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!

 

[rsr93]

try driving it a day with the AC off and see if it still gets real hot at the stops or if it operates normal.. your down in south fl where it gets hot as hell man and so do dsm engine bays. driving it without the AC on will tell you if your AC fan is or is not pulling enough air in. im up in north Fl and i have had that problem also but only on hot days........ always hot in FL :laugh:

 

[Aikouka]

I have this problem too. I went to the auto parts store today (20 miles away) to return some parts. The car worked flawlessly the whole way. After doing my business at the store, I get in my car to leave after checking various things on my car to make sure that nothing was wrong (this was my first time driving the car that far, it's been broken for about a year) and then I pull out into traffic and start to wait at the red light. All of a sudden I see steam coming out of my engine bay and I see my thermostat at about 75%. I drive up a little bit (less than a 1/10 of a mile) and pull off onto a side road and then into a parking lot. I get out and see a ton of coolant coming out of the overflow tube and look behind me to see a pretty coolant trail.

I ran back ot the auto parts store and picked up a new gasket (I think they gave me the wrong one ), thermostat and some coolant. After waiting a while for the darned thing to cool down, I used about 3/4 of the gallon that I bought. I drove home without a problem ... until I reached the road that my house was on. But the problems I had were not coolant problems (it stayed at 50% the whole ride home.)

There was a clattering noise in the engine bay, that might be my coolant resevoir. I took it out once, put it back in and later discovered it'd came off of its guide rails. And the road that I live on is kind of bumpy ( dirt road. ) But then something even weirder happened. My coolant, brake and some other light light up for a second, then went off and they kept doing that for the 3/10 of a mile I had until my house. And during the time with the coolant light (the orange one with the court house thing on it) came on, the thermostat was still at 50%.

Also, I have a feeling my power steering is about to die. It was making some horrible noises near the driver's side, and my power steering seems to work only half of the time. Do you think it's the pump? I seem to get "slippage" only a little bit (maybe 2-10 seconds after starting.) But once I pulled into my driveway, I heard the belt slip and then those weird noises I mentioned.

I was supposed to get my car inspected tommorow morning, I guess that won't happen .

But does anyone have an idea about my weird dashboard light occurance? Or if it is my power steering pump that's bad? Thanks to anyone who can help me!

 

[yotabeater]

if you turn the wheel at idle, does the belt go crazy? same thing happened to me the other day. put in a new alternator, a few days later belts started squeeling, but only when i first started it up. a few days after that, i turned onto my road and heard a clunk. as soon as i pulled in viewing distance of my house, the belt went apeshit. turned out to be the back bolt that holds the alternator on flew out while i was driving, and the belt had about 2 inches of play in it!!!

 

[SuperGokou06]

Ok guys, i just got back from the girls house that im seeing, and well the car was acting fine until i got home, the temp shot up almost all the way to the top, again about 75% of the temp gauge, which again has been normal for a couple of days, it hasnt gone farther than that but its still worrying me to death. Tomorrow morning I guess ill have to borrow my moms van for work (not cool especially if you work where there alot of chicks, and trust me there is too many) me driving a toyota sienna will not make me look cool... :thumbdown . But i guess since tomorrow is payday im going to buy a new idle speed controller, which was the first thing bothering me, but now the cooling problem is emerging. DAMMIT i just got the car on saturday and its already messing up on me!!, but whatever man im ready to handle it, you cant buy a used car without something wrong with it, at least not major. I might have to check the thermostat and see if my waterpump is working properly, but i wont really know for sure because all my life ive had hondas, this is my first mitsubishi, but i usually learn how to do all the work myself, now i just have to figure out what the problem is. I mean when i drive the temp goes back to 50%, but when i stop somewhere it shoots up to 75%, ive never had that happen to me before, and the only time it did happen was when i owned a 1991 celica gt, one of my hoses was old and shot all the water out, i went out on a date that night and driving this chick home, the freaking car overheats on me and turns off right in the middle of the street. but im just trying to see if any of you have the similar problems because you guys have had experience with these cars and im trying to learn from people like me, not some freaking smart ass mechanic trying to stiff me for my money while its something minor.
Thanx guys I appreciate it, sorry for the long post.

