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!

 

[jab-619]

Defiant said it first, But I was thinking the same thing. Head gasket. :thumbdown

 

[2.4 turbo Hyped]

Better to blow a head gasket than break a rod or piston. Pull the head resurface it and throw it back on with a new oem headgasket. Sean

 

[BoostinNYC]

Fellow readers and DSM fanatics i have a problem my car overheating i notice i got a small leak in my radiator,but my car also stoped heating y got no heat in my car it was working fine and now i got no heat nothin but cold air comes out even when my car overheats.What can cause this problem?any body please help. Thanx

 

[VerbalKint]

Just a thought, but have you checked your thermostat? Mine did something similar to this and it ended up being the thermostat stuck wide open.

I don't know about the overheating part tho. With the thermostat stuck open, the car would most likely overcool... Never really reaching a good, solid working temperature.

 

[BoostinNYC]

Just a thought, but have you checked your thermostat? Mine did something similar to this and it ended up being the thermostat stuck wide open.

I don't know about the overheating part tho. With the thermostat stuck open, the car would most likely overcool... Never really reaching a good, solid working temperature.

thanx for the sugestion.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

everytime i turn my car off and get back in the temp has gone up (like if i stop at a gas station or something). i have a fluidyne and one 12 inch slimline with a nice big dejontool frontmount in front of that and a sbr GT-13 turbo so the waterpipe is dinged in about half the original diameter. no a/c, no a/c fan, etc.

anyway, while the car is running it seems to be okay but i have the a/c switch turned on and the fan comes on. if the switch isn't on the fan never comes on. so of course it'll just overheat. could the relay be bad? anything else to look for? i'd think that if the relay was bad though the fan wouldn't turn on at all. i dunno. and i'd think it should come on even when the car is off though to keep it from sitting there and boiling. any info appreciated. thanks!

scott

oh yeah, if the relay is bad, couldn't i just take the one used for the a/c since i don't have a/c anymore?

 

[Froyd79]

I am not sure about the relays but I have a gt30 with the dented water pipe frontmount and slimfans(2) and I was doing the old a/c thing and mine was doing that also(heating up after shutting off). Well i decided to tackle the reason why mine wasnt coming on by itself turns out just the electrical connectors or plugs were bad. I pulled them apart and they were burnt and broken . So I just hardwired all my lines and checked for power all the way from the fan back to see where it was broke in the insulation. Works great now and doesnt heat up after I shut it off. also I now run water wetter and I re-placed my headgasket and water pump just to make sure it wasnt the problem. The pump was bad when I got in there but not sure how much of a factor it played. Also I put in the 190 Tstat not sure if it helps but I didnt care for any higher tstat.

 

[badas93tsi]

ok guys, i blew my headgasket at the track, and after i replaced it my car keeps overheating when i put it under boost. if i baby it and not spool it up, it runs fine, but as soon as it gets into the boost, it starts climbing up, and the heater goes cold. ive tried the easy stuff, i even replaced the headgasket again. I had one thought, the block is o-ringed and the idiot who put the head on used a regular steel gasket, and i think maybe it flattened the o-ring and now im using a copper gasket so maybe its leaking some pressure past the o-ring and into the water jacket.????? i need some help guys, im getting kinda pissed at this stupid car.

 

[Froyd79]

Honest to god I changed my HG and could drive for an hour but once I boosted I could watch it heat up. Anyway not sayin this is good to do but it worked for me. I retourqued my head bolts to 100 across the board and the problem ceased. Changed my VC gasket while I was at it. So not sure if you wanna give it a shot but all I can say is I doubt that 100 on the stock head bolts is a good idea but I personally was curious. Good luck and maybe someone else will have other solutions. This was also with a felpro HG and some copper sprayed on though.So difference in HG might be a factor in this.

 

[Defiant]

I had one thought, the block is o-ringed and the idiot who put the head on used a regular steel gasket, and i think maybe it flattened the o-ring and now im using a copper gasket so maybe its leaking some pressure past the o-ring and into the water jacket.?????

You...... replaced the head gasket on an 0-ringed block without replacing the 0-rings?

Um.... what was that about an "idiot"?

 

[v8s_are_slow]

okay i'm gonna replace my t-stat but my fan still doesn't come on unless it's just with the a/c switch turned on. but shouldn't it come on when the car is turned off even? i most cars with electrical fans come on even when the motor's off. i swapped relays with the fog light relay cause i don't have fog lights. still nothing. does the electrical connector that screws into the bottom of the radiator turn the fan on? or something else? help!!!

 

[Defiant]

but shouldn't it come on when the car is turned off even? i most cars with electrical fans come on even when the motor's off.

They pretty much gave up on that in the eighties. DSMs don't. "Normal" cars don't do any cooling when shut off. You'll still get coolant circulation from thermosiphon.

