_Madman_
15+ Year Contributor
- 327
- 1
- Oct 14, 2004
-
Riga,
Europe
It seems I overheated my car today.
I was driving actively in a city traffic, went to a highway, started to climb on a right handed on-ramp at around 50 mph (80 kph), 2nd gear. And at the end of the ramp CEL came on. I quickly checked the gauges and the oil temp gauge was at 250F (120C) and the stock coolant temperature gauge was at the max. I quickly pulled over and stopped the car.
The ambient air temperature was around 80F (25C)
The engine was obviously hotter than usual, but that's it, no unusual signs.
After letting the car to cool down a little 230F (110C), I managed to start and stop it again (very short moment) and the sound seemed normal.
Then, after a while, I checked the overflow bottle, and upper cap of the hose, and both bottle and the hose contained no coolant. There seemed to be no leaks on the ground after standing there for a while.
The blower in the car was blowing barely warm air when I cranked it to max power/heat. Most likely because coolant wasn't there.
It's hard to say now if the car had normal coolant level during the driving, as I checked it 3 days ago, and it was around min. The coolant was also some kind of red Toyota stuff that was leaving traces near upper hose fill cap, but I have been driving with it for like 5k miles already, without topping it, so even if there were leaks, they very very small.
Now the question is, what should I do. The car has been towed over to a garage, and now I need to understand what has happened.
Right now I'm thinking to check if there is coolant at the bottom of the radiator, then, probably, to take out all spark plugs, check for coolant traces, crank few times over without plugs to see if there is no water coming out of the slots. Check the oil for bubbles or unusual residues (visually through oil cap). Read the CEL code (probably something overheat related).
If that comes out fine, then probably flush the red coolant with some other one and try to start the car.
Is this approach ok, should I check anything else? What kind of damage could have been done?
The mods of the car are listed in the profile.
Are 250F (120C) temperatures very dangerous for DSMs or is it most likely ok?
I was driving actively in a city traffic, went to a highway, started to climb on a right handed on-ramp at around 50 mph (80 kph), 2nd gear. And at the end of the ramp CEL came on. I quickly checked the gauges and the oil temp gauge was at 250F (120C) and the stock coolant temperature gauge was at the max. I quickly pulled over and stopped the car.
The ambient air temperature was around 80F (25C)
The engine was obviously hotter than usual, but that's it, no unusual signs.
After letting the car to cool down a little 230F (110C), I managed to start and stop it again (very short moment) and the sound seemed normal.
Then, after a while, I checked the overflow bottle, and upper cap of the hose, and both bottle and the hose contained no coolant. There seemed to be no leaks on the ground after standing there for a while.
The blower in the car was blowing barely warm air when I cranked it to max power/heat. Most likely because coolant wasn't there.
It's hard to say now if the car had normal coolant level during the driving, as I checked it 3 days ago, and it was around min. The coolant was also some kind of red Toyota stuff that was leaving traces near upper hose fill cap, but I have been driving with it for like 5k miles already, without topping it, so even if there were leaks, they very very small.
Now the question is, what should I do. The car has been towed over to a garage, and now I need to understand what has happened.
Right now I'm thinking to check if there is coolant at the bottom of the radiator, then, probably, to take out all spark plugs, check for coolant traces, crank few times over without plugs to see if there is no water coming out of the slots. Check the oil for bubbles or unusual residues (visually through oil cap). Read the CEL code (probably something overheat related).
If that comes out fine, then probably flush the red coolant with some other one and try to start the car.
Is this approach ok, should I check anything else? What kind of damage could have been done?
The mods of the car are listed in the profile.
Are 250F (120C) temperatures very dangerous for DSMs or is it most likely ok?