 

[dbritt]

Hi i just got my 95gst last weekend and since i have never owned a turbo car before, I have a very interesting question i have to ask. My temp gauge works normal and lately since Ive had the car a few days ive noticed that the temp always goes up to about 3/4 up about 23% away from hot, now the weird thing is this always happens when ive come to a stop or waiting for a light, because when i start driving again the temp drops to halfway and when i come to another stop it goes up again. Now my question is, is this normal, not knowing if the turbo temp comes into play really bothers me but thats why im trying to get some answers here, plz help. and ive already checked all the fluid, in the radiator and the other engine water reserve tank, and they are both full. Im stuck, plz help.
Much appreciated.

Yes, the turbo temp comes into play because coolant is run around the turbo to help keep it cool. From what you wrote, you never said the car actually went into high heat...just "3/4 hot". I don't have a 2g, but being at idle with 220 degrees in FL after boosting doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Take a logger and find out exactly what temp that gauge is reading when it's at "3/4 hot". If you've not replaced the thermostat, I recommend the Failsafe thermostat made by Beck/Arnley. You can get one at Advance Auto Parts and probably most other parts stores. Flush the coolant and put some fresh Prestone (not the orange kind) mixed 50/50 with water. See if you run better temps that way.

 

[SuperGokou06]

hey thanx dude i will look into that tomorrow and i didnt mean 3/4 i mean that its just a little shy away from reaching the H, like about 25% from there actually and i mean i dont know if this is normal, with the car being a turbo thats what i want to know.

 

[Aikouka]

Yota, I'm not too sure about turning at idle, but I checked my alternator belt when I was working on my driver's side wheel (read the squeaking thread if you're wondering why) and it seemed to have a little too much play, but it didnt seem bad. Also, the alternator works, because I've never had a problem with the battery.

Goku, it seems that your problem is somewhat like mine, but my engine actually overheats and coolant bubbles out the overflow tube. But one thing I think I forgot to mention in my original post is that I had coolant bubbing out where the thermostat housing mounts to the head! I did buy a new t-stat housing gasket at advance auto, but it doesn't look right. The one I had in my engine rebuild kit was triangular and had three holes for the three studs, but this one only has 2 holes and is ovular.

I purchased the Stant 45869 thermostat, because it's the highest temperature and most expensive one they had at advance auto when I ran back to get coolant.

EDIT: I just remembered something that might be something to note. When I was installing stuff on my JDM longblock (before puttig it in the car), I tried to manually turn the water pump flange (where the pulleys hook up) by hand. But I couldn't turn it with only a little bit of force. Now, I have two extra blocks lying around, and both have water pumps on them. I tried to turn them by hand and they both turned with ease. Does this mean anything? Both of the extra blocks had been sitting for a while, so it's not like they were fresh out of a car or anything.

 

[dbritt]

I purchased the Stant 45869 thermostat, because it's the highest temperature and most expensive one they had at advance auto when I ran back to get coolant.

You have to special order the Failsafe thermostat. Advanced does next day shipping, but IMO it's worth the small wait. The stant was pretty cheap and I also bought one when I needed a new one because I needed to use my car that day. I also ordered the Failsafe one and installed it the very next day.

As far as the thermostat gasket, the ovular one with 2 holes is the correct one for my car, I don't know why you have a different one in your rebuild kit.

 

[Aikouka]

The only thing about the gasket I can think of is that I used the wrong one, but I doubt it, because it fit the entire flange exactly (I think it had a tiny bit over overlap over the edge of the flange, but it had no problem with the opening for the coolant to come through). But it was also one of those blue papery gaskets, so if that's the wrong material, then it would make a difference.

Could the water pump not wanting to turn mean my water pump is worn down? I could do that water pump test that was mentioned above right now, but I'd rather do things like that when my dad is around to have him help me.

