my radiator had a leak. all the antifreeze leaked out on my way home the other night and the car almost overheated. so i changed the radiator today, and everything went fine, i let the car warm up, no leaks, thought i was good to do. i took it for a drive and it almost overheated again. still no leaks after i drove it, so i'm thinking the thermostat is stuck shut from running dry, or because its just old.
does this sound right, or should i look at something else?

 

how do i bleed the cooling system?
search turned up nothing

 

there is a little bleeder screw on top of the tstat housing...
looks like a screw with a litlte hole on top..

let the car run and as it is running loosen this screw a little till there is a constant flow of coolant coming out.. (not bubbling out) and once it stops bubbling and is just a little stream. you are good to go.

 

thank you, i'll go give that a try.....

 

I think you were right at the beginning - steam caused the tstat to seize up. They are pretty cheap and easy to get to. If there is any quesiton, I would replace it.

 

That happened to me...It wasn't cool...Pain in the ***. Like he said, bleed it for a few mins to get all the air bubbles out, and check the tstat...

 

well i bled it once last night and checked it again this morning. it made the 15 mile highway trip to work today just fine except the last two miles or so the heat went up a little farther than normal. so i guess i'll be doing a thermostat tommorrow just to make sure.
thanks for your help guys

 

looks like it was the tstat, the old one was stuck shut. replaced it today and cleaned up the grounds and battery posts while i was at it, took it for a drive and everythings back to normal. only took about an hour too.
thanks for all your help guys. you're all awesome.