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!

 

[ECLIPSEESPILCE]

I have seen bad head gaskets when a compression test is good. When hot some act different than others. Kinda a stupid question but when you installed the other radiator did you connect the cooling fans? I am not trying to offend you but i have seen it happen.

 

[POlarSource]

Yeah I am sure I connected the fans. I have also checked to make sure it is kicking on.

Ok, that may make since. I seem to loose boost after my car warms up... Could this support your thery that it may be bad only when it gets hot?

 

[ECLIPSEESPILCE]

I have seen some pretty strange things and it is possible. I just dont want to see anyone waste time and money replacing good parts.

 

[highpsi93tsi]

you might have a blown headgasket. My water pump is fvcked. Leaking water out the bearing/seal under the pulley faster than I can put it in it. Shitty deal. Ive replaced the whole cooling system on this car after I do the water pump.

 

[1Gtuner1G]

You need to replace the thermostat now anyway, because of it overheating. So try that and see if it fixes the problem. If not, get your radiator flow tested and pressure tested to see if it has any leaks, if some fins are missing that could also be your problem.

 

[SiNiST3R]

Yes replace the thermostat i had the same problems and plus there only 14bucks at autozone.

 

[66gsx]

If you're not getting heat out of your heater core you're probably not getting flow through there, as in a air pocket.

This is something I've dealt with many times on different cars, very annoying It leads to severe overheating beacause I believe it effects the flow of the whole system.
Usually I would need to do whatever was neccessary to remove the air from the core and establish flow. Be careful if you have to suck a hose Good luck.

mark

 

[dsm95gsxer]

I'm having the same problems and I have replaced my thermostat, it didn't fix the problem is there any other way than sucking on the hose?

 

[The Sick RS]

Ok this problem has gotten much worse. I changed the thermostat and after that, weird things started happening.

Right after I started driving it to make sure everything was all good, the temp gauge was doing weird stuff. It was jumping from normal to medium hot at random.

Then 2 days later, it sat at completely cold as I was driving and was totally jumping up and down from completely cold to medium cold. I'm talking need jumps here. Then after about 20 minutes of driving, it fixed itself. No overheating.

This problem stopped, randomly and for about a week it was all good but would overheat randomly and inconsistently for no reason. Completely full coolant. I dealt with this for a few days...

Now all of the sudden, again at random, I can't even drive a mile without it overheating. My dad suggested I take the thermostat out and see if that changed the situation at all and it didn't. He's buying me a new head for like 100 bucks. He found an engine for $350 (!!!) but then the next day the seller found out it had a crack in the block, but the head is good. So, we seem to be pretty sure its my head but I just want to confirm it, and make sure there's nothing else I can do... And can someone tell me what exactly are the signs of a cracked or warped head?

 

[slowoldman]

That sounds to me like a blown head gasket. The browninsh color on the plug is rust because water is leaking into the cylinder. This will also cause smoke because your oil pasage could be leaking into the cylinder as well. Iven if it isn't antifreeze in the cylider will cause smoke.

You best make sure you check the oil and make sure there isn't water getting in there. If there is your better start planning on a complete rebuild. If not do a compression check and see what your get. You will probably see the 4th cylinder low. If so pull the head and change the gasket.

 

[deusxmachina]

Read the second paragraph of the first reply again. That guy seems kinda smart. Then let us know the results of the compression test. A tester is 20 bucks.

 

[The Sick RS]

Alright then I'll get a compression test tomorrow from Wal-Mart or something and see how it goes, and then give an update.

 

[Damned Talon]

the headgasket will , without a doubt in my mind cure your problems. no sense in trying to replace other things you keep overheating it like that and your gonna crack the cylinder head from the heat. you may have already done that.

get a hose to pressurize the cylinders with compressed air. make sure the cylinder you are pressurizing is @ TDC on the compression stroke.
once you connect the hose to the cylinder watch the coolant level in your rad fill neck. it will probobly rise and in an extreme case will blow coolant all over.

BTW the reason for your "intermittant" overheating is that the air that the cylinders are pumping into your cooling system is getting trapped behind your thermostat causing the thermostat is not see the actual coolant temperature and it will not open. im willing to bet that if you drill a very small hole in your thermostat acting as an air bleed , your overheating problem would be ALOT les frequent. this is only a TEMPORARY solution to your headgasket problem. a simple compression test will not always show up a headgasket problem pressurizing the cylinders with compressed air will.

