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!

 

[megadeth0]

WTF The Slim Line Fan I baught from SBR is in push mode instead of pull mode. Did I wire it wrong or is there a way to switch the blades, or motor? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[GVR4592]

Some fans can spin the opposite direction if you reverse the polarity. I don't know if your fan can do that, so I'm not suggesting that you do it. I would find out from a REPUTABLE source if you can switch it.

 

[TJGoSurf]

It's just an electric motor. You hooked it up backwards.

 

[1gcrazy]

He's right...shits bass ackwards.

 

[GVR4592]

Most likely he is right, but there are some fans that cannot be reversed. If megadeth0 had one of these fans and switched the wires and caught his car on fire I don't think he would be very happy. You guys don't know what fan he has, so you are assuming that its reversible. Like I said before, it probably is reversible but why take the risk of making a statement like that if you don't know what fan he has.

I just thought I would add this in. DC motors (electric fans) can have their polarity switched, but there are fans that have other built in electronic controls that are designed to be wired a specific way. I don't remember what fans, but my buddy had one on his mustang, and he fried it.

 

[jastermerrel]

I have the same thing, i'm not overheating though luckily. I haven't tried to switch the wiring yet either.

 

[Whiplash]

Get on that before it overheats.

 

[titogs95]

Better Yet, call SBR and make sure you either have to invert the wire or the blades....

The best I could find is:

With a multimeter we tested each lead and found the low/high wires (the two blue wires) and the respective ground wires (the two black wires). When wiring the plug into the Spal fan, we simply tied the low/high wires together into the (+) wire on the fan and the two ground wires to the (-) wire. Simple.

LINK

 

[CkretAjint]

I have a 96' 420A Eclipse RS, fairly modded, but nothing internal. I have never had an overheating problem untill recently. when sitting in traffic it CONSTANTLY gets hot. but when I am rolling (even 5 mph, it never gets hot). so I replaced the thermostat, temp sensor, flushed the system, added water wetter. But here is where it gets quirky.

if I keep the AC on, it is fine. after about 20-30 minutes of idling it will get hotter (75%ish) and then drop right back down to normal.

As far as I can tell the fans work, I turned on the AC and the fans kick in.

Any ideas?? it is driving me crazy, I want to fix this problem before I sell the car. The motor and trans are brand new (15k miles, if that) and they replaced the water pump when they rebuilt the motor.

So inshort, EVERYTIME is sit in traffic, I am reduced to turning my AC on, and then off when we get rolling again just to ensure that she wont get hot

and yes i searched. . .

 

[FastYZFR6]

For some reason your fans arn't coming on when you are sitting there, I belive there is a temp senser in the bottem of the radiator (at least there is on a 1st G), you try replacing that? Another thing to do is jump the connection for the temp senser whether it be in the radiator or elsewhere If jumping it dosn't make it work then start checking your wireing, relays, connections, etc.

 

[CkretAjint]

If jumping it dosn't make it work

how the hell do you "jump" a sensor?

I have heard of jumping a battery, and jumping jacks, and jumping thug wannabes. But never jumping a sensor, and I have been tuning for almost 8 years. . .

 

[ChicksDigBoost]

Replace the radiator cap, its only 5 bucks and it could very well be the problem

 

[CkretAjint]

Replace the radiator cap, its only 5 bucks and it could very well be the problem

unfortunately, we already have. . .

 

[ddavisaf]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200575

Everything you've ever wanted to know about overheating...

 

[Talon_For_Life]

Ok, so I performed all the tests on my engine cooling fan and determined that it was the switch that had gone out which, to my relief, is one of the easiest things to replace. Now my question is, how do I hot wire my A/C fan to run whenever my engine fan turns on?

Somebody help me with this.

-Xan

 

[CkretAjint]

BE-EA-U-TI-FUL link, really appreciate it, most definately helps. I esspecially like the part. . .

Try running with no thermostat. If you still overheat, the problem is probably not in your cooling system per se; probably your difficulty is airflow through the radiator. (TEMPORARY TROUBLESHOOTING TECHNIQUE. Do not keep the thermostat out of the car to fix your problem...)

