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Car Overheated / Overheating / Overheats [MERGED]

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NTRCOOL

Probationary Member
24
0
Apr 10, 2002
Richmond_Va.
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!
 
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So, I've been driving the car around and it hasn't overheated. Then i go to work which is a 40 minute drive and 2 minutes away from work, it overheats. I haven't checked the head bolts yet. Why is it taking so long to do this?

I will not be digging into this car any further. It's being put up for sale.

So I'm fighting with myself about selling it. it is listed for sale locally but I will attempt to fix it. If I don't get a good offer I will keep it.

I just torqued the head bolts again. I'm going to be ordering a water pump also.
 
tore the car down to get to the water pump, it seems fine. spins freely and i can hear it pumping. im not going to change it. i will test my thermostat again to make sure it didnt fail. what happens when the coolant temp sensor is bad? how safe would it be to drive it without a thermostat? will it just take longer to heat up? is that the only con to it? also the cap is a new autozone replacement.
 
96 RS Eclipse 420a
188k miles

Just bought it and it ran fine while I was test driving it, it didn't overheat or anything unusual.

On the way home the heat hand shot up to hot and I pulled over and by the time I turned off the main road it was already back to normal...

I continued another 40 miles highway home with no problems.

This morning the heat hand would fluctuate from half way to max to 3/4.. just jumping around.

I flushed the coolant system, refilled with water and still got same results. Replaced Thermostat and Water Outlet(broke old one).

I drive it across town ~ 8-10 miles and was just easy on it and it didn't over heat any. I made a stop for about 5 mins at a friends and started back home. It was bubbling but by the time I got the hood popped and open it had stopped. Eased it almost home til about a mile left and got on it pretty good and the heat hand shot up almost immediately. I only had a mile or so left to home, so I continued on being easy just cruising speed. It dropped to about 3/4 and stayed. There wasn't any bubbling when I got home..

Could this be the radiator cap? or does it seem more like a clog problem?

Oh and the heater blows normal air.. not hot or warm.

Fingers crossed ~ no bad HG!
 
tore the car down to get to the water pump, it seems fine. spins freely and i can hear it pumping. im not going to change it. i will test my thermostat again to make sure it didnt fail. what happens when the coolant temp sensor is bad? how safe would it be to drive it without a thermostat? will it just take longer to heat up? is that the only con to it? also the cap is a new autozone replacement.
DON'T run it without a thermostat. They are designed to keep the correct flow of the water in the head. You can get hot ares in the engine otherwise. Usually number 4 cylinder will suffer. Flush the engine and radiator, fill the radiator with demineralised water and an inhibitor. Does Pennsylvania get cold? Don't run glycol unless the weather demands it.
Cheers
Ross
 
I'll burp it in the morning and grab a radiator cap. Thanks alot

Filled and burped with Antifreeze, no 50/50 stuff. Also, Oil Change and Filter.

It seems fine now, though the heat still doesn't blow hot, barely warm.. Sometimes you can feel the heat go hot and then cool in just a matter of seconds.

Also, It seems like the A/C can cause it to start overheating.

Any ideas?
 
my 99 rs over heated on me a few days ago. everyone ive talked to said it sounds like my WP is bad so I bought one. attempting to put it in (never done it before) but i wanna make sure it is bad and causing the problem before i do all that work.
 
If your vehicle has been running for any length of time with water instead of coolant, AND has overheated several times or more, you should replace the radiator. It is probably restricted due to calcium carbonate build up in some, or all, of the fine tubing in the radiator. This is a slow process that snowballs over time, with ever decreasing efficiency causing higher temperatures, under higher pressure, accelerating the process, which tends to find the next weak link - ie stuck thermostat, blown hoses, corroded pump impeller, etc.

If there is an old school radiator shop around they may "rod and repair" yours for 40-50 bucks, but you need to pull it from the car first.

Radiators are simple to remove, especially if you need to replace the hoses anyways. And they are not that expensive, less than $200. and imo One hell of alot simpler overall than retorquing head bolts and replacing t-belts.
 
yeah i was thinking it might be the head gasket since everything was fine. i have the tools to do a compression test and leak down test so ill do that when i get the chance. and if that is the problem atleast i can make an upgrade out of it and get a multi layerd steel gasket and arp head studs. i have the tools and the know how i just am limited on time. (kids and work). either way ill post the results of the tests on here. ty all
It turned out to be that the bottle i had used for my coolent overflow After installing my fmic was located to low and causing my overflow to siphon all my coolent out. I mounted it higher and that fixed my problem. ROFL
 
Heya, Getting weird overheating problem at highway speeds. i can drive in town at 40mph no problems temps are between 203-210f. same temps at idle fan kicks in at 210f. Somehow when i drive 60mph+ my temps suddenly starts to climb to over 221f and thats where my cel warning is when i see that i turn heater on to max and it drops to 199f pretty fast. I dont get why it overheats at higher speeds even it should get more air in the radiator? I have fmic and its ofc blocking radiator but i have air splitter under bumper that forces some fresh air to radiator...
if im forcing both fans on temps are fine but i would like to find cause of this problem at highwayspeeds on 5th gear cruising. Water pump and t-stat has been changed 5k miles ago. so it should be not problem. i also made everything i could to make sure there is not air in the system and heater is pushing hot air. heat gasket is also 1 year old cometic...
I think im gonna change another t-stat and check for any leaks but its not eating coolant. is there anything elses i could look for causing this problem?
Thanks.
 
