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!

 

[AL92]

I replaced my new mits therm with another new mits therm.That seems to have been it.Assume the mits therm was sticking closed at random times.
Drove car for like 3/4 hour today and no problems at all. No overheating at all temp stayed right in middle of guage.

So happy camper and dont' think just cause its oem it can't be defective.!

 

[destik1]

okay..my 95 GST is irritating me once again:
The water pump+timing belt were replaced two springs ago along with all other belts, thermostat replaced last spring with the addition of greddy radiator cap, coolant flushed last fall, new plugs(no older than a couple of months), and new biss screw+o-ring+cap.

So about a two ago I started having a very irradic idle it would generally sit at 1500-2000 rpms or fluxuate between the two. After searching through many posts it seemed like it was my biss screw+o-ring that needed replacing. While waiting for the newly ordered part, I sprayed the current o-ring with this stuff that made the rubber expand, and brought some life back to the old thing. After this my idle went back to normal sitting at around 750-780. I recieved the new part in the mail and installed it three weeks ago just before my car went into paint. I just got my car back this last sunday, and right away noticed that the high irradic idle came back This didn't become to bothersome until monday when I was driving home from work and it started working its way past the typical 2000 rpms to a 3000!!! It was at this time that I noticed on my S-afc that my throttle % was moving anywhere from .3% to 6.1%. Furthermore, my car started overheating. It appeared as if the idle problem, and overheating problem became interrelated. I drove the car home with the heat blasting(in 90 degree weather) and the car kept from overheating, and the idle droped down to 1500-1700. Because the idle went down when the temp went down it even further leads me to believe that these are the result of the same problem. Tonight when I get off work, I am going to check the thermostat, and am also going to check my head gasket by checking my plugs(read this in another post). Any advice on the ongoing problem would be much appreciated, and if there is anything else anyone needs to know to help, feel free to ask.

 

[Raph]

anb intake leak perhaps? like the tb gasket?

heres what to do, let the car idle and shoot brakeparts cleaner (has to be flamable) at all the intake parts, if the car skips or shudders,theres your leak.

 

[destik1]

Would an intake leak cause the overheating problem though??? I'll give it a try, but I am not even positive if these are seperate problems, or part of the same problem. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow.

 

[iiiwildfireiii]

Do you have a logger? Check your coolant temps. Mine have been very erratic and has been causing the same issue (32 degrees to 205 to 60 to 190 etc etc). FINALLY after 2 weeks of this, my check engine light came on. P0115? - Engine Coolant Temp Circuit. The stupid sensor went out. I'm getting ready to change this and see if it helps.

 

[SinaiTSi]

I'm having the same exact problem as you so did I guy I knew and he said that he loosened his throttle cable a little bit and it fixed the problem. I guess apparently it was a little too tight and the high temperatures during the summer caused it to "stick" open a little bit. I just loosened mine today to see how it works out, but during an hour long drive this weekend, my car started to overheat slightly and idled like you mentioned. I'm hoping this fixes the problem as it did my friend's. Try this and see how it works out for you.

 

[HOTSHOT100]

hi , my car is overheating .

I have a FMIC
I have replace radiator cap , thermostat , prestone 2 time .
i have link the 2 fan together A/C and main fan so the 2 fan start together .

my car only overheat on highway when I boost .

I have a aluminium radiator but i dont know how old he as .

do you have any idea ?

 

[The_EE]

How big is your FMIC? Could be that its robbing your radiator of air. I know mine was, so I cut some out of the upper lip on my 97 and that cured the overheating problem I was having.

 

[Byrd]

water wetter, some sort of venting to your radiater, hood vents. Do you have any leaks in the coolant lines? Do you have any logger to see what temp it gets up to?

 

[talon1987]

you might have to run a higher cfm fan .. if you dont already

-Fitz

 

[Ultimatedsm]

hi , my car is overheating .

