Jaws021

oh oh

ok this is what i want you to do..

pull the rad cap, and check for traces of oil. If you see rainbow type circles on the top... your in trouble. Check the reserve for the same thing.. if you see oil floating around.. your in trouble.

It could be that your head is warped from all the overheating experiences. Your head is made out of alluminum, and with extremely heated conditions, could easily warp.

Check that..

Your water pump..
I doubt its that..
Easiest way to check is to remove the belts. Spin the water pump pulley around.. if it flows freely without noise, your ok.
If you wanna further inspect it, you will need to remove all belts, timing belt cover, crank pulley, and a crank pulley tensioner, along with your alternator.
BIG PAIN IN THE ASS.

You mentioned you flushed the rad.. what color was it? Any debri?


Also.. when your car overheats does it spit our water through the reverse? Do you see water bubbling inside the reserve?
If not..
It could be your Rad cap, like someone suggested it...

Do the checks i said.. then come back with the results..
I have a couple of other theories..

[MERGED]

awww crap i just noticed

i ment reserve.. not reverse.

Sorry for the double post ( i cant edit my old post tongue.gif )

majik

There wasn't a lot of debris when I flushed radiator. Coolant was getting a brownish tint though.

Someone mentioned a warped head could be caused from overheating. Will that be under warranty? sad.gif How could I get dealership to check on that?

When I take radiator cap off, fluid starts to slowly overflow... should I let it overflow a little bit and keep watching?

I don't see oil.

I don't know about boiling in the resevoir, I'll make sure to check that next time.

I have 98,500 miles on my car, so I'm most likely taking my car to the dealership this week, while it's still under warranty.

Will radiator problems or a warped head be covered under the original 100k mile warranty? How can I get the dealership to check the heads? I doubt just asking them to will work sad.gif I've had great dealership experiences in the past, but there's a new Service Dept. Manager, and I don't know how this new chick will be sad.gif

Mad-Machine

This is odd... the fact that it does not overheat when moving suggests only a couple of things.

Radiator fans are coming on at wrong temp or not at all. (did you check to see if they were coming on when the car was getting hot?)

You have an airbubble in the system. If you are low enough in coolant to get an airbubble somewhere in the head, the force of the flow from the pump while running can be enough to overcome it. At idle, there is not that much waterflow through the engine, a large enough air bubble can "Stall" it and keep the coolant from circulating compleatly.

Just out of curiosity, next time the car overheats, turn on the air so that it kicks in the other fan and see what happens.

JonGTR

Maybe the thermostat doesn't keep the fans on when it's heating up.

majik

the fans aren't the problem. I'm always checking them and it comes on before it gets too hot.

When it overheats, I turn the A/C on and crank the heat up, it USUALLY cools it down immediately, within 15-20 seconds it'll be back to "normal" temp. I'm driving now with the A/C on so that the A/C fan is pulling out some of the heat from the radiator... it seems to help. The radiator fan is working and kicks on fine.

I have 1,500 miles until my warranty runs out and HAVE to drive to work. Dealership said they can't get me in until Monday, and wouldn't have a loaner car available til NEXT friday... I need a car to get to work. sad.gif

I noticed today that the coolant level has gone down a little (about 1" below Full now) but that may be because of evaporation from getting so hot.

T-Stat was replaced last Thursday along with coolant flush. There shouldn't be any air bubbles or T-Stat failure.

There is no oil in coolant, slightly brownish in resevior but mostly green... bright green under radiator cap.

How likely is it that the problem is the water pump?

Also, I was under the impression that the fans used a different heat sensor to kick on, aside from the t-stat.

[MERGED]

I just messed with it. When radiator fan comes on, or I turn on A/C (rad. fan comes on with A/C) the coolant drops under the radiator cap. When I squeeze the engine side of the top hose, the fluid squeezes out of the radiator cap top. When I revv the engine, fluid will move and rise towards the top.

JAWS - do you have AIM? Or could you meet me in Chat?

Jaws021

the fans kick on by one of the two sensors on the pipe that leads to the top radiator hose.

Its a 2 wire sensor.. the other 1 wire sensor is for the gauges.

If you just got the rad flushed.. and used green coolant... you really shouldint be finding brown crap in your reserve.

Ok
the reason why the coolant drops when AC is kicked on... Your engine gets extra load and temporarily slows the rpm, which slows your water pump

When you rev your engine (increase RPM) your water pump is moving a lot more causing more pressure.

Remember, your water pump is RPM dependent..

That just leads me to believe that your water pump is ok.

Sorry dude.. i cant use AIM at work (government CPU) and i cant even use the chat. Ill post whore this thread though.


I would change the rad cap.
The fact that you have over heated and have not heard, seen, or smelled coolant coming out the reserve worries me.

Ive overheated a butt load of times and that is VERY common.
When your car overheats it releases all that pressure in the reserve tank, which in returns spits it all out.

I think the problem might be the cap.


you replaced the thermostat, replaced the fan, and flushed out the rad (how did you do this, with a pressured system or rad flush stuff from an auto parts store?)

The only other things i can think of

Water pump (seems to be working fine though)
Cap (sounds like its defective)


Another theory.. are you REALLY overheating? or is your gauge sensor bad (one wire)?

Worst case scenario... warped/cracked head
You say theres no oil..
try looking again man... oil is hard to see in coolant... if you have a digital camera try to take a close up pic of inside the reserve and post it..
Use cardomain to host it or email it to me (pm and ill give you my work addy)

Or.. you have something clogged in the engine, air bubble, or leak...

Do you smell coolant when you over heat?
Also..
Smell your exhaust.. does it smell sweet? Dont do this too long though.. Let me know..
Thats a warped/cracked head test..
If you smell something sweet coming out the exhaust, its coolant burning in the combustion chamber.

majik

I don't smell any coolant when overheating, or in exhaust.

The gauges may be wrong, but the engine bay is getting very hot... and why would the gauges show high-temps only when sitting still? It's fine if I'm moving.

I'll try to take pictures. What do you want them of? Under side of Radiator Cap?

I drained the coolant then ran water through. Let it drip and drain, then put coolant in. Did it in the garage.

Jaws021

well when your moving... air is cooling your engine/rad.
OR
your sensor/wiring could be bad and be causing electrical gremlins

Open the reserve cap and take and try to pake a pic inside.. try and get a pic where i can see a glare

the take a pic of the cap in the sun

also take a pic of inside the rad through the cap opening.


I strongly recommend you switch the cap though.. if you have over heated and did not see the reserve tank bubble or spit out water... then something is wrong with either the cap or the sensor.

Also.. does the car overheat ALL the time?
If you turn the car on right now... and just leave it sitting for 20 min will it overheat?

majik

I'll go take pics now.

No, it doesn't overheat all the time. If I turned it on now, it wouldn't overheat. It does it when I've been driving for 10-15 minutes or so, then stop. The other night I left it running for 45 minutes while I washed/vacuumed my car and it was fine. That was immediately after the coolant flush.

Jaws021

ok ill keep checking this thread

btw.. do you have a junkyard with tibbies nearby?

swipe the cap..

just pass by look around and jack it.
They wont need it anyways.. 90% of all junkyard rads are destroyed beyond repair.

Or go to autozone and fork over 3-10 bucks and get a new one.

I think you can also jack one from a honda... not sure on that though.