coolant overflowing

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » February 6th, 2007, 3:45 pm

well, i know this has been asked before, but i wanted to get some input on my individual case. this morning i drove the gf to the airport and i noticed my temp guage climbing. as soon as it hit the red, i pulled over into a parking lot. while i was waiting for someone to pick us up, i took a quick peak under the hood and the coolant resevoir was overflowing. my immediate suspicion is the thermostat, but i did a coolant flush followed by a new thermostat just this past summer, and supposedly the one i bought is supposed to get stuck open if it ever fails.

anyway, so i got back to the car in a few hours, and noticed the coolant had all gone back in. i looked at the top filler neck and it was WAY low, so i filled it up, started her up, and it looks like it has no problems at all. i didn't drive it around any, but let it idle up to warm, and gave it some revs, and let it idle for maybe 15 mins longer. didn't really have time to fuss around too much since i had to go to work, but i didn't see the overflow getting out of control or the temp running up at all.

someone told me that i might have been running low on coolant in the first place, causing air pockets which blew the coolant out into the overflow. could this have been a one time incident based on this description, or is that all a load of crap, like i suspect? i'm hoping some ideas when i get back to it after work.

thanks guys

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » February 6th, 2007, 3:57 pm

That could be it.. or like most o the time.. sometimes the fan wont come on.. Could also be radiator that needs cleaning. Its been 60 degrees here forever and i have not had to use my fan to cool my engine after i replaced radiator.

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » February 6th, 2007, 4:20 pm

hgallegos915 wrote:That could be it.. or like most o the time.. sometimes the fan wont come on.. Could also be radiator that needs cleaning. Its been 60 degrees here forever and i have not had to use my fan to cool my engine after i replaced radiator.

lol.. well its about 7 degrees here, so i don't think my fan will kick on either.

the radiator should have gotten cleaned out during the coolant flush right?

mx3autozam · Post by **mx3autozam** » February 6th, 2007, 5:44 pm

if the fan doesn't turn on it will still overheat even just idleing.

Sounds like a leaky headgasket to me. What is happening is ecxhaust gasses are seeping through the head and getting into the cooling system. the more you run the car and bring the revs up it will force the coolant out of the system.

But before you suspect that check the thermostat and the rad fan anyways. And make sure the coolant is not getting clogged anywhere.

PWRD_BY_HKS · Post by **PWRD_BY_HKS** » February 6th, 2007, 6:01 pm

i would g o a radiator shop and get them to flush it underpressure... it could be your thermostat.... depending which one you are using... let it run for a while and just look at it if you see smoke comming out of any where ...........BINGO...found the leak

mx3autozam · Post by **mx3autozam** » February 6th, 2007, 6:22 pm

PWRD_BY_HKS wrote:i would g o a radiator shop and get them to flush it underpressure... it could be your thermostat.... depending which one you are using... let it run for a while and just look at it if you see smoke comming out of any where ...........BINGO...found the leak

so what if you don't see steam(not snoke man lol) coming out of anywhere. it could still be leaking from the headgasket...Take it to a radiator shop and have them look at it. They will do a pressure test and find out where its leaking from and what you need to do to fix it!

PWRD_BY_HKS · Post by **PWRD_BY_HKS** » February 6th, 2007, 6:25 pm

if its leaking from the head gasket it will be abvously smoking out the tip bro.... the reason i said radiator shop... is becasue i took mine when it was being dmb and it took it all away....just a suggestion

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » February 6th, 2007, 9:13 pm

I doint think its his head gasket. I believe it was just overhwating that one time? rdiator leak usually is the culprit. Also under the throttle body there are 2 small likes, check those and heater lines. My car doesnt even over heat while idling LOL .. maybe i got not thermostat.. but well heater works just fine..

opk didnt mean to jack the thread. yeah have a proff look at it.

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » February 6th, 2007, 10:30 pm

well.. i'm rather confident its not the head gasket, otherwise like the others said, it would be blowing out the overfill all the time, and yea... at this time it appears to be a one time incident.

anyway... i got off of work and drove it around on a few trips. temp guage stays at rock bottom, so it looks to me like the thermostat is acting up, probably stuck open.

as for the radiator being clogged, i suppose its possible, but i did get the coolant flush done at a shop, so i would assume it was under pressurized conditions. no bulging in the hoses anywhere and they all seem hot/warm to the touch, so it seems like its circulating. so... i guess my next step is to have a lookie at the thermostat.

i wonder though if a wonky tstat would get stuck closed before it got stuck open...? doesn't seem right to me

and what're ppl's thoughts on the guy's theory about the low coolant putting air in the system and blowing the coolant out the resevoir? doesn't make sense to me for the top to be empty while the bottom's overflowing without a blockage of some kind. could low coolant/air in the system really cause something like this to happen?

mjlohman · Post by **mjlohman** » February 7th, 2007, 5:26 pm

Does it get uncomfortably hot in the passenger cabin? Partial stoppage somewhere,... let's not rule out a core issue.

Check your water pump too.

Lot's of things. Mine was the Tstat.

Mike

ninjajim4 · Post by **ninjajim4** » February 8th, 2007, 10:34 am

well... last night i let it warm up for a good 25 minutes, and the temp guage moved up to about the 'C'. as soon as i drove it, it went right back down the bottom. just the opposite of the original problem, lol. no hot air at all out of the blower. so it seems that it was indeed the thermostat, and it's now stuck open...

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coolant overflowing

coolant overflowing

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