 

[jott5555]

^^^^^ lisen to the wise one..

its normal for a car to reach a higher temp after its shut off.. the reason your fan isnt kicking on properly is because you have it hooked up to the ac fan side.. if you hook it into where the normal cooling fan was it will turn on normally and turn off normally too. now since the wires are too short you will probally have to extend them.. but on my 90 tsi i use a slimline on the passanger side and it is hardwaired to the old coolant fan plug and it works 100% and i run a adfx huge fmic w/ a fluidine and single fan on a 50 trim and i have no issues..

 

[Froyd79]

No it will never come on while car is off. Only when a/c is on or it has reached its recirc temp. Honestly Im not dickin around your electrical is corroded within the shielded wire or one of the electrical plugs are burnt out causing a bad connection. Once your car has reached its normal temp the fan WILL kick on when it needs to. (its 4am and i have been drinking I apologize) But if it is not coming on and you swapped out relays it is in the wiring. Then and only then can your problem be truly diagnosed.

 

[v8s_are_slow]

it IS hooked up to the passenger side. i guess i'll have to keep the a/c fan on all the time. but it didn't always start overheating when the car was shut off. it'll stick at around 200 when driving around town. shut it off and turn it back on and it's up to 245. that just doesn't sound right. sure, maybe i need another thermostat that's a lower temp. if it's running warm now, i can only imagine what it'll do in the summer time here in the florida heat. anyway, what's the sensor for that screws into the radiator? wondering what else i could do to get it to cool down while running. yesterday it was in the 194 (highway) to 206 (sitting at idle) range. wonder if i need another fan. hmmm....

 

[EglTalon_ESi]

I've replaced thermostat, rad cap, water pump. And it still overheats.
If I just let the car idle it doesn't overheat coolant will flow the fan will go on it seems to work fine. Then I started driving it up and down my laneway it was good for a while then my hood started smoking and then it started overheating. I popped the hood and there was coolant everywhere and the reservoir cap was off and it was full right to the top. I parked the car took out the coolant in the reservoir and left it half way min and full line. I put all the overflowed coolant back into the system through the thermo housing. Ran the car again it worked fine at idle then I started reving it. Then the reservior started started filling up and it eventually started overflowing again then overheading. So all the coolant is going into the reservoir and not going back into the engine. Can someone help me out and tell me why this is happening and how to fix it.
Thanks.

 

[onegee]

Your radiator COULD be just full of gunk. Try draining the system, then refilling with water and coolant. Also inspect the water that comes out, it should be a bit murky and pukish looking if it hasn't been changed recently but especially keep an eye out for sludge. That could be a reason why its not allowing the coolant back in because the radiator is clogged up.

Good luck.

 

[johnk]

Check your compression maybe your head gasket is going. Does it feel like there's less power? Is the water and the oil mixing?

My little brother blew a head gasket and it looked like he filled his thermostat with mustard thick nasty orange sludge.

 

[EglTalon_ESi]

I've changed the haedgasket about a month ago. I bought the car knowing it overheated the owner told me the headgasket had to be changed which he already bought and he also gave me apr studs. If only i didn't torque the head down properly.

 

[Boost Addict]

well how did you torque down the head?

 

[johnk]

Did you have the head resurfaced? Is the new gasket a metal or OEM? How did you torque down the ARPs and did you use the lube?

 

[EglTalon_ESi]

The hose in the reservoir is there I'm not that much of a knob. No I didn't resurface the head the headgasket is OEM, i used lude on the studs and i just torqued it down by feel because i didn't know the torque specs nor did I have a torque wrench.

 

[Boost Addict]

The hose in the reservoir is there I'm not that much of a knob. No I didn't resurface the head the headgasket is OEM, i used lude on the studs and i just torqued it down by feel because i didn't know the torque specs nor did I have a torque wrench.

Ok well it's still my opinion that you just have junk in your cooling system (did you check to see if coolant has mixed with oil?) But your headgasket is just gonna blow out anyway because you didn't install it properly. So you might-as-well just take it apart again; remember remove head bolts starting from outside working your way in. Get your head decked, use some scotchbrite to clean all the gasket material from the block. Use the ARP install instructions from vfaq. And remember torque the head down from the inside working outwards.

That's just my advice, it's your call now.

 

[ucancallmedebo]

I had a prob with overheating in my 92gsx after i bought it. The coolant resovior was not in the factory location. it was just sitting between the IC piping and the radiaior and the mass pipe. About 3-4 inches lower than factory location. The factory bracket was bent and would not hold the tank up. In this position when the motor would warm up it would fill the overflow but would not suck and antifreze upon cooling. After a few heat cycles i would get air in the system. I could squeez on the upper hose and there would be no coolant but the overflow was completely full. I fixed the bracket and put back in factory location and the prob was solved. May not be your problem but it could be.

 

[604CruisinCroat]

The hose in the reservoir is there I'm not that much of a knob. No I didn't resurface the head the headgasket is OEM, i used lude on the studs and i just torqued it down by feel because i didn't know the torque specs nor did I have a torque wrench.

I'm pretty sure that's your problem. You need to re-do it and resurface this time. You need a torque wrench as well and torque them down in proper sequence.