I have a FMIC
I have replace radiator cap , thermostat , prestone 2 time .
i have link the 2 fan together A/C and main fan so the 2 fan start together .

my car only overheat on highway when I boost .

I have a aluminium radiator but i dont know how old he as .

do you have any idea ?

Try putting in a 180 degree thermostat. If your AC doesn't work, take out the condenser (Look at the factory manual when doing this). Make a home made duct that directs are to your radiator. Maybe your radiator is just clogged up, do a radiator flush or buy a nice aluminum racing radiator. Thats all I can tell you.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

When I upgraded to a fmic I had to run my fan as a pusher. That might help. Also might want to upgrade your cap from stock.


Wendy

 

[Newlogics]

Try putting in a 180 degree thermostat.

Pointless. 180* thermostat won't be able to keep temp down. It only keeps temp from dropping below that point. In the best case scenario, he'll win another 5 mins of driving before it starts overheating.

If your AC doesn't work, take out the condenser (Look at the factory manual when doing this).

Always a good idea

Make a home made duct that directs are to your radiator. Maybe your radiator is just clogged up, do a radiator flush or buy a nice aluminum racing radiator. Thats all I can tell you.

Possibility

Are you using stock or slim-line fans? Stock fans will always perform better.
Then there is always that possibility of leaky headgasket. If you're blowing exhaust into your coolant, no fan can save you. Does you coolant tend to overfill the overflow bottle and spill?

 

[Ultimatedsm]

Radiator fans are not efficent enough to cool at highway speeds anyway, its all about how your radiator is getting the air from outside. At highway speeds, tons of air rushes through your radiator a lot more then what little radiator fans can do. I noticed puller fans block too much of the radiator and IMO the pullers are always better because they don't block the radiator from the front which is the reason you are having this problem.

 

[2gGSX]

If you can manage to hardwire your main fan to be on all the time you should be fine. I was having the same problem and then switched that fan to be on all the time with DSMLink and haven't had a problem since.

 

[Ultimatedsm]

If you can manage to hardwire your main fan to be on all the time you should be fine. I was having the same problem and then switched that fan to be on all the time with DSMLink and haven't had a problem since.

Your main fan wasn't made to run all the time, it will quit on your evenually then you will have serious overheating problems even when your driving. That is just a temperary fix, but he should get to the source of it which is he has too much shit infront of his radiator and needs to compensate for it.

1. Do a compression Test (Check if your headgasket is leaking).

2. Put a 1.3 BAR Radiator Cap on.

3. Do a radiator flush (radiator can be partly clogged but it can really show with a nice FMIC infront of it). And check if your radiator fans come on!

4. 180 Thermostate.

5. Racing Aluminum radiator (This is what helped me out with my highway overheating problem, temps went from 240 degees to 200, I can tell you which radiator I use just PM me).

6. Make some duct work, route outside air to your radiator somehow, make a custom bracket underneath your radiator that directs ait to it (This has dropped temps up to 10 degree's on average for me).

7. Check if your waterpump isn't messed up.

8. Car is possessed, step away from your vehicle.

 

[Staytuned]

No one mentioned water pump yet. I had a water pump shatter it's impeller and would not flow coolant at all. You might have a similar problem.


Check this thread here for pics

 

[Ultimatedsm]

Thats why you go with OEM waterpumps when you replace them. It is a pain in the ass to get in there anyway, why not put the best parts in while your in there. I wanted to ad, if your bottom radiator is hot and hard and evenually over 5 minutes your top gets hot, then your waterpump is working. If your bottom radiator hose doesn't get hot or doesn't get firmer, then you have a problem with your waterpump. Sometimes they make loud noises (Mine did this).