 

[The Sick RS]

Just to be sure, today I drove around the block with it a few times without the thermostat in at all, and there was no difference at all in the problem. It didn't get worse or better.
With that being said, should I still try your little trick? Does it make a difference? I can't drive the car until my dad has time to do this which is going to be 3-4 days, so a neat very temporary fix like that would be great. And I'm about to start this new job on Monday, so I'd like to give people a cool first impression with my sweet sweet Talon instead of my Mom's Hyundai 92 hp Hyundai Accent. :\

 

[Damned Talon]

with no thermostat in and the coolant IS FULL. . . .
then it proly wont work if its doing the exact same thing
maybe yur water pump impellor is no good.
i would think that may be a problem but if it is ovrheating all the time. your headgasket is still going to be blown.

 

[POlarSource]

Can a head gasket that is only bad when it reaches a curtain temperature lower boost pressure? I have boost when the car isn't warmed up but when it does I don't. Also, if it was the head gasket shouldn't the oil be milkey?

 

[HokieDSM]

I installed a new radiator about two months ago, and have been having overheating problems ever since. The car seems fine while driving, and most of the time it'll handle the drives two and from work etc without any problem - but if the car sits running for any length of time, it tends to overheat for no reason.

Today, I got the car back and took her out for a test drive (fixed some exhaust leaks and a loose belt) - and everything went fine on the way out and back - stopped at Burger King for some food and white smoke came pouring out the front while I was there waiting. I put the AC system on which would guarantee my fans would run and it cooled down only slightly while I waited for my stuff to get done. The temp needle was near the second notch on the dial - very hot. As soon as I pulled back onto the road - the temp immediately dropped back to the middle of the dial. But whenever I came to a stop, the gauge would start to inch higher.

I replaced my t-stat only a year or so ago - but could it - or the radiator cap - be the culprit? Or would it be something more substantial - like the water pump, etc? The pump seems to work fine, my heat is working good.... Help!

 

[ITSME4G63]

if you got white smoke come out that means there is a coolant leak, my car does the same thign right now, except the white smoke, I dont know why beacuase I fixed my coolant leak, but turn your car on let it warm up, then pop the hood and press the throttle from inside the engien bay, rev it up, because when you rev it up the water pump starts going faster causing more coolant to get pushed so it tranfers at a faster rate and might start leaking out one of your hoses. Give it a try it worked for me, but I might have some other problem on my car now, when I did what I just described I noticed that one of my hoses was almost completely torn off.

 

[HokieDSM]

The hoses are brand new. They started leaking because of the extreme temperature when the car got so hot. If the car's at normal temperature, they don't leak.

 

[ITSME4G63]

The hoses are brand new. They started leaking because of the extreme temperature when the car got so hot. If the car's at normal temperature, they don't leak.

what? If they leak they leak, theyre defective! Get new ones, there is no "ohh they leak somethimes ebacuas blah blah blah" if they leak thats no good and you should know it.

 

[HokieDSM]

I said - THEY DON'T LEAK. Jesus. Under EXTREME pressure, the system finds an outlet. So - it breaks from the coupling. It isn't the hoses.


I'm looking for the reason it's overheating in the first place. If you can't answer my original question, then don't reply. Thanks.

]I replaced my t-stat only a year or so ago - but could it - or the radiator cap - be the culprit? Or would it be something more substantial - like the water pump, etc?

 

[turbolover2]

It sounds like you have air trapped in the system. Open the cap and let the car run with the heat on high. That will ensure that the coolant gets circulated through the whole system. Then you'll probably notice the coolant level , after the stat opens, and you can fill it up all the way. What happens is when you're driving the pump is pushing hard enough to get past the air pockets, when you stop, the air pockets don't allow the coolant to circulate. Try that.

 

[Generation1JeY]

the white smoke is coming out because ur coolant is boiling and expanding into the overflow tank and through the tube onto the road. My car is having an overheating problem right now as well, its because of my alternator belt i think not spinning the water pump properly, anyway when the car overheats the tube from the oveflow canister leads to the ground and dumps excess coolant on the road. if the smoke was coming from the right side wheel well or right side of the car then its not a leak its just that the coolant is boiling and overflowing.

 

[Defiant]

Make sure your cooling fan's kicking on at idle. Replace the radiator cap for starters, easiest and cheapest first step.

 

[92redman]

There should never be enough pressure in the system to cause leaks unless there is a defective hose or loose clamp. The caps are designed to releive pressure about a certain amount, probably 14psi which shouldn't cause a leak. Fix the leak and for Pete's sake, tell us if the radiator fan comes on when the car gets to temp at idle. The a/c fan only comes on if the a/c is on and that system gets above a set pressure. You could have a clogged radiator, but since you said it was new that is probably not the case(still possible). And as stated before, you could have air pockets in the system.

If it overheated once for whatever reason, you could have cracked a coolant passage causing coolant to pour into your combustion chamber and heat from the combustion chamber pouring into the cooling system causing overheating. Usually when vehicles overheat at idle, though, it is the fan not working that is why it doesn't overheat when you are driving.