Curious about an overheat problem.

[Jonathan]

My first vehical was a 1985 Plymouth Voyager Minivan. It had the 2.6L Engine in it. I’ve since moved on, but it had a problem that I never could figure out. In 2001, when it had roughly 180, 000 miles, it devoloped a problem where it would occasionally overheat. Even wired in a manual switch to turn on the fan whenever I wanted. It would drive fine arround town, and on the highway, but when exiting the highway, it would start to overheat. It only seemed to overheat when slowing down from highway speed after going on the highway. Engine coolant was flushed out, Thermostat changed, and Head gasket changed. Like I said I’ve since moved on, but I always wondered what the problem was with that vehical. Until then, it was a really good vehical.

Edit: Forgot to add.
The heater worked fine, until it started to overheat, then no heat on the heater. Due to an unrelated vacume leak the vent was stuck in the defrost position.

Topic

[Mike]

When you flush out coolant, are you absolutely sure you purge out all the air?

[Jonathan]

I had the coolant flushed during a road trip, so no I’m not. It was back in July 2001 at one of those quick oil changes. They reccomended a coolant flush after an oil change. The Van had just started the overheat problem at the time, and when looking at the coolant a few days earlyer I noticed it was nasty so I told them to go ahead with it.

That van is long gone, but I was just curious what the problem could have been. I left Northern California, didnt make it out of California before it started to have overheat issues. Mad it up to northern Oregon where I had the oil changed and coolant flushed.

Then took it north to Seattle, and east to Michigan. It was a great trip. As long as we (My friend was with me) shut the Van off when we got off the freeway to let it cool down it didn’t over heat. But the temp would start climbing as soon as we hit the exit ramp. So we exited, stoped for food and gas, let it cool down abit, then back to the highway. We had wired in an electric switch to turn the fan on, but that didn’t seem to help.

But now that you mention it, I suppose it COULD have been air in the system. Though even when we made it back to Michigan from Oregon, you’d think it would have worked all the bubbles out.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The issue here is that we’ll never know. We can speculate all day on this thread but unless we do something to get results all we can do is guess at what MIGHT have caused your overheat.

Normally when I run into a strange overheat like that, I look to coolant flow as the cause. It could be a restriction in the system somewhere, or a water pump that’s not working properly. Both would require that you either do some disassembly or parts replacement to confirm that. Also as I often say you must purge the air out of a cooling system after you’ve done a service. If not, it will cause problems.

I would say keep us posted but since you don’t have the van anymore I guess we’ll never know.

[Jonathan]

You’re right, we’ll never know. Thanks for your responces though. Every once in a while I wonder what the problem was with that van. Guess it’s because it was my first vehical and all. Makes me miss the Goodyear Aquatread III tires. Those were the best tires I’ve ever had

[Author]

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