Q: Overheating
Driving home the other night my car got Hot were the idiot light came on. Now this happened within 3 miles of starting out. Immediately turned my heater on high and I went to pull over because I had the head gasket and head rebuilt 10000 miles ago, didn't want to do that again. Once I turned the heater on high the thermostat went down to normal, got home safely. I thought maybe it might have been the thermostat, next day changed to a fail safe type. seemed ok until the next day when I got home from work (25 miles) and I had to go out 10 minutes later. I noticed the thermostat going to cold as I drove. I pressure tested the system and it held pressure, I drained the oil, found no antifreeze in it, so I am ruling out a another blown head gasket, I am leaning that maybe a water pump this time. do you think this could be, or do you think it might be something else. Now when I had the head gasket and head done, they flushed the entire system including heat exchanger.
My car has 150000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
Hi there. I would highly recommend completing a full coolant system flush first; as it’s possible that you might have a few air bubbles stuck inside the cooling lines that can cause the type of overheating issue you’re describing. It’s also common for an obstruction inside the heater core to cause this issue. The flush should remove the obstruction in the heater core. When you refill with coolant, make sure to you a 50/50 blend of coolant to distilled water for starters. If you still have overheating problems, it is most likely due to an internal component failure inside the water pump and the lack of circulation that is causing the overheating.
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