MFButler

My car keeps trying to overheat. If I turn on the heater to drain some of the heat from the engine its fine unless im pushing it hard. And the coolant keep boiling out of the overflow tank but im not seeing any smoke coming out the tail pipe? Could you tell me what the problem might be...

RotaryPWR

do u hear ur fan running when stopped? i had the same problem for months..checking everything..then i realized my fan wasnt coming on.

check ur fan fuse to see if its blown. that solved my problem. if not, it could be ur fan switch or the fan itself..

MFButler

I put a jumper wire on it before i take off but if i drive it hard it still tries to overheat im thinkin it might be ther radiator cap too.

RotaryPWR

does it overheat while driving (with the heat off) or only when ur stopped?

no, the rad cap wont solve the boiling coolant and overflow..its doing that because the coolant is getting too hot and not being cooled properlly.

i replaced my cap when i had that problem. my old cap didnt hold pressure well, so i could open it even when the car was hot. the new cap didnt fix the problem, and i had the rad blow a volcano of boiling coolant that just missed my face when i opened it while hot ya, lesson learned!!

MFButler

Well when the heater is off and the jumper wire is in, unless im driving it hard no.

Former User

I would recommend that you start by replacing the radiator cap and thermostat and then bleeding the cooling system.

MFButler

Thats pretty much what I figured replace all the in-expensive parts first... Thanks...

RotaryPWR

ya it is good to do this stuff first if u dont know when the last time u did that stuff is. chances are rad cap and bleeding wont do much (unless there really is a ton of air in it), but it could easily be the thermostat..

if not, when was the last time u changed ur water pump?

MFButler

I havent I just got the car about a month and a half ago. I should probablly go ahead and change the timing belt too. Imma probably just do it all and if that doesnt work well im pretty sure its the head gasket...

RotaryPWR

no, i doubt its ur head gasket unless u are getting white smoke or ur oil is funky.

if none of that stuff works, carefully feel around some of the rad hoses after the car has been running to see if any of them are a lot colder than others. if this is the case, chances are theres a clog somewhere in the system that u would have to pinpoint..

but also, before u do timing belt/water pump, check for a label around the t-belt cover that shows the last time it was done. dont wanna spend the money on replacing an almost new t-belt!!