 

[dbritt]

The gasket that I'm talking about goes on right after you put the thermostat into place. It should be ovular with 2 holes because that is all there is in the stock mounting location. As for the water pump not moving...are you saying it wont move with the belt removed or with the belt attached? If the belt is attached, then of course it should not be moving...it's connected to the crankshaft sprocket.

 

[Aikouka]

It wouldn't turn when I had the engine out of the car and no belts on it.

The gasket that I mentioned is the one where the thermostat housing mates with the head via three studs. It's probably bad now, because I had coolant bubbling out from there.

EDIT: Something I forgot of and it might be worthwhile to mention. One time, my car began to spew out hot coolant from the overflow tube when I just pulled the car out of the garage and into the driveway. So I never really drove anywhere. And now my check engine light is on . Time to whip out the test light.

 

[herovueboi]

dudes, i have the same problem with my 1g. but i also have a good amount of mod's that i hope to correct. at one point, i just think i'm running too rich on bottom end because after i hit about 3k rpm, it pics up really fast. mines overheated like krzy since i only had a s16g turbo with no supporting mods and my dsm was overheating like all the way to the "H". Now, it overheats and runs rich as hell, i really don't know what it is, i already did the t-stat and still overheats. i'm pretty stumped too, execpt for trying to fix my settings with my S-AFC.

 

[dbritt]

...after i hit about 3k rpm, it pics up really fast.

That's called boost, my friend

Overheating: Is your coolant fresh and full? Have you ever checked/replaced your water pump?

 

[WhiteCloud]

For any overheating problem, many of the symptoms are inter-related and could be caused by any of the components regardless of the "signs" and what it "seems" like it could be. Unless you have hard evidence of it being a single problem, you should first check your radiator fans, coolant level, and flush the system. This is a matter of just looking at the fans to see if they are spinning at idle when the engine is hot! Then you put new fluids in and see if it solves your problem.

I would do radiator cap and thermostat SECOND! Replace both. Don't just check them, replace them. It will cost you like $20 and take you a half hour to do both, and you will know you have new parts there.

If you are still overheating, and your fans come on, and you have replaced radiator cap and thermostat, it is time to look into more complicated stuff. You may need to have your radiator cleaned professionally, if it is significantly blocked up. Or, it could be the water pump. These should be the last steps to an overheating problem solving process.

Finally, if you have checked/replaced the water pump and had your radiator cleaned, and you are still overheating, chances are it is your head gasket leaking exhaust into the coolant. There won't necessarily be oil in your coolant or vice versa.

Take it from me--do the easy stuff like radiator cap, thermostat, etc. FIRST! A mechanic I took my car to said there was no way my thermostat was the problem b/c he was positive it was opening, and he wanted to do the water pump for $350. I checked the pump myself instead, and it was fine. I put in a new thermostat--problem solved!

(my upper radiator pipes and radiator were both hot, and my heat was warm when I had this problem...so even if this is the case, your thermostat may not be opening all or part of the way!)

 

[Aikouka]

Well, if your pipes are hot, is that somewhat evident that your water pump is working, since it is still pushing the water. Also, how does a water pump die? Does it just jam up, because it looks like the water pump is merely a rotating blade that is turned by the pulley. Is this an over simplication?

Also, I think I found out what my check light problem is ... without being able to get the error codes ...

I found this on a website

Alternator
Applies to All (?)

Location:
The alternator is located on the front right of the engine under the power steering pump.

Symptoms:
When the brake, coolant (the birdcage) and ? warning lights all come on at the same time, it's probably the alternator.

Testing Procedure:
The service manual lists the standard alternator tests. I personally say: pull it out and take it to Autozone.

And my car had the three lights dimly light up and then go out when I was almost home yesterday. But I've never had a problem with my battery going dead due to not being recharged by the alternator.

Oh and interestingly enough, I can't replace my thermostat, because I'm supposed to take off the negative terminal. But if I do that, I'll lose the error codes. And I know how to get the error codes, but whenever I do it ( following the haynes manual but using a test light ), I get nothing.

