DoctorNick

Was driving back to my family's place last night and the car was running a little warm. After about 10 minutes the heat climbed and the car went into "overheat mode". I pulled over, shut her down and let the fans do their job. After a few minutes the temp dropped and the car was fine. I checked under the hood. The radiator was ice cold, the hoses coming out of the radiator were piping hot. I decided to limp it home since I was about 20 minutes away if I took side streets. After another 5 minutes or so of driving, the temps started to rise and a ploom of vapor came out from right next to the windshield on the drivers side. At this moment i assumed I pop'd the headgasket and started to against the wheel. I again opened the hood looking for signs of carnage and found nothing. No sweet smell, no splattering of fluids. everything looked fine. I must admit, I couldn't see ANYTHING well, so checking fluids was slightly mute in the ~3° weather we were having here in Chicago.

Never the less, I closed the hood. Waited about 20 minutes and started her up again. The temps were fine and holding stable. The cooliant temp would get to about 212 then drop back to 200. Constantly going up and down depending on where I was in traffic while going home.

Right now she is parked, I am gonna check fluid levels since its daylight and see what I can find. I have a feeling the thermostat had gone bad and wasn't letting the fluid cycle but I would be interested in hearing your opinions.

Besides the install of a blower and a tune, the car is bone stock.

lubelizard

iTrader: (5)

A hose going into and/or out of the radiator was hot, but the radiator was cold? Did you feel this after the fans were running for a while? How does the coolant look, i.e. level and color? How does the pressure cap look?

Breathing Fire

Sounds like you are low on fluid. Hot hose dumping hot fluid, but cold radiator. Top of the radiator cold or the whole thing?

lubelizard

iTrader: (5)

I agree, low coolant would exhibit the symptoms.

DoctorNick

The car was low on coolant. I put about a gallon in, burped the blower lines and it seems to be running fine. I have noticed the temp sensor with what looks to be a snowflake around it is always very very low on the gauge. Going to look into that. Otherwise, the car is sitting at about 195-200° all day long, no issues (except it shows its running ever-so-slightly hotter then the middle of the not-so-accurate engine temp gauge on the instrument panel.

jerrad

iTrader: (5)

FYI
When a T stat fails it fails open so the car runs cooler. The heater wont get as warm is a sign of a bad t stat.

DoctorNick

I turned the car up to "burn me 90°" and it seems to be working perfectly fine.

I thought the T-stat would fail open too, which is why I was so puzzled by what went down. Now to find out where all that fricken cooliant went...

nikon

iTrader: (2)

^^ prolly a bad radiator...I couldn't find any fluid on the ground in the garage, yet it constantly lost fluid...dealer replaced the radiator and all fixed.