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Hello!
I have been chasing this overheating issue on and off since July 2015. I’ve been taking the car to the local Mechanic as i don’t have time or the expertise/tools to handle anything too crazy, but they have reached a point where they are stumped themselves and since all the work is warrantied i’d prefer not to go to someone else and pay 500 for them just to say that it’ll cost 1000 to fix. All other maintenance has been properly up-kept for the last 6 years. They are a national brand and all of the work that they have done on our family cars has been great. This is the only issue i’ve ever had.
To get you started –
Since July i’ve had the following replaced.
– Radiator
– Radiator Cap
– Fan Switch
– Electric Fan
– Thermostat
– Coolant Temp Sensor
– Car has been flushed multiple times
– Pressure test proved that old radiator was bad and has since been replaced.
– A lot of these parts were replaced multiple times by the shop for fear of a bad part.Current issue –
Car will drive fine for 10 miles without overheating issues
The next day you can drive it 5 miles and the gauge will climb up to 3/4 or even higher. I’ll turn on the Heater to try and help cool the engine down but it won’t help at all. I have actually had a multiple times where it seems to make the engine get even hotter.
Side note – When i start the car i can usually get hot air within 10 minutes of driving. Lately It’ll take much longer to get hot air and when the engine returns to idle at a stop sign the hot air will gradually cool down without me changing the knob.When the temp sensor climbs up i’ll drive it carefully and sometimes the driving seems to bring it back down. When it comes down it usually jumps, it’s not gradual. Occasionally driving will only make things much worse and i’ll end up pulling over and eventually turning the car off to avoid any damage to the engine. One night the needle climbed to the top after 5 minutes of driving 45 mph and the second i pulled over the needle dropped back to temp. As soon as i got on the road it climbed back up again.
I believe, but am not certain that they have done a exhaust leak check on the car, but they did say they did it back in August (just cant find the paper that says that)
The mechanic told me that if i see the thermostat housing go up to 220 Degrees F then i need to take a picture and bring the car in.
If anyone has any ideas i’m all ears! This car has been great to be, but i can’t trust it to go more than 5 miles, if that these days!
Happy Wrenching!
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The only thing I don’t see on the laundry list is the water pump itself. It’ possible that the impeller could be intermittently slipping on its shaft or the impeller is otherwise damaged or corroded away. Unfortunately, about the only thing you can do to verify it is to pull the water pump and that’s about three to four hours of billable labor for the shop whether I’m right or wrong with that guess. One thing you can do for yourself is to get the engine up to full operating temperature and do some throttle snaps with the engine running. You’d have a hand on a radiator hose while you’re doing your throttle snaps and you’d be feeling for slight swelling of the radiator hose. That could give you some indicator of how well the impeller is actually doing. Remember the swelling is slight. Give yourself a few throttle snaps to get a good sense of feel for it.
All this is assuming the car is actually overheating. Has the coolant level been checked and maintained regularly since? If you’re adding coolant at all, how much and how often? Has the shop done anything to physically verify coolant temperatures once the car is overheating? That means getting actual temperatures with an infrared thermometer. Has anybody connected a scan tool to check the coolant temperature being reported to the PCM? Has any time been spent on testing for a bad head gasket? Have you noticed any white smoke from your tail pipe?
Air in the cooling system. It’s the first thing to check for. I would recommend you bleed the air from the system and recheck for the problem. You may have another problem, but purging the air is always step 1.
This forum is littered with issues of this type and most are cured by purging the air from the system. I cover the issue extensively here.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
Hi there. As been said already, first make sure you have no air bubbles in the cooling system, watch Eric’s video and make absolutely sure you put the heater temperature on the hottest setting. Last resource is a water pump. If not, if you have an overheating history then wost case scenario is that you have a headgasket or warped block problem. Keep us posted.
If your going to do a water pump consider timing belt and crank shaft position sensor if due for replacement.
All,
Thank you for the help!
I did have the Oil pump and timing belt replaced about 20k miles ago when the water pump and Oil pan was replaced. They also adjusted the valves then. (Oil pump was leaking and the shop stripped the oil nut so they replaced the pan)
Since my posting i have done the following –
1. Checked for air in the system – There was a lot of it.
2. Purged the Air with the kit as shown the video (THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO!) I also filled the reservoir half way.
– When i was bleeding it i noticed that there were still little bubbles coming out after the fan ran twice, but eventually they seemed to stop
3. Drove the car 100 miles and at the end of the 100 miles it overheated, and filled the reservoir.
– I let the car sit a full 24 hours then checked it again and the reservoir was still full.
4. Noticing that the reservoir was full and there was now air in the system I thought the cap would be bad and it’s not letting coolant back into the system when it cools.
5. Purged the air a 2nd time
6. Drove 15 miles through hills – at the end the car overheated slightly (See picture). Turning on the heater helped bring the temp down.
7. Parked the car for 24 hours again and then checked the reservoir to see that it was above the full line, but not as much as before.
8. Opened the Cap to see that coolant was above the radiator, but not up to the cap when I had put it on right after purging the air from the system
9. Purged the air a 3rd time (this time there were no tiny bubbles in the end)
10. Drove 60 miles and right as i pulled in to my house i turned on the heater and the car got warm again (same picture)Currently the car is cooling down and i’ll check the reservoir tomorrow. I really want to say the new cap helped, along with purging the system, but it still seems to be pushing out coolant (It has not overflowed at all since my first posting). Unless the system takes back the coolant overnight i’m still trying to understand why it would overheat a little now. It’s a huge improvement though!
Thank you for all your help!
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