 

[SuperGokou06]

Well i took your advice and got a new thermo and a radiator cap today, and im going to replace both of them as we speak, i also got new coolant and something called the water wetter, to see how good that works, but hopefully thats my problem. I already checked how much the water pump would be and its not that expensive so im ready just to change everything on my own, but thanx for the info guys.ill let you know how it goes.

 

[WhiteCloud]

Well a few things:

1) Your CEL codes will not go away permanently. If there is a problem, they will come back within a few minutes of driving after hooking your battery back up.

2) If you have not been driving your car recently and have been working on it, oftentimes the battery will lose power. If your battery and alternator are not constantly being allowed to work together (i.e. the car is being driven) you can have some dash lights come on and/or flicker. My battery was very low after all the work I did, and at one point on my first test drive after jump starting my car, I lost ABS and my abs light came on because I was too low on juice. So your alternator may not be bad.

3) If you have a 95+ dsm it is OBDII--take it to Autozone and have your codes read with their reader...the slot is under the dash right next to the radio.

4) A water pump can break in several ways. The bearings on the pump can go bad, just like any other bearings in your car (i.e. crankshaft bearings bad= crankwalk ). Impellers rarely break, but it can happen if they get rusty. Also, the shaft itself can separate from the wheel, so your shaft is spinning from the pulley being turned, but the wheel is no longer connected and just sits in there.

Do the thermostat first and put coolant system cleaner in, refill with new coolant, then do the radiator cap if the thermostat was not the problem. If none of these works, you may have to do the water pump, but as you probably know it is a pita.

 

[Aikouka]

I actually don't think the problem is with the thermostat at all. Here's why:

The car works FINE as long as it is being driven. But after being driven, if it sits and then is driven soon afterwards, it overheats. This is clearly a sign that the radiators fans aren't starting. The reason I say this is because when you're moving, you're forcing air through the radiator, but when you're idling (like I was when my car began to overheat) no air is being forced through the radiator unless the fans come on. I tested my motors and they work fine ... but then I went to test the fuse and got a strange result.

I used a test light and a multimeter and the fuse is fine. But I connected the test light up to the prongs where the fuse goes and I got nothing. I hooked the test light up to all 3 fuses that are in the box, and I got nothing. I tried this with the multimeter and I got nothing. Now, to make sure that it is supposed to light up, I ran a small test. I have an extra positive terminal fuse housing that I took because I wanted the complete box (mine was missing the top), and I hooked the positive end of the battery up to the end that it normally connects to, and I stripped the wire for the radiator fan (if I recall, it's the large red one), then I connected the negative terminal to that. Then I hooked the test light up to the two prongs for the radiator fuse, and the light lit up (Which means I completed the 12v circuit.)

Now, I'm going to go attempt to create a different circuit by unhooking the negative terminal and then manually bridging the fuse and then connecting the test light to the end of the fuse. I'll edit and let you know about my findings.

Oh and my battery seems to be okay. I connected a test light and multimeter to it and it gave me a strong 12v.

Also, my error code was 44, and the ignition fuse is located on the same block as the radiator one. Could this explain why Im getting an ignition coil error (44)?

 

[herovueboi]

That's called boost, my friend

Overheating: Is your coolant fresh and full? Have you ever checked/replaced your water pump?

i wanted to call it boost but at my spearco boost gauge it reads 7psi already. So i figured that it was something to do with running too rich or lean. oh yea, and i found i have a leak on my right side of the engine bay. i have to take everything back out, including turbo, manifold and everything else with my 16g install. i hope to find my problem very very soon so i can make it to the shoot out in Norwalk, i'm only lik 1 hour away in ohio.

 

[dbritt]

Only boosting at 7 psi? That's really weird...maybe your gauge tap is leaking. I had to buy a new fitting cause mine would bleed open and only read 5-8 psi. It could be the lean/rich deal though.