Sounds like a partially opening thermostat. Pop that bad boy in some water, heat, monitor with inferred thermometer. See if it is opening all the way, and at the spec temp. If you have older hoses, these can suck themselves in, and slow circulation. Good luck.
 
Im sorry but I have to call this out. Thats completely wrong. Temp sensor has no affect on the thermostat. Thermostat is a purely mechanical device. Temp sensor merely reports temp. Only the fans are affected and if memory serves it isnt from the sensor by the thermostat but one in the radiator.

You might look into changing thermostat, cap or both. If this is a recent change where it was fine but now isnt then it cant be your setup unless this is the first time youve seen summer ambient temps.
 
Yeah ill change new cap and thermo as they are cheap fix and try to clean radiator finns outta dirt, i might i have extra radiator at garage gonna try that if those wont help. amp temps are pretty low in this part of world :p
got silicone upper and lower hose pretty new. Just was checking last summer datalogs and i didnt get close to 221f+ at pretty much in same condition's. Thanks for advice's! gonna post when ill get some results.
 
I've been dealing with this since I bought my car and put the AC back in it. Having a FMIC and AC condenser in front of the Radiator has caused all kinds of issues. I've replaced everything but the radiator itself.

There are a few threads on here about FMIC Ducting, turbo blankets, and vented hoods to reduce temps.

Good luck
 
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Two on this ^^^^^^^^^

I would go more towards ducting your front end, if you are ok at traffic than it means your radiator and temperature sensor is working correctly,..

On Highways (high speed), 2gs have no control of the radiator fans, unless you are under 40, 45 mph,. The car will cool down only by the air is coming from the front end.

Adding a duct is your best bet,. Wondering if you still have stock fans or after markets, stocks are tricking stronge though.

Just for the record, 2gs doesn't have the temperature sensor (fan) on the radiator, they have it in the thermostat housing on the opposite side of the temperature sensor (gauge).
 
Kinda off topic.

I know it's not an option for everyone but an oil cooler makes a huge difference. I tracked (road course) a couple months ago, stock fans, radiator, fmic. My coolant temps never rose above 196 with no ducting, I just had both fans on the entire time. I would try to keep the stock fans as long as you can if space allows it.
 
I can't maintain 70+ miles per hour for very long with the A/C on. Temps start to rise above 220 for me too. But if I shut off the A/C it goes back to 195ish. I have ducting, heat blanket, a Mr. Gasket racing thermostat, a huge aluminum Mishimoto radiator, water wetter, a two speed stock fan from some Nissan product, and a custom diamond plate shroud. I have determined that it's just something I'll have to live with.
 
Kinda off topic.

I know it's not an option for everyone but an oil cooler makes a huge difference. I tracked (road course) a couple months ago, stock fans, radiator, fmic. My coolant temps never rose above 196 with no ducting, I just had both fans on the entire time. I would try to keep the stock fans as long as you can if space allows it.
fyi i did the same thing,, except i used the oil cooler to run coolant not oil, and it acts like a tiny radiator direct air feed.
theres alot you can do, test your system for pressure, use a 70/30 mix, duct or force feed it air, add pushers to your existing pullers....ect.
 
I can't maintain 70+ miles per hour for very long with the A/C on. Temps start to rise above 220 for me too. But if I shut off the A/C it goes back to 195ish. I have ducting, heat blanket, a Mr. Gasket racing thermostat, a huge aluminum Mishimoto radiator, water wetter, a two speed stock fan from some Nissan product, and a custom diamond plate shroud. I have determined that it's just something I'll have to live with.
this is identical in setup i have. The A/C will only cause temps to climb. I can only use it at Hwy speeds or else it heats.

Op these cars seem to be like snowflakes, no one thing is guaranteed to work for the next.
 
With my brothers 1g, it runs cool anywhere under about 72 MPH. Anything above that, even with the heater blowing and the slimfan going, it stays on the hotter side (206*F)

Below that, it doesn't need any cooling other than the rad. Cooling mods are: Mishimoto rad, 90's OFH, one slim fan on a switch, one stock fan (broken temp sensor so it doesn't work).
 
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