Q: Overheating

asked by on November 10, 2016

My father and I replace the thermostat on my vehicle over the weekend. This was Saturday. We both inspected my vehicle after it running hot a couple time. and came to the cheapest conclusion. Replace the thermostat. Low and behold when we removed the the thermostat from the housing the gasket was worn. And it was closed shut. We were pretty excited that we guessed correctly. We replaced the part and it ran fine for about 25mun with out over heating. The next day I perpared to go to work and it start to run hot about 5 ,miles from the house . Later that evening we relived some of the air pressure from the water pump reserve to see if that was the culprit. But it didn't help much. I have no leaks under the car and no cloudy oil that would indicate a blown gasket or cracked head. Please, what do you think the prob could be?

My car has 227000 miles.

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This can be caused by a number of things such as low coolant levels or a failing coolant fan switch. As you may know the coolant fan switch helps to maintain the proper coolant temperature by turning on and off at specific temperature thresholds. When this switch is not working properly, this can cause the fans to come on intermittently, all the time or sometimes not at all. When this happens you will notice a temperature spike and drop occasionally as the fan comes on and off.

When driving down the road at a decent speed, the temperature level may stay relatively low due the cooling effect of the wind passing through the radiator. When the car sits still at an idle, if the cooling fans are not working properly you may notice the temperature spike a bit due to a lack of air flow to help cool the radiator down.

To avoid any unnecessary repairs, I would suggest having an expert from Your Mechanic come to your home to diagnose your cooling system and help you make the right repair.

The statements expressed above are only for informational purposes and should be independently verified. Please see our terms of service for more details

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