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I have a 2003 Chevy Malibu with a 3.1 and a mere 198k miles on it. I have no check engine lights but I have noticed while driving in town and very light stop and go traffic the temperature gauge seems to creep up uncomfortably high to the point where I will roll down the windows and turn on the heat in order to help cool off the car. It’s never gotten close to the top point of the gauge just higher than I would like to see it. Anyway I replaced the water pump drained and flushed the coolant (which was a wicked color black) still having the issue. while doing this work I noticed that on the radiator cap I had a funky white build up on the inside of the cap. Checked the underside of the oil cap looks perfectly normal. Not seeing any external coolant leak. What else could it be causing this high temperatures I’ve checked cooling fans they do come on. Also (not sure if related) I do intermittently have a start stall right after the car has been sitting a few days. (May or may not be helpful) but I hooked up a vacuum gauge to the car and it held vacuum within the recommended range however the needle was bouncy and not steady at idle. not sure what would cause this or if it is at all related. Am i just paranoid or is there really a problem here?
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The white foam in the radiator cap and black coolant color leads me to believe you are getting oil into the water system most likely. Could be a blown head gasket or perhaps a cracked head. I had a van years back that had an oil cooler that was integrated with the radiator and the cooler had sprung a leak inside the radiator, although I believe the oil cooler on the Impala is its own unit outside the radiator. Another thought is maybe some of the black rubber components in the system are starting to break down – hoses or maybe the thermostat seal? Hope that might help track down the issue.
I did buy a thermostat as well but I wasn’t super excited to tackle the job because they didn’t give me much access and the exhaust crossover pipe bolts look like they aren’t coming off maybe I’ll see if I can get to it without removing that and check how it looks. I was considering a head gasket too was thinking about purchasing one of the testers from Napa that you put on the radiator and it changes color with the presence of exhaust gas but I don’t have any experience with those or their reliability. Do you have any feedback on those?
This was the one I was looking at
I believe that if you turn on the heater it then helps to cool it down some I think you should make sure you are getting good air flow through the condenser and the radiator. I know you said the fans come on like they should. Make sure there is nothing in front of the condenser or leaves and such between condenser and radiator that would restrict air flow.
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