my car is overheating.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jan 2008
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my car is overheating. the car sits in idle and in 5 minutes overheats.i' m going with a clogged radiator.any help would be appricated.if you have and suggestion please let me know.i' m sorry of this newbie question
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,407
Likes: 63
From: Knappa, Oregon
Thermostat is cheap and easy to fix. You should always eliminate the simple before moving on to the hard, expensive, gotta tear my car apart stuff.
I'd guess water pump before t stat because it usually takes more than 5 min for the t stat to open up I think - takes longer than that for the temp gauge to read normal temps and get heat out of the heater. If his temp gauge is shooting up that quickly I'd be guessing the pump is bad or low fluid (or both).
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,407
Likes: 63
From: Knappa, Oregon
I'd guess water pump before t stat because it usually takes more than 5 min for the t stat to open up I think - takes longer than that for the temp gauge to read normal temps and get heat out of the heater. If his temp gauge is shooting up that quickly I'd be guessing the pump is bad or low fluid (or both).
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Staging Lane
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
From: Royal Oak, MI
I think SparkyJJO has a good point, but I would check the easy stuff first like mentioned before.
Coolant level and strength as well. You can get a tester from a local autoparts store for less than $5.
Hoses/Fan.
Thermostat. An easy and free way to check it is to take it out and boil some water. Dunk it in, if it opens it works, if not, well...
If you're still overheating after eliminating all of that, next cheapest would be to flush the coolant system and check for debris, which MIGHT indicate some type of clogging.
After that it's the fun stuff... waterpump, radiator, etc.
Good luck & don't forget to use Dexcool (the orange stuff).
Coolant level and strength as well. You can get a tester from a local autoparts store for less than $5.
Hoses/Fan.
Thermostat. An easy and free way to check it is to take it out and boil some water. Dunk it in, if it opens it works, if not, well...
If you're still overheating after eliminating all of that, next cheapest would be to flush the coolant system and check for debris, which MIGHT indicate some type of clogging.
After that it's the fun stuff... waterpump, radiator, etc.
Good luck & don't forget to use Dexcool (the orange stuff).
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Verdad Gallardo TECH Fanatic
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,407
Likes: 63
From: Knappa, Oregon
Thermostat. An easy and free way to check it is to take it out and boil some water. Dunk it in, if it opens it works, if not, well...
If you dunk it in boiling water it might open some but not all the way just get a new one but first thing i'd check is if you have any air in the system very common on our cars.
Staging Lane
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
From: Royal Oak, MI
I was under the impression that a problem should be diagnosed before it's fixed, instead of filling the radiatior with $20 bills. Yeah, it would probably be best to replace the t-stat broken or not once you're there since it's pretty cheap, but I personally would want the piece of mind before i sealed everything back up.
dave70 may have a point that it could open part way, but if you're overheating within 5 mins, I would expect to see one or the other if that is the root of your problem.
Didn't expect to take that much heat for the comment. Sorry for the queer pun but i couldn't resist.
dave70 may have a point that it could open part way, but if you're overheating within 5 mins, I would expect to see one or the other if that is the root of your problem.
Didn't expect to take that much heat for the comment. Sorry for the queer pun but i couldn't resist.
Registered User
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
From: Seattle
i had a similar problem after replacing my water pump, it was a combination of things for me tho, coolant temp sensor, the coupler for the spline shafts went missing, and huge air bubbles, my t stat was brand new and the system was flushed 3 times before pump went out, this was on my 94 z28
