Just Can't Win!!!
 

About a month and a half ago, my 99 TA with 206,000mi. was overheating. It would spit all the coolant out. I replaced the radiator because it was cracked at the neck. Then ran good for a while until started to overheat again. I yanked the heads off, replaced head gaskets, got a valve job done and was told the heads were good. Now, It's starting to overheat 3,000 mi later. It spits all the coolant out of the reservoir first then empties the radiator, the radiator pops every now and then when sitting after heating up. Any Ideas?? i'm thinking possibly cracked head maybe?? or is it sucking in air?? I'm just tired of throwing money at it...especially with a newborn at home.

Dam, I am not sure of what that sounds like to me.. I was going to say radiator, but you already replaced...
I am thinking it could be heads.. 200,000 miles, man that is alot of miles on that 99
But my guess would be heads... But there are more hard core techies on here that will
have better guesses/suggestions.

I am just putting my 2 cents in.

206K + miles, that my friend to me is an impressive amount of miles for cars like ours.

Hope you find your culprit soon, with that newborn coming, you might as well start prepping to sell your car to us :)

Hey! My 10:05 post was earlier than yours! quit that!

lol yeah that newborn is at home now. 4 days old. I don't think i'll sell it...who know

Well congradulations. Please send "It's a boy/girl" cigar at the pm's physical address. I was in your same shoes and had six cars at that time. I told myself, I could afford it. WRONG, within 1 year I ended up selling 3 of my cars to catch up to $80 a box similac, diapers that you'd swear she was throwing them out just because they got wrinkles? and other unforseen happenings.

busted water pump? broke t-stat?

Pump is new also.....about 3 months old maybe

the hose coming from the coolant pipe under the intake blows out steam instead of water..is that normal? the hose right under the radiator cap

You might have a leak that you cant see like I have. Look under your battery, if you changed batery or got acid down there, that aluminum piece that goes to your recovery tank might have a small hole in it rendering that your leak when your system gets to operating temperature. The battery acid in mine ate a hole in that piece under the battery and it took me a year to find/figure out that is what was making my coolant disappear without a trace. I could smell it, just could never see it until one day it was time to change the battery. kudos to yellow optimas!

i would change all yer hoses, its not supposed to do that lol

small hole in reservoir....i thought about that but still don't see why it would blow the coolant out through the reservoir. I'll start with the simple stuff first. Don't feel like blowing over $1,000 and end up being something as simple as a $30 hose.

small hole in HOSE going to the reservoir that runs under the battery. Actually I was talking about this aluminum piece that deteriated >sp< that runs under where the battery is located. When your water is of 'that' temperature, instead of going to and from the radiator and reservoir, it leaks out of that hole.

How is your thermostat? Sounds like a stupid question but with 206k I wouldn't doubt anything. Have you down a leak down test on the system? Have you replaced the entire system or just parts? Was there anything resembling a hairline crack in the heads (do you have pics)? Was everything torqued down? Is this the only place you are getting a leak?
Lotsa questions :lol: and man that is a crazy amount of miles on that car!?

lol when i pulled the heads, I replaced the coolant pipe into the heads because it was clogged. Coolant wasn't getting to the heads before. A couple of people have told me already that it could possibly be a cracked head. Maybe it was missed upon inspection. 207,000mi and counting. It's just now giving me problems so I guess It needs a little more TLC lol. I'm actually on transmission number 3.

I'm on my third engine at 143k + miles :( .......I hate you!

pressure test it and check if your fans are coming on