I just followed the guide in the FAQs to change my timing belt. Everything seemed to go OK, until I got to the part to refill the coolant. I loosened the air bleed valve bolt, and began filling it up. I never saw anything come out of bleed valve. I filled it to teh top of the fill opening. Still nothing. Started up the car and it runs. But now the temp goes all the way up. ANy ideas?

Edit: also havent heard the fans kick on yet either.

Edit 2: Just noticed the top hos is getting hot, the bottom hose luke warm, after running the car for several minutes. DOes this mean that the T-stat just coincidentally went out when I was doing the timing belt?

 

OK so last night, I went and bought a new thermostat and swapped it out. I tested the old one and it did open. I refilled the coolant, and a little came out of the bleed valve. Temperature was still high.

So this morning, first thing I go to start it, it's 50 degrees out, and the second i start the car the temperature is all the way up. So I am guessing it's the temperature sender? Just coincidentally went out as I did the timing belt?

 

It just goes up as soon as you turn the car on or after it warms up?

The lower hose should always be colder than the upper hose since the coolant just went through the rad and should be cooled off...

 

Did the fans ever come on? Does the motor feel like it's running hotter than normal? (feel the valve cover). If you let it idle for about 10 minutes eventually the lower radiator hose will feel hot because the car is not moving and air is not going by the radiator...that's why the fans come on.

 

The temperature guage went all teh way up, just below red, literally within 10 seconds of starting it up this morning. Car had been sitting outside all night, about 50 degrees out when i started it. I can let it idle for 15 minutes and the fans don't come on. the lower hose never gets hot. The upper hose is too hot to hold onto for long. The lower hose only gets warm on the under side of it, almost like it's getting a trickle of hot water down it.

 

Sounds like a clogged radiator or something...but the coolant doesnt istantly warm up, so the gauge shouldnt just shoot straight up. Are you sure you filled it up all the way?

 

Yea that temp sender to the gauge sounds bad. If the lower radiator hose never gets hot, sounds like your thermostat is not opening to let coolant flow through the radiator.

 

Within 10 seconds? No temp gauge should heat up that fast, especially in cold weather. Even if there was not any antifreeze in the radiator, it still shouldn't do that. Sounds electrical...

 

Maybe i'm having multiple problems? Maybe the temp guage sender is bad, and there is still an air pocket somewhere? Is it possible the water pump is bad? Maybe the pump isn't pumping water through? I just put in a brand new Bosch water pump as part of this. I spun the shaft before I installed it and the fins did move.

 

This sounds like a classic symptom of air in the system. When you refilled the radiator you need to bleed the system. To do this properly you need to fill the radiator and then run the engine with the rad cap off until the car reaches normal temp (fan cycles twice). using the bleeder valve can help but leaving cap off is the best way to do it. jack the car up a bit in the front and try to keep the radiator full to the top to help the air escape.

air in the system can cause the thermostat not to open, fans not come on, and make your gauge read funny. if you are having trouble getting the air out try squeezing the radiator hoses with your hands to work the air out.

dont worry about replacing components until you try this first

 

Dpetro1 is on the mark here. Air in the system can account for everything you've said. In particular, the comment that the first time you filled you reported "no coolant came out of the bleeder valve" _proves_ you still had air in the system.

It's actually harder to get the system properly bled than many people realise, so read up a bit on the method, and perservere until you are sure you are proplerly bled. If there are further problems, further investigation required, of course. But I doubt you will have any further problems once you get the air out of your system.

 

OK that was it. Thanks all! I was struggling with it for about 45 minutes yesterday. I drove it onto my ramps, and took off the radiator cap and started it. It took about 20 minutes for the fans to kick on, once they did I could see the coolant getting sucked into the radiator, so I poured some in, then when the fans stopped the level stopped. I had to repeat this several times, waiting for the fans to kick on. Finally it wouldn't suck anymore in. Now the temp guage is back to normal. I think I spent more time overall trying to bleed out the radiator than I did doing the timing belt.

 

glad to hear it. bleeding is a PITA especailly when its cold out, takes forever for the car to get to temp.

 

This is exactly what I was trying to get at lol. No coolant=no resistance for the sensor=needle flying high.

 

You bled the system wrong to start with. Glad to hear you got it fixed.