Ok so about 4 weeks ago a hose broke in my car one night and it ended up overheating pretty badly. I fixed the hose but it was still overheating over the charts... so i put some more antifreeze in it to see if that would remedy the problem....still overheats. My friend said it might be the thermostat because its not leaking any fluids anywhere. but another friend said i may have a blown head gasket. what do you guys think?

 

well.....if you see white smoke out of your tail pipes itsa blown head gasket, not good, if not try your thermostat next your radiator, i'll give mt system a good flush and see what it does.

 

ok well then in that case its been blown for quite a while cuz since i've had the car i've seen white smoke when i start it. Does a blown head gasket affect gas mileage? cuz its seems likes its getting really bad gas mileage.

 

sudden coolant loss will leave air pockets in the system...bleed the air out by running car at idle with rad cap off and adding coolant as it goes down, if car starts to boil over shut it down

check your oil, is it still oil or choc milk...is the white stuff out the tailpipes smoke or steam?

are your fan(s) working?

was your mpg a sudden drop or a gradual decline?

is it idling high or does the exhaust smell rich, do you have any codes?

 

I agree with IROCmonkey. When you fill it be sure if you have a heater control valve that you turn the heat selector to hot for your heater so you don't keep any trapped air in the heater core or hoses. As he said, warm the car up with the cap off. Don't fill it up to the top right away. When the car warms up and just before the thermostat opens, it will naturally try to push some coolant out of the top of the radiator. Keep a pan underneath it to catch spilage. When it "burps" and then the stat opens, you will see the coolant drop. When this happens, with one hand (or with a buddy) throttle up the car and hold and with the other hand, pour in coolant and as soon as it's topped off, put the cap on quickly. When the thermostat opens for the 1st or even 2nd time, the motor will get a big drink of coolant from the cold coolant you just poured in and the thermostat will typically shut again very shortly. This will cause the "burp" process to start all over again pushing coolant out of the radiator again. No big deal, if this happens, just put the cap on, wait until the top hose gets warmed up. When it does, hold up the throttle so you don't get sprayed when you remove the cap the 2nd time, remove it, the coolant will usually be low (keep holding up the idle up) and top it off again until full. Then, make sure your coolant in the overflow is to the full mark. This is, of course, if you've ruled out the thermostat & head gaskets being a problem. It's not unusual, if the evenings and nights are still cool there (and sometimes even if they're not) to see steam come out of the tail pipe when you first start the car. The cool down process when you shut the car off after a drive will many times condense moisture in the muffler and exhaust pipes. If it's "drinking" coolant, the "steam" out of the tail pipe will smell like a strong antifreeze smell (dead giveaway). If it's pushing cylinder pressure into the cooling system, put a pressure guage on the radiator fill neck and don't pump it up. Watch and see if the gauge climbs. It should climb some. If it goes much over 13psi when warmed up, bleed some pressure off and watch it again. If you don't have access to a TEKAY block check dye set up, this is one of the easier way to check for combustion leaks. (TEKAY can be a pain in the butt sometimes to use too). You can also watch for a constant stream of air bubbles going into the overflow container as well. Small leaks can be harder to find. If it is confirmed that you have a combustion leak, DO NOT USE STOP LEAK for this. It will do absolutely NO GOOD on that type of a leak. Stop leak cannot contain 100+ lbs of cylinder pressure. It can have some temporary effect if coolant is leaking into the the exhaust behind the exhaust valves or in the EGR port areas (cracked head) but it will do absolutey no good if it combustion pressure is leaking into the coolant. Hopefully it's a thermostat or just air trapped that needs bled from your system. Good Luck!

 

well i tried getting the air out of the radiator and that didn't work so i ended up just taking it to a shop. They said it was the radiator fan motor...not sure if thats really what it was or if something simple broke that they fixed. either way its finally fixed. It cost me 141.56 which isn't horrible i guess. Its better than having a blown head gasket.

 

Ok....problem is still not resolved. Its just fine now when i'm in stop and go traffic but now it's on constant rpms that it overheats (which is how it was when it first started overheating). So I'm still not sure what the deal is. I really need someones help in figuring this out. What can it be?

 

Check to see that the air dam that directs air through the radiator is still under the car.

 

that statement should be a sticky if not already.

all our thirdgens must have a airdam or they will overheat while at cruising speed.
airdam breaks up vac pocket in front of radiator

 

...... thats what it is!?!?! i took my airdam off not too long ago! Didnt think that would be the problem. I agree this should be a sticky. I've been trying to figure this out for a while. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!