Hello, I recently picked up a 97' Del Sol for a really great deal a couple of days ago, the guy told me to bring a battery with me since the car didn't have one and I didn't think too much of it and so I drove it and bought it. He also told me to watch and fill the coolant so I was assuming the worst like a headgasket issues or such but I think I pinned it as a cracked radiator. So this is when the issues begin, I was driving the car today with no issues whatsoever until around 30 minutes in and noticed my temp gauge started to climb, I saw it go up and down and go all the way to H but what was odd was it would go to H when driving and then go back down while idling and sometimes alternate. I pulled over and parked and as I exited my car I saw a big puddle of coolant, as I said before I already knew it had an issue. Opened the hood no smoke or anything and engine temp felt fine so I knew it was overheating, as I'm leaving to head home the temp kept climbing and dropping and I pulled over one more time and let the engine cool off, I saw some steam come up from near the radiator but that was all. This is why I think it's an alternator, when I turn my lights or any accessories like windows the tempature gauge would rise all the way to H and then drop back down and continue to do this, could this also be a thermo problem too? Thanks for any help!

 

If the car is low on coolant, the gauge will go up to the red fairly quickly when driving and at idle it will drop back down - I know because this happened to me when my radiator had a pinhole leak. Get the leak fixed first, then have the system bled properly then see if you are still having the same issue

 

Hey thanks for the reply, my radiator has a crack somewhere and is leaking a good amount of coolant. I bought a new rad and will install it on monday. Do you think it overheated if the temp gauge went up and down? Because it never stayed at H it would keep going up and drop so I don't think it really overheated.

 

I can't say for certain but my car was fine after changing the radiator.