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!

 

[BoostinAWD]

Well guys, Im gonna go ahead and say that my headgasket is blown. Yay, Radiator fluid smells like straight exhaust, Can hear bubbling when car is off after it has been warmed up. I think my block is warped!

 

[BoostinAWD]

Yes I know, I need to make up my mind. I don't think my headgasket is blown anymore, because I'm not getting flow from my Waterpump. Radiator isn't plugged neither. No water in oil, no water on pistons, no smoke coming out exhaust.

 

[89_laser_32]

Is it uncommon for our dsm's to have overheating problems because of the tightness of the waterpump/alternator belt? My car has been overheating for 5 months now and also the lights have been extremely dim. Well about 4 months into the overheating the belt started squeeking so I thought it could just be the belt because evertime it squeeked my lights would go dim and the water temperature would drop. So I tightened the belt, it stopped the squeeking, then my alternator went out. So I put a new one in, and put the belt back on really tight and now the lights are brighter than ever but it overheats, and everytime the lights go dim the temperature drops down to normal. Is there a perfect specific tightness the belt has to be to have this balance of bright lights from the alternator power and the accurate temperature? Or could it just be that my oil leak spraying oil all over my belt is causing it to slip constantly without noise? PLEASE HELP.

 

[BISHILVR]

I've never seen or heard of a belt too tight causing overheating so I will say no. A belt too tight will shorten the life of the water pump and alternator bearings though. probably the reason your temp goes up when the lights are brighter is because the car is charging and has more power to run the gauges so they can show actual readings, compare to having such low voltage when its not charging and cant deflect the gauge needle as far as it should. You probably have a bad thermostat or clogged radiator, in other words two seperate problems. Oh yeah, get the oil problem fixed now before it takes out your timing belt or causes a fire.

 

[Defiant]

And yet again, check the harmonic balancer.

 

[luv2rallye]

And yet again, check the harmonic balancer.

He means check the main pulley for separation into 2 halves - common on dsm's.

 

[Talesin]

Dead alternator and a dead water pump would be my guess, if you didn't replace it the last time you had the timing belt changed.

 

[Pitman99505]

So I just changed my o2 sensor, now the car is overheating. It is not smoking and I am not losing any coolant. It usually sits at 2/3, but is has creeped up to just below H. It doesn't get hotter at idle. My heater did not work last night, but it wasn't running hot. Today it cut off on me again. When it works it does blow hot air. Any ideas, anyone else had similar symptoms. I am really hoping it is not the HG. What do I need to check?

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

Is it getting hot going down the road or only at idle? If it is getting hot only at idle, I would look at the electric cooling fans to see if they are coming on.


Getting hot going down the road could be radiator, thermostat, possible head gasket. Only one time have I seen where it was electric cooling fans. The guy who wired them permanently on wired them on backward which dammed the air while going down the road.

Anyway, let us know as there's some tests we can do
Good Luck

 

[BlueTurboSpyder]

Hi. Usually when your heat doesnt work your coolant is low. Based on the symtoms you described I suggest that you check your radiator cap first. I had this same problem in a 300zx I once owned and it was caused by coolant evaptorating through a faulty radiator cap. My conclusion is based on the fact that your car isnt leaking antifreeze and it isnt smoking (a sign that coolant is getting into the combustion chambers). Since a radiator cap is a $7 part its a great place since a thermostat is a little more pricey. GOOD LUCK!

 

[Pitman99505]

It overheats going down the road. Not at idle. What tests can we do?

 

[badas93tsi]

My car was doing the exact same thing, check some of my older posts. The culprit was a low spot on the head. Had the head shaved and havent had a problem since then. Hope this helps. Although I dont know what that would have to do with the o2 sensor? Does it do it even if youre not boosting up?

 

[Pitman99505]

Yes it does it while driving, under any conditions. Can anyone tell me how the fans are supposed to work. When my car is running and is at temp only one of them is on. Are both supposed to be on?

 

[badas93tsi]

One of them is your a/c fan. I dont think the fans come on at highway speeds. Only at an idle when there is no air flowing through the radiator.

 

[sumenlo]

I'm with blueturbospyder on this one. Check your coolant level. I just recently went through an overheating fiasco and it wound up being the coolant feed line to the turbo. Problem was, the leak was so small, it would never actually leak onto the ground. It would all evaporate before getting anywhere. Check all your hoses and replace the radiator cap. It won't hurt to do some standard maintenance.

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

There's several pretty good opinions in here. Cooling fans only come into play when you are stopped or moving too slow for air to move over the radiator.

I would hope that the coolant level would be checked before we are asked to diagnose the overheating problem.

I have had vehicles towed for no start only to find out they were out of gas though.

If your thermostat has not recently been changed, change it. Top off your reservoir and drive. If it is still heating, you could have a limed up radiator that is unable to dissapate the extra heat. I would check that second as it's cheaper than removing the head. Let's get the little things out of the way first.

Good Luck

 

[DROOPY209]

My overheating problem ended up being a bad radiator cap and low on coolant.

start out with the cheapest parts first, parts that you should have replaced a while ago anyways.

