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!

 

[wicked93GS]

wish that was the problem with mine but I know its my water pump, upper hose doesnt get hot, no water flow(unless this sort of slow rise in water is considered flow), and the fact I can see the pump leaking, I just dont want to replace the pump yet because of the whole timing belt issue so I am waiting till the warm weather to do so

 

[hose101772]

no pressure?you either have leak or bad cap.go to local parts store and rent yourself a coolant system pressure tester.if thats fine check your cap.good luck

 

[diefwd]

my prelude did the exact same thing, when was the last time you changed your coolant? when it started doing that i decided to change the coolant, it was brown. needless to say this fixed the problem

 

[diefwd]

my prelude did the exact same thing, when was the last time you changed your coolant? when it started doing that i decided to change the coolant, it was brown. needless to say this fixed the problem

 

[laserblue]

About squeezing the hose: If you feel no pressure in the hose when hot, give the hose a big squeeze and see [and hear] if water is coming out the 'overflow' hose into the reservoir bottle. If it is, then the valve in the fill cap is bad. Replace the cap.
Also, check for leaves and other assorted crap between the a/c and cooling radiators.
You say that when you're moving the temp goes down. That means that air flow IS happening. And... you're absolutely sure that the fans are kicking on? Without chopping off a finger, feel the temp of the air coming off the fans.... Tell me what you find so I can think about it more!!!

 

[BoOsTiN4Hp]

Please help with this problem guys. . . I was having my car tuned by ams when i noticed the car was overheating, i pulled over to check things out and there was no coolant in the resevoir and i couldn't see any when i took off the coolant cap. I filled it with two 64oz cups of water i got at a gas station. The car returned to normal temperature but then went back up and again coolant was low. When the car is idling and filled, the coolant foams out when the coolant cap is off. Everyone ive talked has said its a blown head gasket but i want to make absolutely sure before i rip the head off. I drove the car home on the highway and had to stop about every 5 miles to refill with water. I pulled the dip stick and there was no "milkshake in the oil." My mods can be seen at www.fastgsx.com

I did a compression test and it was perfect 152 across all four. There did look like there was white smoke coming out the exhaust but it is really cold here in chicago so i couldnt tell.

 

[kandt]

i think before you pull the head off get a coolant pressure tester. and pressurize the system and see if there are any leaks. one place you might want to check is the waterpump, which is pretty much impossible to see. but if you take off the upper timing cover you might be able to see coolant on the timing belt. also if the head gasket was only leaking a little bit you wouldn't really see anything in the oil, it would just burn out the exhaust.

good luck

 

[Shannon4314]

I had the exact same problem when I got my Talon and it turned out to be the water pump.

Shannon

 

[Lethal GST]

while driving the other day, i noticed that my temp gauge was running a little hotter that usual. i thought nothing of it really until i stopped at home and heard a hissing sound. i opened my hood and saw a geyser shooting from my radiator house. after the car cool down, i temporarily patched up the tiny holes until i could make it to the autoparts store after school.
the next day, after class, i was driving to the autoparts store, and when i stopped at the light, the car seemed to take off a little more sluggishly (also heard some rattling/knocking sounds?) and i noticed that the temp gauge was WAY TOO high! i pulled over and checked it out, and there was still a small leak. luckily the shop was only a few blocks away so i walked from there. i also bought some coolant just in case. turned out that i needed to use almost the whole container of coolant because most of it was gone and only water was going through the system.
i replaced the leaky hose, and now my question is this...i estimate that i was driving about 5-10 minutes at around 40-45mph before i noticed that my temp was too high. could my car have suffered any problems or anything? it seems to run just as well before, in fact i made the 400 plus mile trip from LA to the Bay Area a couple of hours after i fixed everything. thanks in advance

 

[kak]

Check all of your liquid levels, and head gasket if you want to spend $45 range for getting a new one. When my car did that, there was just a pinprint hole in the gasket and it managed to blow all the coolant out of it :\

 

[eclipsekid1]

no, im sure ur car is cool . unless u blew a headgasket but u say ur driving is now right . so yea, a mitsubishi when over heated and nothing visible is broke then ur cool. is wat ive leared. same thing happend to me and my car was cool . only i drove my car 15 miles.. nothing happend.. later

 

[98Turbbo420A]

no, im sure ur car is cool . unless u blew a headgasket but u say ur driving is now right . so yea, a mitsubishi when over heated and nothing visible is broke then ur cool. is wat ive leared. same thing happend to me and my car was cool . only i drove my car 15 miles.. nothing happend.. later

Please use correct english.

