First off...GRRRRRRRRR.

Ok, no that I have that out..

Over the last few weeks I've noticed my car overheating mildly. Like driving home from the GF's at 1am I noticed the needle going up rather high...Turned on the heat and drove a little faster and it dropped down to normal then was fine the other 20 miles home..

That's happened a few times. I checked my fluids finaly the other day, me resovoir was empty...so I topped off my radiator with some pre-mixed and filled the resovoir to the fill line. No more overheating...Until tonight...

Musta jinxed myself cuz I joked with a friend about it..

So I'm driving home tonight and it starts overheating, goody. Crank the heat, it cools down..Then heats back up. Stopped for gas, no smoke or anything, then took off and the temp rose again. I kept the heat on high to try and blow some out, then I noticed I had no heat coming out from my vents, just cool, to mildly warm. Off and on I'd get actual heat, but the temp needle stayed up.

Finaly got hom with the needle ABOVE the red-line. Kept the lights on and shut the car off, smoke pours out from the sides of my hood. Opened the hood and I couldn't even see the engine. Ick. White smoke, smell of burning radiator fluid. Not healthy.

The smoke/steam was coming from one area, near the dizzy, underneath. Can't see exactly where though. Doesn't look like it's coming from the headgasket area. The tranny is covered in radiator fluid and I'm dripping mildly from that area.

Soo...if you have any ideas let me know! I wanna make it to 200k with this car, only like 7000miles left!

Thanks a bunch
Tiggs

 

I used to have this problem befre my A6 blew up... Its your coolant temp switch... Its not turning on your fan. I know cause I checked mine and it never turned on, took out the fan, hooked it up to a batery and it worked fine... Swaped in a new motor and it works fine. Which leaves me with one conclusion, the temp swich was bad. I am guessing that is your culprit as well.

 

I think it may be time for a engine swap.

 

any pics of what that switch looks like or where in the general area I should look? I'll search the net for info on that too

enine swap is a possibility...but got a serious money issue there right now so if I can do it cheaper then sure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TiggsCRX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">any pics of what that switch looks like or where in the general area I should look? I'll search the net for info on that too

enine swap is a possibility...but got a serious money issue there right now so if I can do it cheaper then sure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The coolant temp switch is on the side of the head, under the distributor. It's a cylindrical shaped plug with 2 wires.

 

Sounds like a heater/lower radiator hose to me.

Once the fluid level drops below a certain point, using the heater doesn't work, it doesn't get hot coolant.

Clean everything up, fill with water, start 'er up and find the leaking hose and replace it.

 

good ideas peeps. I'll check em all out in the morning. Anythin else?

 

check for leaks..get a new thermostat and fan thermoswitch..flush your radiator..

 

Well guys, looks like it's just a leaky hose. I think. I just refilled it, started it, and I had a steady stream of antifreeze coming from a single hose.
Time to get some upgraded hoses.

any1 know of any good places online to order em? pm me with a link or post it. thanks

 

after a day of being convinced it was the lower radiator hose, I took one last look at it and found out it was just a damn heater hose.
$12.50 for 4ft of heater hose and 4qt of antifreeze, and I was fixed.

thanks for the help guys