 

[nightspeed87]

i dont understand why it only gets hotter on highway. My car would be cool at highway speeds, but get hotter through city driving and at idle on hot days. Fmic or not at highway speeds its picking up a lot more than when your at idle or under 40 mph. I wired my fans to both come on soon as the ignition is on therefore Im not waiting till it gets hot to cool it, thats pointless to me, but I have a 1g not a 2g so how I did mines is most likely different than your fan set up so I dont think me showing you how I did mines would help. But I basically found the wire that would enable me to do that, it was blue with a red stripe on the fan closest to the intake arm, and I spliced a wire on there and ran it to the fuse box on the ignition and thats all! Changing the thermostat wont help you like posted above, its possible your radiators clogged up but stll doesnt make sense if your only getting hot on the highway, and therefore that leads me to believe that its something with your engine getting hot, maybe your water pumps starting to go bad. Had one go bad on mines, does your coolant every leak out, or you find yourself filling it often? Is your coolant/water ratio full with too much water? Does it only get hot when boosting? Maybe a lean condition could raise temps, do you have egt? Im just throwing ideas to help you conclude something.

 

[2gGSX]

8. Car is possessed, step away from your vehicle.

In all seriousness though, have you had experience with the main fan dying from being ran too much? I've never actually heard about that from anyone.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

I am going to take back my response above. I was thinking about when you said its overheating, and Im going to go with its most likely your headgasket. If its under boost then its pushing coolant. Normally when its fan or fmic related it over heats at idle. Could be its not a fully blown gasket just a leaky one like someone else suggested. Get it tested before you do any damage.


Wendy

 

[4BangR-x]

This might be a real stupid question, but when you are refilling the coolant, are you making sure there is coolant in the radiator pipe or just filling the bottle.

Just in case this is the case, take off your radiator cap. Look for coolant. If there is little to none, start putting some in a little at a time and then rev your engine up a little bit at the throttle body. Repeat until halfway or more full.

 

[Ultimatedsm]

i dont understand why it only gets hotter on highway. My car would be cool at highway speeds, but get hotter through city driving and at idle on hot days. Fmic or not at highway speeds its picking up a lot more than when your at idle or under 40 mph. I wired my fans to both come on soon as the ignition is on therefore Im not waiting till it gets hot to cool it, thats pointless to me, but I have a 1g not a 2g so how I did mines is most likely different than your fan set up so I dont think me showing you how I did mines would help. But I basically found the wire that would enable me to do that, it was blue with a red stripe on the fan closest to the intake arm, and I spliced a wire on there and ran it to the fuse box on the ignition and thats all! Changing the thermostat wont help you like posted above, its possible your radiators clogged up but stll doesnt make sense if your only getting hot on the highway, and therefore that leads me to believe that its something with your engine getting hot, maybe your water pumps starting to go bad. Had one go bad on mines, does your coolant every leak out, or you find yourself filling it often? Is your coolant/water ratio full with too much water? Does it only get hot when boosting? Maybe a lean condition could raise temps, do you have egt? Im just throwing ideas to help you conclude something.

Yeah at highway speeds your radiator picks up a lot more air. But you have a FMIC and a condenser infront of it, you don't get all of that air anymore. At lower speeds, his fans are efficent enough to cool down the radiator. There is less load at lower speeds. At higher speeds, your RPM's are higher and theres a lot more load on your engine. More load on your engine means more heat. More heat means your cooling system needs to cool it down to operating temperatures.

I had the same exact problem, and all I did was put in a 1.3 BAR CAP, 180 degree thermosate with a racing aluminum radiator. If your lower radiator hose is getting hot and you feel pressure that means your water pump is working. If there is a noise coming from your waterpump area, you need to replace it asap and do the timing belt while your in there.

High speeds = More load = More heat = Need more cooling

Lower speeds = Less load = Less heat = Need less cooling

Thats all I can tell you so far, and about the fans running constantly. Try it for a year or two tell me what happens.

 

[Newlogics]

The key question here is when did it start overheating?
Was it after FMIC install or just randomly?

 

[HOTSHOT100]

its overheating when i boost on highway only .

no bubble in the overflow , no booling prestone in the overflow .

I will try to make a duct.

I will try to see my temp with my log what is the normal temperature ?