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!

 

[SolidBoost1G]

ooo! ooo! I think he's talking about the thermoswitch on the bottom of the radiator

 

[Burnett03]

Thanks for the replies. I think tomorrow I'm gonna go buy a coolant temp sensor, radiator cap, and a thermostat. I'll also check out the connector you spoke of. Should I just check it with a test light? When should it come on? All the time while running, and when the key is on? Thanks a lot.

at the bottom of the radiator is a sensor. take the plug out and take a paperclip, wire, etc and connect the two leads on the harness, if the fans turn on your problem is that lower sensor.

 

[EvilAWD]

hey i have a question thats very similar. at this point i also have a fluidyne radiator and a spal 12" fan. now from a question asked before i bought my radiator and fan from road race engineering. i have the fan in the same location as where the stock one would go but it throws air into the radiator. now my question is why is that bad? and if it is bad because all the hot air around the motor is running into my fan and throwing it into the radiator. Can i just put the fan in front of the radiator to make it work properly? Also i dont have a way of taking a picture but i had to replace my fuse for my radiator fan off of my 93 gsx and come to find out the fuse it was using is completely different to the rest of them. its a 30a fuse but it's connections are farther apart. ran over to dealership and they tell me they've never seen it before . im curious as to if anyone else has ran into that problem. at this point i have my spal fan on whenever key is turned over although she still overheats. im thinking its the water pump as well.

 

[eclipsh]

i have the fan in the same location as where the stock one would go but it throws air into the radiator... Can i just put the fan in front of the radiator to make it work properly?

If the fan is fighting against the flow of air across your radiator while you're driving. So, asuming the fan is powerful enough, it would be keeping your radiator from cooling as well as it would without the fan there at all. If you have space, go ahead and put it in front. Otherwise, check with the manufacturer and see if you can just reverse some wires to make it run the other way (changing the polarity can often change the rotation.)

 

[dsmpride]

Alright guys, I have another theory that me and few other techs have loosly agreed on with my car b/c I'm having the same problem. I've got a fluidyne and fals and still overheating. But when the engine is on and hot (210+) the radiator hoses are not pressurized like a normal car's would be. The are soft as if the car had been just sitting for a night or something. So we were thinking that perhaps the radiator is too free flowing and is not effectively cooling b/c the coolant flows in and out of it too quickly. We were considering getting an inline flow restrictor for the upper rad hose to slow the coolant down.

So, give me your opinions.

Thanks Guys

 

[EvilAWD]

okay sounds good ill do that once i have a chance to work on her. also another thing, does it make any difference if i just connect the fan direct. i had a fuse go out and i tryed replacing it. so i looked for the new one and couldnt find it anywhere so ive decided to connect it directly, that way it turns on whenever car is turned on. Now being that the fans had a connection does it matter if i dont connect them. im concerned of maybe there's a sensor that needs to be connected or it would tell the ecu that the fan isnt on even though it really is and makes it believe the car is overheating so no fan is on. i hope you understood what i wrote. somewhat hard to explain.

 

[EvilAWD]

i sound like a little kid explaining whats wrong. let me rephrase it. There's two wires that connect onto the fan. what if i didnt connect the wires onto the fan and ran the fan directly to turn on once car was turned over. I'm sure there's a sensor located there so with that being said would it fool the computer to believe the car's heating up even if it really isn't. obviously last thing i want to do is replace my water pump. any other possibilities?

 

[marcmsj]

I'm surprised none of you guys mentioned a blown head gasket....

that's also a very possible reason to your overheating.

 

[EvilAWD]

seems very probable although thing is my car was running perfectly fine. i decided to install a bigger turbo and manifold. anyway after i installed them everything seemed to go wrong. since then ive driven the car but never letting her go over the last line before she'd reach the red on the tempeture gauge. thing is one thing shes done is whistled whenever id turn her off...any clue why???

 

[Arod]

Your t-stat should provide more than enough resistance to slow down coolant flow, you shouldn't need any type of restrictor.

When water pumps go bad they usually start leaking out of the shaft and make the bearings go out, in general. They don't usally just stop pumping water, although anything is possible.

 

[EvilAWD]

it better not be my headgasket. does anyone have a built motor that i can buy off of. id rather buy a built one rather than dealing with my motor having to do repairs to it, seems easier.

 

[TsssiAWD]

it better not be my headgasket. does anyone have a built motor that i can buy off of. id rather buy a built one rather than dealing with my motor having to do repairs to it, seems easier.

no offense but i have always been told that real cars are not bought they are built and I'm sure the same goes for the motor head gaskets are not that hard to replace that was the first thing i did to my 1st gen. buying a Pre-built motor just seems like the easy way out to me you should re-consider.

