when i don't rev my engine up my car overheats.. i wanted to get advice from the pro's

when i'm driving in city-traffic and have to stop at a light or when i'm coasting down my dirt road not giving my car any gas the thermostat needle will start to go up (usually sits a tad below halfway) and it will raise quickly.. when it's overheating, if i put my car in neutral and rev up the motor the needle will abruptly drop back down to where it should be, below the halfway mark..

i'm thinking of possibilities, so i checked under my hood and turned my ignition to ASCII (or right before i crank it so my fans come on).. both of my radiator fans come on.. the fan on the driver side is controlled by my 'condensor fan' fuse.. the fan on the passenger side is controlled by my 'cooling fan relay' and they both look like they are working correctly.. now sometimes when i turn my car off i will hear a 'whirring' noise from under my hood, could this be because of my cooling fan relay isn't operating correctly and causing my passenger side fan to slow down and start making noise? thinking it's not the fan motor itself that is going out cuz they were both spinning, fast, like they are supposed to..

has anyone else had this happen and know of what it might be.. honestly i can't really tell. for all i know my thermostat is not reading correctly, or is there a part between my fan relay and my thermostat that 'tell's the relay when to come on?
BTW its not my fluid levels.. its full. and i've replaced my radiator twice due to cracks where my transmission fluid goes.. but it's still in good working order.


any help would be appreciated thank you!!

*i just checked.. i left my car idling and right when i saw my thermostat needle rising i checked under my hood and both of my fans stopped spinning.. (my condensor fan is not dependent on my cooling fan relay) so that is why it starts overheating.. but why? a temperature sensor..? if you think so, do you know where it is by any chance?


Modified by wijiwang at 1:37 PM 6/24/2004


Modified by wijiwang at 5:36 PM 6/24/2004

 

Its deff. the thermostat. Same exact thing happened to me... replace that and it should solve your problems.

 

i'll check that out.. isn't the thermostat in a housing that connects to my intake hose? tried looking all over the net for a diagram but couldn't find one.. need to just go out and get me a haynes manual.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wijiwang &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i'll check that out.. isn't the thermostat in a housing that connects to my intake hose? tried looking all over the net for a diagram but couldn't find one.. need to just go out and get me a haynes manual.</TD></TR></TABLE>

serious??

It is the silver looking thing that connects to the top radiator hose on your f22.

 

Bad thermostat or low coolant.

 

be very carefull when taking it off tho... the area around the bleeder screw is very sensitive.

 

yeah i looked under the hood again i new what yall were talking about... and got instructions as to where it is.. can't i just 'arc' the two prongs on the wire going to the sensor b4 i remove anything.. make it alot less hassle (considering my car has 3 diff temp sensors)..

the gauge in my dash appears to be fine..

 

it could also be a temp sensor too. when was the last time the thermostat was replaced?