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!

 

[The Sick RS]

This is complicated so I'll try to make it as simple as possible.

A few weeks ago, my car starts overhearing. So I look to see that I have a major leak. I get the car home, and I let it sit overnight. The next day I take out the 4 top bolts for the fans (all of them snapped away, car spent most of its life up north and many of the bolts are weak) and I poor in a gallon of water and now have a good visual of the radiator and I see that it's leaking horribly.

I find a good used radiator for 75 bucks. I install it. Now while doing this, another problem arose. I took off my overflow tank because I needed to put on my power steering/ac belt too. While doing this, I had a tough time getting it off the metal piece it slides on to secure it, even with some PB Blaster. When I finally got it off, it developed a small whole which leaks. That sucked.

So I installed the radiator and there are absolutely no leaks except for overflow. So I buy this stuff called automotive goop that looked good for the cause to seal it. I 'fixed' the overflow at discount auto parts, and then once it dried I let it sit in the general area, but not mounted on the metal piece because I didn't want it there permanently. I get home to see a damn pulley burned a hole in it. Doh!

No biggie. I drive back to discount auto parts to find something else because the stuff I bought doesn't work well with heat and it was getting soft. When I'm driving there, the temperature starts doing weird shit. When I'd stop at a light it would go way up to about half way between normal and hot, maybe a little more. Then it would drop back down when I started going again. Then I notice at a light that I'm seeing smoke. I pull over asap to see the rubber blow out tube from the overflow is pouring out steam. With some more water, and patience, I get it to discount auto parts and I buy a new radiator cap and some better sealant for the overflow. That problem is now solved...

So I fill everything up with water again and it runs good for about 4 hours of driving around and doing things but then it starts getting hot again. I pull over and my overflow is full but it's still running hot. I'm so confused. It runs hot and then goes down, but it doesn't get too hot. Nowhere in the danger level or anything but it's just not being normal and I don't get it. Is it my thermostat? Head gasket?

Side Notes: One night I overheated with it bad, and it stalled out so I had to walk to get water. Since that night, it has developed this weird problem. When I first start it up, it sounds really week. I have a 5 inch muffler so it's easy to hear. It clearly sounds much different than normal. It's very week and kinda sputters a little bit and idles extremely low around 600 rpms and then if I wait about 5 seconds, it idles normally at 1-1100 rpms. I can bypass that 5 second wait by just giving it some gas. It's very odd though, and it started that night.

I blow smoke out of my exhaust. A lot. Even when I had my stock 2inch exhaust piping I did. But when I replaced my cat with a pipe and I got a 2 1/2 inch piping with the 5 inch muffler, it was much more constant and viewable.

It leaks oil into the spark plug holes. Kills performance. Also after a month or so the plugs develop a brownish rusty dust. Usually it's just the 4th plug.

I'm sorry this is so long but I just want to give as much information as possible. My dad has been wanting to replace my head gasket for a while and I know that's the cause of the leaking into the plug holes but I really hope the head gasket isn't causing this overheating problem. Someone please reply and tell me it's my thermostat.

 

[deusxmachina]

I don't know if you said if the fan actually comes on at the proper temperature point or not. If not, that would explain the overheating right there, particularly when the car is not moving.

It's an 8-year-old car. Change the thermostat anyway. A compression test will tell you the condition of the head gasket. Not much point in changing the head gasket without a compression test. If it's no longer losing coolant, that narrows the problem down considerably. I'm tired so I may have missed some specifics.

The rust on the spark plug(s) is most likely from worn valve seals. Plan on rebuilding the head in the future.

 

[TD05HTalon]

Etien

give me a call this weekend and we can work on the overheating problem. i'll be at my dad's house dropping the 6 bolt in. With my Greddy i never get any overheating problems. I pulled out all the ducting and am using stock fans and the 95 talon bumper.

-Matt

 

[GreenTurbulence]

Hey guys thanks a million for the support and advice. I ended up doing a complete radiator flush, and putting back in 75% water, 25% coolant and a bottle of Water Wetter and all I can say is that Water Wetter kicks ass! Temperatures did drop down and now when the car hits 210-213, fan kicks in and it goes all the way down to like 203, occasionally to 199. I have a question about what one of you wrote. You said that when temperature hits 213, the car turns both fans on? If that's the case, then that may be why it's cooling down so quickly, in which case I have to worry about my stock fan, because it may not be enough to cool down by itself. Does anyone know exactly when the engine turns on the AC when the AC is off?

Matt, thanks a lot for offering to help me take care of the problem. Fortunately, it all seems to be under control, nevertheless, if you need help dumping that 6-bolt in, let me know. Thanks again guys.

 

[The Sick RS]

Thanks for the reply. I bought a new thermostat yesterday and I'm going to put it on today. I'm almost certain this will fix it because I noticed yet another thing...