 

[johnk]

I have a similar problem in my car overheating at a stop only. There's a temp sensor in the bottom of the radiator that turns on the fan when it reaches a high temp. High being just a hair over half way. My fan just up and died on me now though so i can't fix my problem yet. I get by turning the AC on it runs the other fan regardless of coolant temp.

 

[Aikouka]

I have a similar problem in my car overheating at a stop only. There's a temp sensor in the bottom of the radiator that turns on the fan when it reaches a high temp. High being just a hair over half way. My fan just up and died on me now though so i can't fix my problem yet. I get by turning the AC on it runs the other fan regardless of coolant temp.

Yeah, it was my temp sensor connector that was causing the problems. Because before I put the radiator in, I noticed that one of it's wires and connector (the part that's supposed to be inside the plug that connects to the prong) were both pulled out. So I tried to shove it back in , and I thought it was okay. Well, I guess it wasn't because I tried pushing it back in again, and I could never get it to go in correctly. So when I was running through the tests in the Haynes manual, as I mentioned above, I ran into a problem with the fuse. So I cleaned up all of the positive terminal connectors with an emory cloth, and then I was able to get the test light to light up. So then I took that sensor off (And the one wire/connector was hanging out again) and then took my positive connector for my multimeter and connected the two prongs together and the fan turned on.

So I might need to buy a new connector, cut the other one off and try to repair it while I splice the two connectors together so the fan always runs. But I'm not sure if making the fans run the whole time would be a good idea until I fix the connector?

 

[dbritt]

I'm not sure if making the fans run the whole time would be a good idea until I fix the connector?

It'll be fine, I'd just fix the connector though

 

[IAMCLP1]

okay, i've got the opposite problem on my 99 gsx... my car only overheats when I'm driving, and it only starts after it's driven for about 20 minutes or so. If i have the A/C on, it accelerates the process. just driving around town my temps are at 335, if i get on the highway, they'll keep climbing. if i stop or I'm at idle, it'll cool down to the 220s and be fine. if I turn the heat on while driving, i can control it and keep them at around 223-227.

this whole problem started after I developed a leak in one of the fins of the radiator. i used a bottle of the stop leak stuff, and flushed the system...

i replaced the stat with one from autozone, then a mitsu OE one, swapped radiator caps with my 98 gst, both fans work, and both turn on when they should. right now i've got both fans on full-high via dsmlink and it doesn't help the problem.

the first owner told me he replaced the waterpump when he had the timing belt done. and I'm pretty sure the pump is fine... my radiator hoses get hot, along with the radiator, and my heat obviously works...so i'm assuming the pump is fine..correct? that and the fact that the car cools itself fine at idle.


i'm not leaking any coolant, i'm not blowing any white smoke out of the tailpipe, so i don't think it's a headgasket.

What i'm thinking is it's the radiator.... possibly the metal fragments from the stop leak stuff created a clog or is restricting flow, or possibly the water from the flush left mineral deposits that clogged it.

I'm doing another flush today and refilling with 50/50 premix. and see if the situation improves...

now my question is two-fold, first, am I on the right track with the whole clogged radiator thing?

second, if that's the problem, can i pull the radator and somehow clean it out manually?

also, let's say i just replace the radiator... is that the only place i could develop the clog?

is there something here that's dead obvious that i'm missing???

thanks in advance guys!!

 

[RossY]

Ok i was driving my talon home when all of a sudden the battery light came on and i felt the power steering go out. I figured it was the alternator. Well i was basically a couple miles from any population so i decided to find the nearest populated area to pull over so i could call a tow truck. Well right when i get to where i could pull over and call i happen to look at my temp gauge and its reading red hot. so i turned it off right away and coasted into a parking lot. Do you guys think i did damage to the engine? The car wasn't smoking when i popped the hood or anything but it was definately hot. BTW my alternator belt ended up snapping and thats what caused the power failure. I am curious as to why it would overheat though since the water pump is belt driven? Anyway, im gonna do a comp. test here in a day or so and hope for the best. THanks guys