shadow103rd

Okay....I raced a GS-T on the way home tonght....I beat it, he was all freaked out that a Honda beat him....But anyway...I got home, and let the car idle to cool off everything (Self Turbo Timer ). Anyway, I happen to look down at my temperature gauge and its not at it usual location. I went up about 3/4 of the way.....I didnt ever touch the red. It will hold for about 2 minutes and then it would suddenly drop back down to the normal. I was dark outside so I couldnt really do anything or check anything..ie coolant level and what not....I would like to know whats causing this fluctuation in temp? Is this serious? How can I rememdy this before it turns into something serious? Has anyone ever had any similiar experience...

BTW, The temp needle never used to move....In boost, and just cruising..

Please help, all replies are appreciated, TIA

This is my daily driver so i would like to keep it that way....as I dont have anywhere to work on this car.

Thanks, Jon

m R g S r

Could be the water pump going out on you.. . .

95hatchfire

man see i have the same problem, anyone have any more input?

shadow103rd

Im going to actually look at it today...check coolant level, and such....make sure the radiator cap is still good....Gosh, I hope its not the water pump...that **** would suck

Thanks for the replies

Anybody else have any ideas what it could be???

Jon

shadow103rd

Bump...Come on guys, I dont want this car to blow up or something to go wrong....I wouldnt worry so much If I hada spare car....

Help a fellow HT'er out

Jon

DSF

With that little bit of info, and the fact that you haven't even checked anything yourself yet...I'll guess thermostat or air in the system. Did your fans come on while at idle?

shadow103rd

Ill do a thorough check of everything later on today....and update you guys....but from what is said....what should I look into first....Fans do come on and shut off when it goes through a heat cycle...just like it normally does.

Things to check
-Coolant
-???

What do you guys think I should check

Jon

Chris F

That sounds an AWFUL lot like a sticking thermostat. They're cheap, I'd replace it.

-Chris

shadow103rd

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That sounds an AWFUL lot like a sticking thermostat. They're cheap, I'd replace it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Stuck closed...and then all of a sudden it opens up...Ill have to check into that....

BTW, this only happens when I let the car idle for a long period of time (Self Turbo Timer) WHen Im driving it seems to hold to its normal location, but this only happens when im idling


Modified by shadow103rd at 1:31 PM 9/6/2004

shadow103rd

bump....

danl

Install an aftermarket gauge and verify that the problem is still their. I've seen stock gauges in cars fail in the past and they do WEIRD things like this. My personal car did it.

Other than that check the coolant. If its bubbly when the car is running then you got a blown HG. If it has a little oil or choclate milk in it, blown HG.

tegedrex

I had the exact same problem with the needle fluctuating I chgange everything thermostat(checkers), rad cap, flushed the system, another thermostat(Honda). Nothing seemed to help, so I did some research here on H-T, and found some people thought it might be a headgasket, I changed out mine and havent seen the problem since since then. The way they explained it was that under boost the coolant system was getting charged from a leak in the HG, causing the needle to fluctuate.

Darin D.

If it's only happening while your idling then it's probably a bad radiator fan or fan switch.

shadow103rd

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TitanDarin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If it's only happening while your idling then it's probably a bad radiator fan or fan switch.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is what I was thinking also...Im about to start working on the car and trouble shooting it....I will update you guys as thing come up

Jon

95hatchfire

so anyone else think this could be as easy as a thermostat? cause i have the same problem... thanks

07

Headgasket would be my guess from personal experiences.

I wouldnt imagine a thermostat, or air in the coolant unless they were recently changed or you are leaking coolant. But easy and cheap to check you might do those first.

95hatchfire

how about this - and i'm not trying to steal your thread so i appologize - but i just drove the car 15 hours at 80mph and it was fine, temp is perfect, it only overheats when i'm driving around town and get on it a little, just a little, still sound like a headgasket? if so, what happened to the headgasket and why is it preforming corrently under certain conditions and not during others? Thank you!

Also, i'm a huge red sox fan, and i'm with you all the way, nothing can stop us now.


Modified by 95hatchfire at 6:00 AM 9/7/2004

07

Oh your in Keene huh. I am guessing the 15 hours, was to college somewhere.

Anyhow, overheating while getting on it around town, and no other time.

Kind of odd. Sort of sounds like the head is lifting, such as in some d-series Ive seen. I wouldnt want to give too much advice without seeing it. If you can, while your car is warm, dont burn yourself, see if the coolant has bubbles popping up. Or also see if it is mix'd with oil.

If this is something you cant do, Id recommend taking it to a shop.

shadow103rd

Okay so if the head is lifting, would an easy fix be to just torque the head bolts to a higher rating and call it a day???

I am interested also to see why a headgasket would perform fine under certain conditions....

Keep this thread going..

Jon


Modified by shadow103rd at 8:06 PM 9/6/2004

tegedrex

I wondered the same thiing sometimes the car would be fine until I hit boost, the only thing I could think of is there is no major force trying to escape the cylinders until you get on it and acctually start creating some power which could then cause a leak between cylinder and coolant passage. Now towards the end before I replaced the HG it started to heat up more frequintly, however when I would listen for any hissing noise from the coolant hoses, there was nothing. This is what led me to change out the HG, and np since then.


BTW I did a compression check and it came up with 185 across the board, so even through the comp. check there were no discepancies(sp), but it fixed the problem.