Your car should be fine. What happened was that you leaked coolant and cause a few air pockets to form. That will overheat a car fast. That happened to me, just replace all the hoses (which I'm sure you did), maybe replace your thermostat and you should be fine.

 

[eclipsekid1]

Originally posted by 98Turbbo420A

Please use correct english.

Your car should be fine. What happened was that you leaked coolant and cause a few air pockets to form. That will overheat a car fast. That happened to me, just replace all the hoses (which I'm sure you did), maybe replace your thermostat and you should be fine.

Like u know anything about cars, look who's got the 420 motor a metro would smoke u......... if u knew about cars u would pick the right 1...

 

[dawgedeclipse]

when you say hot, how hot? my old intrepid, the bearing that kept tension on the timing belt looked as if it blew up, leaving the bearings on the lower area of the engine, well i change water pump, belt and tensioner that was even hitting redline on my temp guage over 20 times in the 4 hours it took to drive the car 1 mile home, and its fine, i dont think you messed up anything too bad just watch around where your head meets your block for any signs of leakage, if you do, have the head checked for warpness, as for milling these heads down, depending on how much it has to be done, your compression will go up, not massive amounts but it will.

hope this sheds some light on the subject

 

[stodd16]

my car will not stop overheating i thought it was fixed today when i took it to the garage and got the coolent system flushed. I drive the car for like 20 miles and then it starts getting way to hot the fans come on as far as i know, i put a new waterpump in new rad cap new thermo and hoses are good. what in the world can it be. they also did a check to see if the head gasket was ok and when they did the pressure check it went to 20 the first time (and 15 is ok and 25 means bad head gasket i guess.) but on the 2nd time around after it flushed it out the first time it didnt go over 15 which told him that the head gasket is ok what in the world could it be maybe a air pocket in the coolent system. When i shut the car off when its hot i can hear the coolent flow (gargle if you will) which seems to me air or maybe im wrong i have read every overheating post and just cant seem to figure this one out. Any help please thanks in advance

 

[DrZiplok]

Two things:

1) Check your base timing. It should be 5deg BTDC; anything else can get you into overheating trouble.

2) Check the water pump is working; start the engine (when cold) with the coolant fill cap off, and let it warm up while watching the coolant. You should see the thermostat open and the coolant start moving through.

 

[stodd16]

base timing is 10 deg.

 

[stodd16]

oh you can see the water flowing into the rad. when you take the cap off so you think i may be off a tooth because we couldnt get it any closer

 

[91eagle_tsi_awd]

is your car throwin out whites moke???might be the head gasket.take off the oil cap and look under it if it looks milky then its your head gasket.

 

[stodd16]

i had the car checked at a shop for the head gasket and they said it was ok.

 

[Boostd1]

Since you've checked everything else. I'll suggest checking the thermostat and radiator.

When your car is overheating, feel the upper rad hose and the lower rad hose with your hand. See if you can feel any temp diff b/w the two. If there is, that means either the thermostat is not opening, or the radiator is blocked. To check the radiator, feel the rad fins, they should be HOT. If it's hot, then it's most likely the thermostat.

 

[umiami80]

I have this same problem and getting it fixed Sat, it is probably your coolant sensor. The car is overheating because it has no idea that it is, it costs like $30 plus the labor.

 

[stodd16]

thanks guys ill check the temp of the hoses it is a brand new thermo so i dont think thats it but worth a shot then if thats it ill try taht coolent sensor thanks again ill let ya know how it turns out.

 

[echo]

go outside, turn on the car and let it sit w/ the hood open. when it starts to get near the middle, see if the fans are coming on. if they aren't then turn on your AC and see if they are coming on. if they come on with the AC and not by themselves then it's your sensor. if they don't come on at all then it's your fans.

 

[scblairiii]

Checking to make sure your fan is working is fairly simple. In the fuse box under the hood there is a relay that is labeled fan. Simply pull out the relay and connect the two pins with a paper clip. If the fan turns on you know it is something else if not then it could be your fan or the relay. Start with the relay as that is only like nine bucks. Other than that I read that you put in a new thermostat but what another person said that I think you misunderstood was there is a coolant temp sensor which is different from the thermostat. Good luck. I have had similar problems.