putting much pressure on it.

 

[talon2gbuyer]

I thought the same thing but spark plugs are dry when pulled, no loss of coolant, and overheating. So I'm kinda stuck on this one someone mentioned a crank sensor, anyone else?

 

[panda_gsx]

Dude this will not get you help in the future if you dont take the advice given to you

 

[kannonk]

I had that problem once, then I realizad one of the fans was blowing instead of sucking.

 

[Eagle96TalonTSi]

Ever since I bought the car, it has had this problem. Ive asked a few relatives who all have gone balls deep into DSMs and they cant seem to find the source of the problem either, and they too have the same issue. I wish I knew what the deal was, but im at wits end.

See the problem is, everytime I drive my car, think about my car, look at the car, ANYTHING involving my tsi I get this really weird overheating problem. It starts burning, and before I know it, IM BROKE! I put my hand in my pocket and theres a damn hole straight through! I cant even put on a pair of pants anymore, because there are no more pockets, and I cant go buy any new pants because im broke!

Maybe I just love my car too much

 

[Funfettie]

Head gasket or thermostat. did you check your coolant level? and coolant leaks? oil in the coolant or visa versa? a blown head gasket will cause coolant to burn up, check the passenger floor carpet for moisture that would mean its the heater core leaking (sometimes hard to find this leak) are your rad fans kicking on? could also be a bad temp sensor on the T stat housing

 

[kleenf4i]

car is 95 eclipse gst
So, today I was driving and at a stop light i noticed i was starting to overheat. I pulled into a gas station to check out the fluids and check for leaks or fans that werent working.
- coolant was almost pure water, so i bought antifreze and mixed 50/50. waited until the thermostat opened and topped off. Drove home fine on the interstate. Then at the light by my house, same thing, started to overheat. as soon as i started driving the temp went back to normal immediatly.
-I believe the thermostat is good, Im running dual aftermarket electric fans ( both work fine) ,radiator cap is good. Im getting bubbles in my coolant at idle, but no white smoke out of the tail pipe ( thinking maybe headgasket)
-one other odd thing is, at a stop the heat dont work but while driving it does. Im at a loss right now. The car runs just fine and never overheats while driving

any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Gaines12]

I'm gunna go out on a limb and say it kinda sounds like a water pump problem. Because at an idle its over hating correct? And then whenever you get it up into higher rpms it doesn't? Maybe you have clogging in the block that's causing bad flow unless there's a lot of force behind it or maybe your water pump isn't functioning properly. Just a thought, never heard of a problem quite like this

 

[DSMDEMON93]

Out of my personal experience, when I had BIG bubbles coming from the thermostat housing, it was a blown headgasket between the coolant passage and the cylinder. BUT, if you can drive around and coolant is not being lost, it shouldn't be too bad. I do not like those aftermarket fans, they flow way less air than normal OEM Fans. Also, depending on the way they were wired, the air could be flowing the wrong way.

It does sound very weird, but remember start with the least expensive fixes.
IMHO, I would buy the OEM fans, flush the cooling system, and refill and burp the system as well.

 

[kleenf4i]

I'm gunna go out on a limb and say it kinda sounds like a water pump problem. Because at an idle its over hating correct? And then whenever you get it up into higher rpms it doesn't? Maybe you have clogging in the block that's causing bad flow unless there's a lot of force behind it or maybe your water pump isn't functioning properly. Just a thought, never heard of a problem quite like this

correct, only overheating at idle. Still wouldnt explain the bubbles at idle though. I will flush the coolant and post back. Thanks.

Out of my personal experience, when I had BIG bubbles coming from the thermostat housing, it was a blown headgasket between the coolant passage and the cylinder. BUT, if you can drive around and coolant is not being lost, it shouldn't be too bad. I do not like those aftermarket fans, they flow way less air than normal OEM Fans. Also, depending on the way they were wired, the air could be flowing the wrong way.

It does sound very weird, but remember start with the least expensive fixes.
IMHO, I would buy the OEM fans, flush the cooling system, and refill and burp the system as well.

Yeah Im really leaving it as last resort to conclude it being the head gasket. The fans are wired up correctly and actually keep the car cooler than the stock fans. (so im going to keep them) Im going to do as you say and flush the coolant system now and see where that leads me. Thanks for the advice Ill report back.

Ok, so I went out and flushed the cooling system system, drained it, the refilled the cooling system with 50/50 premix antifreeze. I went for a 20 min drive hitting 14 psi boost whenever I could to heat up the motor as much as I could to replicate what happened yesterday. This time I even turned the heater off. the was no overheating at any light, and when i pulled into the driveway I literally waited 10 minutes and the needle would not move ( before it would start getting hotter after about 2 minutes even with the heat on full blast)

So now my question is: the only possible thing i can think of would be how the previous owner used staright water with no antifreeze, and it was boiling over inside the cooling system. As you know, the 16g (and stock) turbo are water cooled. Now that theres coolant the water is not boiling over. Would this make any sense as an explanation ?

 

[Gaines12]

It's a possibility, when you flushed the system did anything come out.? Or was it clean water and antifreeze?

 

[kleenf4i]

Yeah I didnt see anything unusual. It was ever so slight a kind of rust color. I mean a very very slight rust/ brownish color. but now its growing green ( new fluids). Im just trying to figure out if the water (pure water) running through the turbo would boil the water. Logically I would think so.

 

[phantom_19]

Idling would mean less flow rate from the waterpump. Driving and more flow rate and being cooled by the outside air could mean that it doesnt overheat. Do you have a big FMIC blocking the radiator?

 

[kleenf4i]

yes i have a 24x18. What you said makes sense. What doesnt make sense is it all the sunnden happened. Here what I did find out about using only water in the cooling system. Water boils at 212*F. A turbo runs are a minimum of 300*F sometimes up to 500* This depends on factors such as the size of the turbo and which manifold is being used, I.E. stainless or cast iron. Pure water running over the turbo to coolit will boil the water after an extended period of time, thus causing major air pockets which leads to air in the cooling system. Antifreeze and water (50-50 mix) will lower the boiling point of the pure water by 20*f. With this in mind, this 20*f is enough to always keep the system cool by time it gets cooled at the radiator, there will never be any overheating, which is not the case with pure water.

 

[born2tune]

You nailed it w/ post #4.

When using regular/tap water in the coolant system it will boil, and you will overheat by; losing fluid in the system by evaporation, increasing pressure w hot air and bubbles. Bubbles are not necessarily boiling bubbles but when you have boiled the water in there it creates gaps in the coolant system and its constantly pushing the bubbles/gaps out. but recreating it as it cycles.

In any occasion you need to add water you must use distilled water. as it doesn't boil because it is pure. although it will explode if messed with the wrong ways. You should never need anything else other than a premixed 50/50 coolant bottles. One last thing is that you might want to add some water wetter or similar to your coolant system to prevent rusting or seals dry rotting from the previous tap water.