radiator help???
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Teching In
Joined: Jul 2008
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radiator help??? ok, well i was crusing around my town in my car. when i got home i noticed that my car was throwing the coolant out of the resivwar tank. i checked if the coolent fans were working which they were. i dont think its the riadiator cause i recently changed it for a new one. so im thinking it could be the water pump or the thermostat. they day before i did notice that it needed coolant so i put some but is it possible i could off over filled it. the gages inside never showed my car was overheating. has anything like this happen to someone. what do u guys think. some assistance would help. thanks
Can't over fill the radiator. Its supposed to be totally topped off anyway.
Air in the system causes boiling over of coolant. From a blown head gasket...or you could have had a huge air bubble in there. But have you been driving around fine for awhile with the new radiator and tyhis just all of sudden happened out of the blue?
A bad temp sensor will mess with the guages and give wrong readings, but it wouldn't have anything do with the coolant getting hot. The t-stat and water pump work regardless of the temp sensor being good or bad. BUt the temp sensor does control the fans.
Either way...your temp guage can go all the way to the right and bury into the red and you still WILL NOT boil over if the system has NO air in it.
Water pumps don't stop pumping, they just start to leak when the seal goes bad. But I guess you could be that 1 in a million whos pump shaft can shear off.
If I were you I would take the t-stat out and bolt the housing back up, start the engine with the radiator cap OFF, top it off with coolant/water and see if the coolant immediately starts to flow.
If it does the water pump didn't shear and its pumping normally. Check the t-stat in a pot of boiling water to make sure it opens at the right temp, using thermometer as the water gets up to temp.
If thats good...put it back in and top it off with coolant. Wait for the t-stat to open and flow, then top it off again. While you're waiting squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses for a few minutes as the engine heats up. That will push the air bubles through the system.
Oh yeah, make sure there's no big piece of newspaper in front of the condensor first.
.
Air in the system causes boiling over of coolant. From a blown head gasket...or you could have had a huge air bubble in there. But have you been driving around fine for awhile with the new radiator and tyhis just all of sudden happened out of the blue?
A bad temp sensor will mess with the guages and give wrong readings, but it wouldn't have anything do with the coolant getting hot. The t-stat and water pump work regardless of the temp sensor being good or bad. BUt the temp sensor does control the fans.
Either way...your temp guage can go all the way to the right and bury into the red and you still WILL NOT boil over if the system has NO air in it.
Water pumps don't stop pumping, they just start to leak when the seal goes bad. But I guess you could be that 1 in a million whos pump shaft can shear off.
If I were you I would take the t-stat out and bolt the housing back up, start the engine with the radiator cap OFF, top it off with coolant/water and see if the coolant immediately starts to flow.
If it does the water pump didn't shear and its pumping normally. Check the t-stat in a pot of boiling water to make sure it opens at the right temp, using thermometer as the water gets up to temp.
If thats good...put it back in and top it off with coolant. Wait for the t-stat to open and flow, then top it off again. While you're waiting squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses for a few minutes as the engine heats up. That will push the air bubles through the system.
Oh yeah, make sure there's no big piece of newspaper in front of the condensor first.
.
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,869
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The AC condensor might be the culprit - that's assuming you still have AC and were running the AC.
On these cars they actually suck up sand and gravel and it get lodged in the bottom 25 - 50 percent area of the AC condensor. The less efficient the AC condensor the more hot air it passes back to the radiator and it also raises the under hood temps as well.
When you changed the radiator did you clean out the AC condensor? If not then that might be issue. Depending on the region of country you live in - summer temps are getting to their max and this is when AC and radiator issues appear.
You will have to remove the radiator to clean the condensor - or remove the plastic air dam just in front the of the radiator and behind the hood latch -unless you have already removed them. I have found you have better suction and draw with the plastic pieces left intact then to remove them - especially when hardly moving or at stoplights. To prove that hold a kleenix under the front of the car just in front of the air dam - if both fans are running the suction will try to pull the kleenix upwards. Remove the plastic pieces and there is no suction.
You can do the best job to get the ac condensor the cleanest however by removing the radiator.
On these cars they actually suck up sand and gravel and it get lodged in the bottom 25 - 50 percent area of the AC condensor. The less efficient the AC condensor the more hot air it passes back to the radiator and it also raises the under hood temps as well.
When you changed the radiator did you clean out the AC condensor? If not then that might be issue. Depending on the region of country you live in - summer temps are getting to their max and this is when AC and radiator issues appear.
You will have to remove the radiator to clean the condensor - or remove the plastic air dam just in front the of the radiator and behind the hood latch -unless you have already removed them. I have found you have better suction and draw with the plastic pieces left intact then to remove them - especially when hardly moving or at stoplights. To prove that hold a kleenix under the front of the car just in front of the air dam - if both fans are running the suction will try to pull the kleenix upwards. Remove the plastic pieces and there is no suction.
You can do the best job to get the ac condensor the cleanest however by removing the radiator.