The car will sit over night, and I'll start it up at 6 am and go somewhere. The temperature will be at normal within a minute, yet the heat will kick in at about 4 minutes. This was not true this time last year. As soon as it got up to temperature, the heat kicked in.

 

[huafist]

Next time it overheats, try lightly touching the upper radiator hose. If the thermostat is stuck closed that hose will not be hot. Also, you had your coolant system open a lot. Have you tried "burping" the system? You may have an air pocket in it.

 

[The Sick RS]

Hah... I made that dumbass mistake. My logic before this happened was if the upper hose wasn't hot and wasn't hard when pressed, it meant it was safe to open the radiator cap. Needless to say, I opened up the cap and got a soaked. It just gushed out water. Luckily the water wasn't too hot and I had already let it sit for about 5 minutes. This was after I replaced the radiator and before I replaced the cap. Once I feel a little less lazy I'm going to replace it. I got a new gasket, O ring, and thermostat.

 

[Vallary99]

ok.. Here's the looong story...

I have a 96 GS-T with a Super 20G and GReddy FMIC and now a PWR radiator....

I bought the car at a used car lot and while it was at the lot the gauges, radiator, and spark plug leads were stolen... So I took the car to a shop and had everything replaced and the car runs like a dream except the fact that it overheats... the car is overheating when I'm stuck in really heavy traffic, running errands (turning car on and off), or when I use the A/C. As long as I am driving the car will remain cool..

the a/c I can't even use because once the car overheats the a/c compressor cycles on and off because the freon is evaporating too quickly...

I had a stock (or so I thought) radiator in there before which I found out was not the right radiator for the car when I took it to the mechanics... so I bought a high flow radiator and installed it this weekend but still having same overheating problem... I have some coolant, mostly water, and water wetter...

The water pump and timing belt were changed about 3 months before the previous owner sold the car and the water pump is fine b/c I have great water flow... The head gasket I assume is fine because I have great compression and there are no signs of a blown head gasket (i.e. muddy coolant, smoke..)... I also don't thing the head is warped b/c there are no signs of that either... The first thermostat I had in there the center was cut out of it.. now it has a new thermostat in it (I dunno what degrees, I assume whatever stock is cuz the mechanic put it in)..

I hardwired my fans in (I acutally have 3 fans now b/c I thought that would reslove this issue) so they are on all the time.. 2 are on the radiator and one is on the front of the compressor.. They are all 12" slim line fans..

At first the mechanic said that the exhaust manifold was getting TOOOO hot and it was causing the radiator to not cool like it should... so we put on a heat sheild (didn't have one before)... I do have an exhaust leak at the manifold on Cyl. 4 I discovered this weekend... and my EGT gauge used to always read no higher than 12 but now my wires are messed up so I dunno what if what it reads is correct anymore but it was like at 14 today..

I don't seem to be losing any coolant, even when the car overheats there is no coolant or water pouring out of the overflow tank.. The car runs great, sounds great, everything is great except for this stupid overheating problem.. I seriously don't know what to do next or what to check or anything....

Soemone told me that it could still be a bad/cheap head gasket.. someone told me that the 3rd fan could be blocking too much air that should be going to the radiator and cancelling out the other fan...

I was thinking this evening that maybe the 3rd fan is a problem (it sits on the cold side of the intercooler so the cooler air isn't going to the radiator and the hotter air from the instercooler is too much for the radiator... Also, the intercooler takes in hot air from passenger to drivers side and then the cold air runs back to the passenger side of the car to go to the throttle body and it could be picking up too much hot air ont he way back, therefore defeating the purpose of the intercooler...

You can tell that I've run out of options.. any suggestions as to what it could be are greatly appreciated cuz I'm lost at this point.. Please help me... I love my car and I don't want to get rid of it...

 

[DSMvroom]

EGTs of 1400 are ok

Ive heard of a bunch of people running serious setups and having overheating problems like you, and have had them solved by some seriously expensive radiator fans that blow tornados into your engine bay. I don't remember what the brand on them were though; maybe someone can chime in here.

Oh, and you really should get that exhaust leak fixed cause it isn't helping anything.

EDIT : these people I speak of had problems arise after their fmic was installed. I believe it also involved stuff like melting radiator fanblades, or housings or something like that too for some.

 

[Vallary99]

.. ya I melted 2 radiator fans in a week so that sounds familiar.. thing is that most DSM people I talk to never had this problem and some of them have some serious setups..

One thing I don't think I mentioned before.. when I turn on the heat with only the blower (no a/c compressor) the temp drops dramatically...