My friend seems to think that helps the car, when in fact I know it does not. Then again the "eclipse guy at pep boys" said it would be fine, so it must be. *cough* derek *cough*

 

[awdtalontsi1992]

Hey all. I have a 92 Talon TSI AWD with a few problems that make me want to shoot it.

My car has fun at normal temps since I got it in April. However one day in August while driving to work on the highway I noticed the temp gauge was almost to the red. I pulled over imediately and found that my electric fan shroud and blades had melted (I assume because of the tubular header).
Ever since then I haven't been able to keep her cool. I have replaced the OEM fan with two Flexilite 12" fans(passanger side puller, driver side pusher), wrapped my header, and added an external oil cooler. I also replaced the thermostat, radiator cap, and flushed the radiator. I did a compression check and all cylinders have 155psi +-5psi.
The car doesn't over heat very quickly. It usually takes like 10 minutes. It will overheat quicker the faster I go(in town stop and go takes longer to overheatWTF ). I can almost keep it cool if I keep my EGTs under 1000F.
I don't think it is the FMIC blocking the air because it was ok before. Could my radiator be bad? Should I upgrade to an Aluminum radiator(I was going to evantually anyway)?

Also I installed a Autometer Oil Pressure Gauge. It says I only have 10psi(I know that is ok but I don't like it) at idle and it never goes over like 28psi and cruises around 20-22psi. It seems low to me. I used the pipe plug on the front passanger side of the head for my supply. Is this ok or am I loosing pressure at that location?

Third I have my battery mounted in the trunk(Optima Red Top). The volt gauge shows that when I start the car it is about 14v. But as I drive(especially when I come to a stop light) the voltage will go down a .5 volt or so. But it won't recover back to normal. It will propetually keep going down a little when I slow. I replaced the alternator and checked all the electrical connections I could think of. There doesn't appear to be any extra resistance in the curcuits.

These problems are really starting to piss me off. Any suggestions about these problems would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ddavisaf]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200575
Here is everything you ever wanted to know about overheating.

I've always mounted my oil pressure gauges at the filter housing, so I'm not sure if the readings you're experiencing are normal or not. I read about 45 psi during cruising and sometimes over 100psi on a cold start. Is your car making any unsual sounds, or has it had a recent loss of performance?

 

[femmeDSM]

Yeah, what he said ^^^

Are you losing any noticeable amounts of coolant?
Have you thought about the water pump or crank pulley? The crank pulley drives both the alternator and and water pump, so if you are having voltage issues coupled with overheating, I might take a look at that area.

 

[ddavisaf]

Yeah, what he said ^^^

Are you losing any noticeable amounts of coolant?
Have you thought about the water pump or crank pulley? The crank pulley drives both the alternator and and water pump, so if you are having voltage issues coupled with overheating, I might take a look at that area.

AKA, check for crank pully seperation from the harmonic dampener or misaligned pullies

 

[femmeDSM]

AKA, check for crank pully seperation from the harmonic dampener or misaligned pullies

yeah, yeah, yeah . Look at you being all "technical" and crap........


haha.

P.S. isn't Defiant the resident Crank Pulley expert?? haha.

 

[ddavisaf]

It's a much needed change from me being a smartarse all the time

 

[awdtalontsi1992]

I don't seem to be losing any coolant from anywhere I can tell.

I have thought about a loose belt/ broken crank pully. However the belt doesn't squeal or anything. As far as the pulley I have taken the belt of and looked/pulled on the pulley. Beyond that how exactly would I tell if it was bad? Will it just spin/pull off or is it not that obvious?WTF

 

[ddavisaf]

You'll usually be able to see wear on one side of the belt or the other.

 

[Precision]

You really need to have both of those fans pulling the air, when you driving down the high way the one that is pushing is just making the air stop on that half of the radiator and over all is not allowing the majority of the air comming at the car to cool the radiator. Second, you taking all of that hot air from the trubo, manifold, and down pipe and pushing it thuouh the radiator.

I would also check the crank pully too.