Okay, I took my car on the road for the first time today after putting my engine back in to fix my oil leak. I'm glad to say I DID fix my oil leak, but now I have HUGE cooling issues. I was only driving my car for five minutes w/ the coolant temp steady. Then all of a sudden the temp gauge needle skyrocketed to the top and I immediately shut the car off. I let it set for a couple minutes to check my fan hook-ups and they looked good. So I start it up again and drive off and right away my temp went fricken high again. I ended up towing the car home because I couldn't even drive it the couple miles to my house. So long story short, I need your guys suggestions on what could be wrong. My fan worked fine before I pulled the engine but I don't know if the fan is the problem anymore.

Thank you very much for any help you guys can give me!

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

your fan can work fine, but you can still overheat.
lets start with the basics....

are you leaking any coolant?

are you positive you filled up your coolant tank to max and made sure it was at a good level?

-MIKE-

Stroked 2.2L

stuck thermostat/ plugged heater core

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I eat emo kids for breakfast

1995 Eagle Talon (SOLD)
72' SuperBeetle
72' Standard Beetle
56' Deluxe Beetle

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

-MIKE-

Stroked 2.2L

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

-MIKE-

Stroked 2.2L

http://www.murderpimp.com





2gnt T-shirts&swag
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\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

Just spend 15 bucks on a thermostat and find out.

Easier than working on the heater core, thats for sure.

And also, a thermostat could just STOP working i guess. Do like hatter said and test it in the boiling water first.

I eat emo kids for breakfast

1995 Eagle Talon (SOLD)
72' SuperBeetle
72' Standard Beetle
56' Deluxe Beetle

Originally posted by Blizare
Just spend 15 bucks on a thermostat and find out. Easier than working on the heater core, thats for sure. And also, a thermostat could just STOP working i guess. Do like hatter said and test it in the boiling water first.

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-MIKE-

Stroked 2.2L

Hey guys you're awesome, I really appreciate your guys' help! So yeah I'll get a thermostat tomorrow and see if that takes care of it. Oh and madhatter, I don't think the coolant bubbles in the reserve tank when it heats up either. Anyway, thanks again fellas!

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

Woah woah. Didn't you say you have a fan issue? If I were you I would check a couple of things before you buy something. First start the car in the drive way and let it idle until it gets up to normal temp. Do the fans come on? If not there is your issue. If they do come on and operate fine then you can start looking for other issues. There are 3 things I'm thinking, coolant sensor for the guage (the one wire sensor on the coolant neck), thermostat, or you still have air bubbles in your coolant. Just filling the resivior is not always enough. To get all the air out start the car and then carefully remove the cap while the car is still cold. let it circulate (this will tell you if the stat is opening) and make sure all the air gets out, then replace the cap. A lot of things can go wrong when you pull an engine, things stick together, get overlooked, or improperly sealed. It's the nature of the beast, but I would try to diagnose the issue before you start replacing stuff. Now if these other guy's have more knowledge into your issue than this post then you may not need to diagnose it, but I always check before I buy if I can. It could be something as simple as a bad radiator cap leaking pressure...

I edited to the wiki!

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You might just have an air pocket in the cooling system. In my experience sometimes it will over head or boil over the first time you start it up then the air will work its way out of the system. Usually you just have to add more coolent after this and it will be fine.

_______________________________________


95 Talon ESi-T

I edited to the wiki!

Okay guys here's an update. I put a new thermostat in today, refilled the radiator w/ coolant, and relieved the cooling system of any air bubbles. I let it idle for 7-10 minutes. Now in this time, according to my stock water temp gauge the temperature kept rising and rising. I finally shut the car off after around 7 minutes because the temp gauge was reading 3/4 of the way up. And the fan didn't turn on either. So do you think it could be one of the two coolant sensors are bad. Both of their connections look good.

Any help appreciated!

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

Have we totally ruled out a water pump?

Brian

Red 97 Eclipse GS (420a) MTX
Custom Garrett T3 Turbo system
Megasquirt w/52 lb/hr injectors & a Walbro 255
Kicker/Alpine Audio (3 amps, 2 subs)
90 Cav 2.2 TBI auto (winter) <- yeah, it's fast

It sounds to me like this is a guage sensor issue. Your car will not get that hot in 7 min. There are 2 sensors on the coolant neck. You need to replace the top one with 1 wire. If you have a datalogger check to see the acctual coolant temp at idle. But I am guessing that you don't have one.

I edited to the wiki!

Welp, I found out my car isn't overheating today. I ran the car at idle and measured the coolant temperature w/ a meat thermometer. It's obvious my gauge isn't reading correctly because it was reading at the top when the car only got to 110 degrees. But that's the hottest it ever got. And my fan came on at this temperature too. And of course the thermostat never opened either because it didn't get hot enough. So I know my temp gauge sensor is bad, but would that cause the fan to come on so early too? Or do I have another problem there to fix?

Thanks for the help!
Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

The fan will come on based on the reading of the temp sensor. If the temp sensor thinks it's a billion degrees, then yes, it'll come on.

Red 97 Eclipse GS (420a) MTX
Custom Garrett T3 Turbo system
Megasquirt w/52 lb/hr injectors & a Walbro 255
Kicker/Alpine Audio (3 amps, 2 subs)
90 Cav 2.2 TBI auto (winter) <- yeah, it's fast

Alright then, I'll get a new sensor and hopefully take care of this problem. And do you think it'd be okay if I drove my car until I get the sensor? I mean when it was running last night there was black smoke out the exhaust from it running rich because the engine runs cold, but would it hurt to drive it like that?
Thanks

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

The only issue you have is that the guage sensor (the single wire sensor) is not reading right. If you can access a data logger to check what the ECU sees that would be ideal, but the Coolant temp sensor for the ECU is pretty cheap so you could also just replace it, it's up to you brother..

I edited to the wiki!

Ok I finally got my car running right again after replacing the thermostat housing and gauge sender (thanks to 1995talon) and the coolant temp sensor. No I don't have a datalogger but I used the meat thermometer again to measure the coolant temp. Everything seems good now. I'm wondering though if it's normal for the fan to kick on around 140 degrees like mine did. Eh, probably just paranoia. Anyway, thanks fellas for helping me out w/ this.

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

Well shit, just when I think I fixed my cooling problem, I get kicked in the balls by something else! You can see by my previous post that everything seemed to be working fine earlier. So I drive up town and the fricken gauge goes crazy again. Is it possible for a different USED temp gauge sender to be bad too? And now I'm leaking coolant like a son of a bitch. When I shut the car off, coolant was leaking out in a steady stream in the area at the back of the engine bay in line w/ the back of the flex pipe. Is this a bad heater core/hose? What the hell is going on here? Do all my problems boil down to one thing? And what would be some signs of overheating if I really am overheating? Sorry about all the questions, I just really need some help right now!

Thank You

Matt

\ Boosted '95 Avenger 420a - R.I.P.

fix the heater core hose, get it all buttoned back up, let the air come out, top it off, all the good stuff then see if it overheats again

if your loosing coolant it will overheat pretty quickly. IMO fix the leak then worry about the temp sender

1998 dodge avenger 4 cyl AT
Mods are:
Not enough