 

[Tech9Talon]

I have the same overheating problem. At about 55-60 the car runs normal temp. At about 65, under low boost, or on a slight incline then car starts to overheat. If i coast it will cool back down to normal. The car also blew the coolant back out of the overflow bottle before, that was when I notice it was overheating. I replace the thermostat and had no luck. I did a compression test and it was fine. We did do a leak down test and the pressure drop approx 4psi then very very slowly leaked some more. My question is that if the head gasket was fine there should be no leak down at all, correct? I am running a Cometic Head gasket and arp studs with approx 3000 miles on the newly built stroker. People keep telling me it is a radiator probelm but I am ready to pull the head off again. No smoking but It does seem like the car is running with a vacumme leak (rough idle, almost seemed like fuel cut a couple times, a real hard jerk, when I shifted the car would sputter before i couldget going). I have to drive the car to work which is about 2 miles.I assume the way it is running is from the head gasket? Oh yea my heater works extremely well, .

 

[ddavisaf]

Cometic HG, ARP headstuds, etc. don't mean anything if the vehicle isn't put together properly. Here is what I recommend. It's overkill, but better safe than sorry. 1500 miles, retorque the head. 5000 miles, retorque the head. There's no need to buy a new valve cover gasket either time.
Do not clean a radiator with tap water.
Do not flush your heater core with tap water.
This can lead to corrosion over time.
Tech9Talon, I recommend retorquing the head, drive it around for 30 minutes to help seal, then next opportunity you get, run a leak down test. A new motor with new piston rings and headgasket should not leak much or at all during a leakdown test.

 

[ddavisaf]

Oh, and one more thing. If your coolant hoses are old and you have a bad radiator cap, you will blow your hoses when you put a new radiator cap on. Especially if the old hoses have had oil leaking on them.

 

[Tech9Talon]

No luck after I re-torqued the head. Goinna order a new HG on pay day. Hopefully I didn't mess the head up when I over heated it it. The needle was pegged past the H on the temp gauge. That can't be good.

 

[fr33b1rth]

it's dumb, but let the car warm up and keep your hand on the radiator hose. when you start to feel some water moving in the hose (if you do) then rev the motor a little while holding the hose and the water sould move A LOT faster. i've see water pumps be good enough to keep the car cool enough during idle, but not at part or full throttle. this happens a lot when someone adds stop-leak to the radiator and eventually the water pump ends up getting clogged enough to reduce flow. happened on my chevy caprice as a matter of fact.

 

[Calmor]

I know the overheating thing has been covered quite a few times before, but I have a few questions specific to my situation.

About a month or so ago, I took my car in for a long-overdue T-belt replacement. While they were in there, the dealer:

Changed *all* belts (including drive belts)
Changed all T-belt pulleys and pulley bearings
Changed oil
Flushed/filled coolant system
Changed water pump
Changed coolant cap
Changed flex pipe and all ball joints
NY State Inspection and Emissions done and passed

In the process of the flush and fill, they said the upper hose swelled, so they replaced that too.

About three days later, I smelled a hint of boiling antifreeze... but attributed it to another vehicle. The next day, I smelled it more prominently. I popped the hood and sure enough, there was coolant leaking from the new upper radiator hose where it attached to the radiator. I pulled on the hose and it seemed loose, so I tried tightening the clamp. As I did, it backed away from the rad and fell off, and there were a ton of plastic chunks that used to be the radiator nozzle.

I still had to make it to work the next day, so I put the hose on as best I could and made the 4 mile drive in, coolant blowing everywhere by the time I got there. The gauge had made it near the top, but not quite. On the way home, just as the gauge was approaching the top, I shut it down and walked the rest of the way... waited for a few hours, and made the remaining trip home.

The dealer towed it to the shop the next day and replaced the rad and the lower hose. I paid parts only, they paid the tow and labor.

I get the car back, drive it around for about three days, and then take it on a four day, 1000-mile round trip from NYC to Pittsburgh and back. Not a problem in sight - temps stayed just below half on the stock gauge (normal for this car).

The next morning after I get back, the car stumbles and stutters like it did when it sat for months. It threw a CEL (Cylinder #1 Misfire) and eventually cleared up after about 3.8 miles (almost to work). Driving back and forth to work is usually just enough to get it fully warmed up, but I noticed when I got home that evening, the fan was running - unusual for my car. Temp was about half on the gauge, so I thought nothing of it.

Three more days go by, and I take it for a 40 mile ride, no problems. Park for about two hours, and then drive 5 miles to a friend's house. Before I made it there, I look down and the temp gauge is just about maxxed out. I pushed it to get it home, trying to cool it off at every chance I got (temp gauge would go down if I got off the throttle, but as soon as I was running it again, it would go back up). I got home and, in neutral, hit the gas and heard gurgling from the heater core, so I assumed the coolant was low.

Where I live, I can't really work on the car, but I checked the coolant level and it was fine, overflow was fine. No obvious leaks anywhere. I took the car out for a test run and it heated up again. I grabbed the upper rad hose and it was hot, but it was too pressurized to squeeze easily. I didn't think this was normal. I got it home again, and here it sits.

What are the chances that this is a problem with the thermostat or coolant cap, or is this most likely a head/head gasket issue?

Also odd and probably unrelated, it had a P1400 code last night. I'd just checked the codes the other day when the CEL came on, and the only code then was the Cylinder #1 Misfire code. O2 sensor ran at 0.8-0.92V during any kind of powering according to the OBD-II scanner. Car is mainly stock with 137k on the clock. Air filter, probably centerforce clutch... no engine work done that I can tell.

 

[nc90awd]

did the dealer not replace the thermostat. I would change that first and do a compression test. Did you check for water in the oil?

 

[nc90awd]

Since there were a lot of plastic chunks there may still be some in the coolant passages even though they flushed it at the dealer I would make a fitting going to the upper radator hose with the thermostat removed and run pressurised water, and radiator flush, through the motor to make sure everything is out. hopefully its not the headgasket