Idle surge/losing coolant

[BoosteDsm1993]

I just got my '93 awd running from a bad starter (again), and everything was going well. A week ago I noticed the coolant reservoir light was on. I added some distilled water and went on my way. On Monday night I was on my way home from work and the light comes on again. No biggie, I'm almost home and its just the reservoir that's low.
I'm getting off the freeway and I'm sitting at a stop light, and I notice the temperature slowly starts to creep up. The light turned green and the temp stayed at just a hair past the halfway mark. Upon going over the speed bumps (they're big, and my car has cut springs ) the temp started creeping up again. It's nighttime, so I figure F*ck it, I'll mess with it tomorrow.
The next day, I fire up the car to warm it up and the revs shoot to 2.5k, and hold for a minute, then settle to 2k, then once it's warm it surges from 1100-1500. Does the idle problem have anything to do with the cooling problem? Also, when I shut the car off I hear a hissing noise coming from what seems to be the thermostat housing. HELP! It's spring break and I don't want to spend it working on the effin thing.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Terry's Talon Troubleshooting Tips #3 - Fast Idle (aka. Idle Surge) this for idle could be head gasket or a leak.

 

[kablamo97spyder]

try doing a full coolant flush, run some radiator cleaner through the entire system, then go to an autoparts store and get something called water wetter. follow the directions for usage. the water wetter runs the car up to 20 degrees cooler. i had the same issue with my ride and the water wetter did the trick. just make sure u do a full flush and run that cleaner

 

[Cold Chill]

Blown head gasket or water pump failure.

 

[BoosteDsm1993]

Terry's Talon Troubleshooting Tips #3 - Fast Idle (aka. Idle Surge) this for idle could be head gasket or a leak.

I'll have to look into that.

try doing a full coolant flush, run some radiator cleaner through the entire system, then go to an autoparts store and get something called water wetter. follow the directions for usage. the water wetter runs the car up to 20 degrees cooler. i had the same issue with my ride and the water wetter did the trick. just make sure u do a full flush and run that cleaner

Tried this already (minus the water wetter part), didn't help. The car only runs hot after its been leaking coolant for a while, so adding watter wetter won't do anything. Thanks for the input though.

Blown head gasket or water pump failure.

I sure hope it's not the first one.

 

[target12]

First of all, a coolant flush will not stop a leak unless it is a very minor one, which I don't think you have. Go buy a pressure tester at advance or wherever you can buy tools in you area and pressurize the coolant system and look for a leak. If there isn't a visible leak, they do amke a test kit where you take a sample of the coolant and the tester will turn colors to tell you if there are compression gasses in the coolant. If you find this condition, it would indicate a cracked head and or a blown head gasket, which would require teardown and machine work. This is not as bad of a repair as some may think. And it's a good excuse for headstuds and an upgraded headgasket. Also lastly, low coolant can make the car run horrible. The fuel injection is very reliant on coolant temps, and if there is not coolant touching the sensor, it can cause driveability / idle problems. My guess on the hissing noise is just a hot engine. Also note, that after any coolant system repair, you must properly bleed any air from the coolant system, or you could continue to have problems even with no more leaks. hope that helps. Best of luck.

 

[tybucki]

I need to figure out how to refine my searches on this site I searched for a half an hour for something like this, since I'm having a similar problem, and 5 minutes after I give up and post one for myself I find this one. Good info here at least now I won't have to wait until somebody answers my post to get some idea of what I'm looking at.

 

[superorange]

i just recently did my head gasket and am having similar problems. i was also having the same problem before the head gasket kind of. the car never over fills the over flow, but there will be coolant missing as in none in the hose some time. the car has never got over 189 degrees accourding to link. the head was machined and new arps were installed and tq'd down to 90 ftlbs. should i A. torque the head down more? B. do a leak down test? C flush system and try and find a leak? Or all of the above.