Today while doing my short drive to work I noticed that the heat wasn't coming on and was just getting cold air from the vents. At almost the same time, I noticed the temp gauge pegged in the red. By the time I pulled over, the gauge had dropped back to the normal range and the heat was starting to flowing nicely from the vents. A few minutes later...same thing happened. Checked under the hood at work and and it was plenty hot...also noticed radiator fluid had spit out from the overflow, so I doubt it was a faulty gauge.

I have installed electric fans from Troyer and they've been running well, and they were running today when I checked.

Am I looking at a thermostat replacement or something else? I seem to recall that this swap isn't as easy at it might seem.

Anyone able to provide some insight into this problem.

As always, your help is greatly appreciated...

Scott

 

The lack of circulation to your heater is why the air was still cold and the thermostat and a coolant drain and fill is where I would start. The boiling over of the coolant says to me that your temp sensor was correct in red-lining.

 

A stuck thermostat or inoperative fans will cause your symptoms. Make sure the probes for the fans are seated properly in the rad. Mine had loosened and come out. Alxo check the fuse holder on the fans to see if it is loose. If ever this happens again pull over and check to see if the fans are running. How are your fan controllers mounted?

You have to move the Power Steering resevoir bracket aside to access one of the bolts on the t-stat housing. Not difficult to do.

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

Just start it up and let it idle, if the fans are on and it starts to overheat its probably the thermostat.

 

I swapped the thermostat last night and gave it a test drive. Had the same problem occur, but it only happened once, instead of 3 times when the problem initially occured. I was able to go about 15 miles and let it idle quite a while during my test run.

The fans are running. It's pretty cold out now, so they don't kick on as quickly or as often. The temp probes are seated correctly and obviously working, tho I will check everything in that system more closely this weekend. Hoses are fine and there are no leaks. Heater hoses are getting hot so there is water running thru them as well. Immediately prior to the engine overheating, the once warm air suddenly gets cold...the engine soon overheats and stay hot for approx a minute, and then cools down. I did not get a chance to pull over immediately to see if the fans were runing at that point. There is radiator fluid coming out of the overflow.

I'm going to replace the water pump and see if that may be the problem. Before that, could anyone let me know how to tell if the water pump is bad? It spins freely but I'm now sure if it's moving water all the time.

Again...thanks for your help

Scott