 

[EvilAWD]

thats true, i just figured id save myself the hassle. ive replaced the headgasket before and never had much luck in getting it to run right. i should take it to a shop but well i'm lazy although i have an update. okay well i fixed a few things on my car and this is what currently happens. i have a fluidyne radiator with a fal 12" pull fan throwing the air into the motor. i have a new thermostat that reads 88 degrees that i bought from the dealership and also a radiator cap from the dealership thats .9 bars. now when i drive the car it wont heat up for anything although after a good 20 mins. of driving it whenever i decide to gun it on the car it'll start heating up although once i let go of the gas it'll drop the tempeture back to normal. any clue what could it be? any help would be good. i was thinking maybe i need a stronger radiator cap? what do you guys think? thanks

 

[silvercoupe97]

If your head gasket is bad then you would have oil in your coolant or coolant in your oil. If you have neither, then pass the gasket theory out.
Easy fixes to this problem are...
-check current thermostat by pressing on the valve to make sure that it actually opens
-replace thermostat (again) making sure that it is 180' one
-reflush coolant and make sure that you can get water from one opening to the other (checking for possible blockage)

On another note your car will also overheat if you have constant flow of the fluids in the radiator.

 

[EvilAWD]

what tempeture does the factory thermostat from the dealership come at. also what i did do was put nothing but coolant in there just to see if it would heat up at all. could of that been a problem? no i dont have any oil in my coolant so headgasket..good. let me ask you how long would it take to figure your waterpump is gone? like i said i drove for about a good 20-30 mins and no heating intil i suddenly gunned it.

 

[silvercoupe97]

Just on a note...check your oil levels too. Note the oil weight and age also. Oil will have an affect on how hot your motor gets too, since oil not only lubes it it also cools it.

 

[EvilAWD]

hmm..well my oil isnt old at this point. probably a month old although ill drain it and put some new oil in there. also theres one thing i noticied when i went home a while ago, my oil dipstick would pop up a little. not enough to have oil run out but it'd pop up a little bit whenever id rev it. is that normal?

Also thanks for everything ill make sure to check everything out!

 

[Fred9981]

gsx is overheating i took the thermostat off i installed a new radiator cap i can see the water flowing so think the water pump is working i check compression and the all were at 150 psi i don't know if that is bad but they all the cylinder where the same i can find any coolant leaks

before i took the thermostat off the car would overheat within 20 miles and it would overheat when i would drive it in the freeway at 65 mph for about 10 minutes and then slow down it would over heat

now with the thermostat off and the new radiator cap it still overheats but now i can drive it for 50 miles then it overheats but when i drive it in the freeway it still does the same overheats in 10 minutes it overheats faster at high speeds


some one please help

does anything happen when you drive the car without the themostat

 

[talondude4]

put your title in the search this was already on a thread.
take your belt off your water pump pulley, and see if it moves.If the pulley moves then its your water pump. i just replaced mine and it was a 3hr job with out air tools. maybe the radiator could be bad too.
pressure test your radiator.see if there is a pin hole leak.

 

[huafist]

put your title in the search this was already on a thread.
take your belt off your water pump pulley, and see if it moves.If the pulley moves then its your water pump. i just replaced mine and it was a 3hr job with out air tools. maybe the radiator could be bad too.
pressure test your radiator.see if there is a pin hole leak.

Ummm... a water pump pulley is SUPPOSED to move without the belt on it. If you can't turn it, the bearings are seized. The best way to check if your water pump is failing is to see if there's evidence of coolant coming out of the weep hole.

 

[TracOwner]

Hold up. So you put a new radiator cap on and took the thermostat off? Did you get a new thermostat as well?
You MUST have the thermostat on the car. If you didn't get a new thermostat yet get one as quickly as possible since that's your problem. You didn't even have to install a new radiator cap.

A new thermostat should solve the problem but if it doesn't then check the coolant (you might have a coolant leak)

Have you noticed a lot of coolant all over the engine bay? If yes then your coolant hose has ripped due to the bad thermostat. Get a new coolant hose while you're at it. They're like $12 and a new thermostat is like $8.

 

[talondude4]

Ummm... a water pump pulley is SUPPOSED to move without the belt on it. If you can't turn it, the bearings are seized. The best way to check if your water pump is failing is to see if there's evidence of coolant coming out of the weep hole.

no no no see if the water pump has like other play. not rotating play, like play as in like a warped bike rim idk how to explain it.

 

[huafist]

no no no see if the water pump has like other play. not rotating play, like play as in like a warped bike rim idk how to explain it.

You mean axial play. In that case, you're correct. Terminology is key here

 

[talondude4]

You mean axial play. In that case, you're correct. Terminology is key here

yes thanks for that sorry.
any way the answer has been in other threads before
he should use the search bar.

 

[UofACATS]

what i did do was put nothing but coolant in there just to see if it would heat up at all. could of that been a problem?.

Check out some good threads on the cooling ability of water vs. coolant. It has been recommended to do around 30% coolant / 70% water during summer, although some will argue the "best" ratio. Also, "water wetter" was previously mentioned. Some good info on that here too.
For what its worth my new FMIC caused me to overheat in AZ. I drained the 50/50 coolant / water and refilled with 30/70 plus water wetter, wired both fans to come on together (easy). This helped a bit, might be a solution for those running on the edge.