Heat/SES light

[Jeff Robins]

Alright guys. I have an 88 Camaro RS(as my name suggests) and I have a small problem. I drive 20 miles to work every day on the freeway. As long as I'm going freeway speeds the engine temp hangs around 160, bt as soon as I get off the freeway or hit traffic the temp jumps to about 220 really quickly. Also, as soon as the temp goes up, the idl speed increases to about 1750 and the SES light comes on. If anyone has any ideas on what would be the cause of this, some hepl would be great. i was thinking bad thermostat, but that wouldn't set off the SES light.

[IBJanky]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jeff Robins:
Alright guys. I have an 88 Camaro RS(as my name suggests) and I have a small problem. I drive 20 miles to work every day on the freeway. As long as I'm going freeway speeds the engine temp hangs around 160, bt as soon as I get off the freeway or hit traffic the temp jumps to about 220 really quickly. Also, as soon as the temp goes up, the idl speed increases to about 1750 and the SES light comes on. If anyone has any ideas on what would be the cause of this, some hepl would be great. i was thinking bad thermostat, but that wouldn't set off the SES light.<hr></blockquote>

Hmmm... would be a good idea to replace the thermostat and flush the radiator and get new coolant. DO that first, and if problem persists, its another thing.

btw, i see you're from Los Angeles what area? Are you familiar with GM Eternal car club?

[Nachius]

Are your cooling fans working at idle?

I had a similar problem in a different car that the fans weren't coming on but the highway speeds kept air blowing on the radiator.

Check that too!

[Jeff Robins]

replaced coolant, but not the thermo. The fans work fine. But my main thing is the stupid SES light. Since it's OBD1, it doesn't store codes, so if i want to know what's going on, I have to buy a scan tool for it. :mad:

[r&ksport]

Buy a tech manual and a paper clip.

(Use paper clip to access trouble codes)

Or, post the trouble codes here and one of us can look them up for you...

[Jeff Robins]

have a haynes manual,but it does me no good when I can;t get the codes out. The light only comes on at idle and if i get it above 30 the light goes off. Since my car is OBD1, it doesn't save codes to be retrieved later, especially if it's an intermitant code. However, an intermitant code is enough to make you fail emissions testing here in California. I need to find an OBD1 Scan tool so that I can get the code out while the car is running and get a live data stream. But I can't find one. Thanks for the help though.