I HATE MY CAR!!! OVERHEATING

[jc Kyle]

God didn't do that to your car, but if you keep yelling at him like that, he might. Curb it. -nb


Ok, i am completely and utterly pissed off at the moment. This time about 4 weeks ago my car started getting warm (between 210 and 260). So drained a little coolant, switched to a 180 degree thermostat and put some more coolant in. Well, on my way to a 3 hour trip.. it started getting ****ing warm again. Took it to firestone. They did a pressure test.. turned out fine.. and flushed my system with dex cool (keep in mind I did this myself in July). Well 120 dollars later, my car's running fine.

Well, today rolls along.. and the SAME **** IS HAPPENING! Is this a possible head gasket problem? I had read that the pressure test could still be fine even if the head gasket is leaking. Grrr... another side fact which might be useful. When I bought the car (62k miles) it had green coolant in it, I didn't have to replace it until 78k miles and when I flushed it.. it was all brown and nasty.. but the coolant was supposed to be green. Well that day when I flushed it, I put dex-cool in. My question is, could dex-cool just suck *** that much.. thus the previous owners used a green coolant? Could this be a radiator or head gasket problem? I'm about to check my coolant level when I get home. All I know is that I'm pissed! :mad: :mad: [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[ October 12, 2004, 04:18 AM: Message edited by: navyblue2000 ]

[cboney2003]

Before you do anything drastic, try this:

1. Let the car cool down completely.

2. Remove the lower radiator hose to drain all the coolant or use the drain valve.

3. Put the hose in the radiator fill opening and let it run to flush a lot of the crap out.

4. Stop flushing the radiator, put the hose back on.

5. Fill the radiator with cold water to the full line. Put the cap on and start the car.

6. After the car warms up and the thermostat opens, turn the heater on full to circulate the coolant through the whole system.

7. When its been flowing a bit and the heater has been on too, stop the engine.

8. Flush the water/coolant out and flush the radiator with the hose again, repeat as desired.

9. Let the car cool down a bit.

10. When done flushing, refill the radiator with the appropriate amount of green coolant and water.

11. Start the car with the radiator cap off, add more fluid or water as needed to make it full and leave the cap off for just a bit to let the air out of the system.

12. Cap the radiator and watch the temperature, monitor the coolant levels too as you drive around but dont open it ever when its hot!!!

Hope it helps!

[jc Kyle]

u suggesting i stop with the dexcool?

[2000v6bird]

whats a gasket?

[speedy-v6-camaro]

Dexcool is fine as long as its not mixed with green. I'm guessing the previous owners mixed and thats what caused the brown sludge. You need to flush the system with water a few times....don't forget to run the heater to get the heater core flushed out too. Dexcool will be fine after that, but green will work too.

[bu-bye]

Originally posted by 2000v6bird:
whats a gasket?

Are you joking? If not I'd be happy to tell you.

[jc Kyle]

i'm just curious to why i would need to flush it again? i mean, i had firestone flush it less than a month ago.. and they gave me the aok on the pressure check. Would I be doing something they didn't?

[jc Kyle]

btw.. i had flushed it just 2-3 months before firestone did.. using dex cool that time as well

[HBHRacing]

make sure that you didn't suck trash or a plastic bag in front of the radiator. Go under the car and look up. Also make sure that the fans are coming on.

[terminaldegree]

I know you don't want to deal with the flushing again, but let's face it-- it's not too difficult on our cars to do. The other nice thing about dealing with the cooling system is that there's a finite number of things that could be wrong. I agree with what has been said here so far.

You could also change out the thermostat while the system's drained [eliminating another possibility], and bleed the air out of the system using the bleeder screw once you've filled it up [w/engine warm].

When you flushed last time, did you remember to clean out the expansion tank under the battery?

After all that stuff, I'd start worrying about if my fans were turning on properly before I suspect anything really involved like the headgasket.

[jc Kyle]

well.. i'll check for something big in front of the radiator.. but at this point i'm doubting it. When I have the heat on.. the temp is right where it should be.. a smidgeon under 210. But while i was driving, the air turned cold and it steadily rose up :( . Slipped it in neutral, turned the car off, turned it back on... then the heat worked and the temp went down right on top of 210. When I flushed the car back in July I did not check the expansion tank.. whatever that is [img]smile.gif[/img] . But seriously, it was just flushed within the past month.. I don't feckin' get it. BTW with thermostat.. i got rid of the 195 degree thermy and put a 180 in there. When i got it flushed recently firestone said that i did it correctly. They did a pressure check as well and I guess it held... waaaaa

[jc Kyle]

i'm also looking to see if my water pump is bad
btw [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Turbo V6 Camaro]

wait it blows cold when your moving? i say its your water pump. and check in front of the radatior

[jc Kyle]

yea.. only blows warm for a little bit.. then changes to cold as the engine temp rises :(

sorry navy blue

[KrisXpc]

im having teh same ficken problem with mine..and all this **** started happening after i did a radiator flush and added dex..then i re flushed to get it out because of rumors i heard about how bad it is...i have replaced the water pump and still over heats..were is this bleed thing at?