My car recently started overheating. I'v changed the waterpump 3 months ago. Yesterday I changed the thermostat and it is still overheating. If I drive it constantly on the freeway or on the street, everything is normal. It only overheat when it is idling still for a long period of time(10 min) or get caught in heavy traffic where it move slowly. I checked and the cooling fans does work when it gets hot. When it overheat, turning on my heater seem to help a bit. My radiator was replaced two years ago. My only solution right now is that I have a bad radiator cap. It seems that the emergency reservoir( the little extra container next to the radiator where it has a little hose conneting to each other so when the radiator gets hot, it release water into it) doesn't seem to be full. Usually when cars have a overheating problem, this container will be overflow with coolant. Can the radiator cap be my problem or do you guys have any other soultion?

 

Yes it can. Also did you bleed ALL the air out when you fitted the new pump? Is the t/stat the CORRECT one? These cars don't have a problem of overheating irrespective of what you may have heard. Did you put a thermometer in the top tank to see what the temp really is? Post your results and we will go from there.
Cheers, Peter

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beart0y &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes it can. Also did you bleed ALL the air out when you fitted the new pump? Is the t/stat the CORRECT one? These cars don't have a problem of overheating irrespective of what you may have heard. Did you put a thermometer in the top tank to see what the temp really is? Post your results and we will go from there.
Cheers, Peter </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

No I didn't bleed any air out when I changed my pump. The t/stat is the corrected one and I installed it correctly too. I also havn't put a thermometer in the top tank to see what the temp is. How do I use the thermometer? Also what happen if I didn't bleed any air out when I installed my pump?

thanks

 

it means there is air in the system and that the motor isnt cooling properly.... hence the title of this thread.

 

there is a bleed bolt on the thermostat housing. start the car and crack this bolt. air and coolant will come out. once there is no mor air coming out (just coolant), tighten it back up. you may also want to have your radiator cap off while you do this. also give the upper rad. hose a couple of squeezes to free trapped air.

 

The reply about the details for bleeding the system should solve it all.

 

top off your radiator before bleeding.

 

I would do all the things posted above^
But you said your fans where not coming on? Check your fuses. Do you have the correct mixture of coolant/water? I would do a flush of the whole system also.
Is your coolant level constant or do you have to keep adding coolant to the system? Do you see any white smoke coming from the exhaust?

 

So far I have new thermostat (two weeks ago), new radiator cap (two days ago) new waterpump ( like 3 months ago), new radiator (two years ago), I don't think it's my headgasket because i'm not losing any coolant. Yesterday I tried to bleed my system and only coolant came out, no air. My engine was not cool at the time and I didn't have the rad/cap off so I don't know if that affected it but all that was coming out of the bleeder hole was coolant. I switched my temperture guage sending unit with my friend prelude TGSU and the meter still show that it's overheating. My fans kick in before or once the meter guage goes pass the middle section. My only solution now is that my radiator is has gone bad so i'm going to tried to change that.

 

when does it over heat? when your at a stand still or when your driving?

 

I would flush the system before I got a new radiator. Maybe you got some crap blocking some of the passageways or something. If it's only 2yrs old I doubt it's shot. So just pick up some of that system flush crap run it through then flush it with just water a couple of times to make sure you got all the crap out.

 

I used to have the exact same problem and so did my friend. Although you say that the fan is working, you should try to replace it. Mine would work almost every time i looked, and i had completley ruled out the possibilty of it being the fan. One time out of a dozen i looked and it didn't work. all of the other times it must have come on right as i was looking. I still was not convinced but when i replaced the fan, i never had asingle problem. All of the other advice that you got was great but i've been down that road and i really think that you should look there.

 

My car only tend to overheat only when it's at a stand still or moving slowly. Once it get going, everything seem fine. Maybe it could be the fan to MR. E.G. Thanks for all the help guys!