Also, please try to find out the names of those fans.. thanks

 

[Ybnorml]

It sounds to me like you have a recirculating problem. The engine will naturally run warmer with the air on and cooler with the heater on because it's releasing warm air. I'd have my radiator checked and engine flushed. I've seen several engines run hot after someone puts stop leak in them. A frend of mine who owns a radiator shop confirmed this. I'd do those two things first. After that I'd have my timing checked and make sure it isn't runing too lean.

Since you memtioned stopping in traffic and it heating up I'd bet I'm damn close.

Take Care

 

[Vallary99]

Well, the radiator is brand new and I just put it int his weekend.. plus we flushed out the system again when we changed radiators...

I've not put in stop leak because I have no coolant leaks (at least that I have yet to find) and I'm not having to add coolant... I do have the water wetter because I heard that stuff works and it could mean the difference between overheating or not...

As far as timing, I have an S-AFC and the car has been tuned by a professional on the dyno.. so I don't think I'm running lean but maybe I should get it re-tuned now that I've changed radiators?

 

[Krmnnghia]

OK so fixed the Oil Pressure problems after T28 install...was a stupid loose wire!!! Now after about 10 minutes of driving we parked it and noticed the top radiator hose was holding pressure...the hose was sucked in and no longer round. We undid the radiator cap and it went back to normal. took it for another spin and no issues..Cool. Next drive the Water Temp gauge is going up more than normal. On the way home it went up so high I could see the entire symbol in the middle so the needle was just above that. Any ideas? The fans are turning on so I know the system seems to be working normal. Could the Banjo bolts be backing up the flow or anything. Its the only part of the cooling system I messed with. Thanks Guys!

 

[troysevo16]

did you happen to install a fmic with your turbo if so the radiator may be having trouble getting air, try changing the thermostade, it would be a wise investment to upgrade the radiator to a better cooling one and some high circulating fans would be a good investment, if you dont want to spend the money remove the ac and the ac core that should help get some air back to the radiator!

 

[Krmnnghia]

OK Seems I lost more coolany than I thought during the install. It was so low it wasn't cooling enough. So I added more water/coolant to the proper level and bingo! We are golden. HOLY SHIT the power is amazing! THANKS

 

[troysevo16]

No problem, It seem like the more I get to know dsm most problems are cause by something small, or something you happen to overlook the first time!

 

[saw wave analog]

no, its crankwalk. its always crankwalk if its a 2g. duh.

 

[troysevo16]

yeah 4 2g's your right all though I know a lot of 2g's(friends and know people that have them and me) and I have yet to see one have crank walk (knock on wood) although I have seen many 2g's blow motors because of bad tunning, running to much boost and hp on stock internals and other things...

 

[R3dR]

make sure you have a spring in the upper hose as you said it went out of round so I assume there is not a spring in it.

If the level is low and there is not a spring it can flaten out the hose and make the temps go to high too.

 

[Krmnnghia]

WHOA...A Spring in the upper Hose? Ummm seriously? Where would that go! Since adding the coolant and doing 3 30 minute drives it has not compressed again. I think we are ok.

HAHAHAH LOOK OUT IT MUST BE CRANKWALK! HAHAH Thanks guys

 

[Ðawg]

So here is my problem:

As you can see, I have a 90 TSi AWD... recently, I had the balance shaft belt snap on me, taking out the timing belt. We had the head reworked, including the following done to it:

Head milled flat.
Valve Grind
Caps line bored
New gaskets
New belts
New water pump

Here is the issue at hand:

The car runs GREAT. Fast, good compression, it really screams! But... it's overheating. Oh the highway, driving 60 MPH at 3K RPM, I get maybe 10 miles, and it's overheating badly... steams up and pretty much empties the coolant out of the system. On surface streets, I can drive for 20-30 minutes before it overheats, but it's the same scenario then... temp gauge spikes, heater shoots out cold air, and steam starts shooting out the overflow resivoir. I wait until it cools, then refill it with water, and away I go again.

Any ideas? As far as I can tell, the water pump IS pumping water, and I have no leaks... it seems to just be heating up and then blowing all the water off as steam...


TIA!

 

[flytalon93]

Just out of curiosity, when was the last time the t-stat was replaced? With that quick of anti-freeze loss, you should be steaming like crazy under the hood. You sure its not leaking somewhere?

 

[Ðawg]

Unknown when the thermostat was replaced... but would that cause such rapid overheating? And yes, there are no leaks that I can tell... the car will idle fine at normal temp (as far as the stock temp gauge says...), but I haven't let it sit there and idle for any more then 30 mins... and during idle, I see no leak...



More ideas please!

 

[Ðawg]

Would the thermostat being stuck closed cause extreme overheating?


Funny coincidence that it would happen after getting this car together...

 

[flytalon93]

Well it could if its not opening to let in the cooler fluid from the radiator. All its doing to recycling the same fluid in the block. Best way to test it is to remove it and put into a pot of water on the stove and heat it up to see if it opens.