My car is overheating..I've done a few things. What else am I missing?

Question

-Radiator has been replaced, date unknown.
-Cap Replaced
-Thermostat replaced
-Belts fine
-Both fans operating

It'll hold the coolant for a week, but it'll throw it out through the reservoir little by little until it is gone... causing the car to overheat.. and bubbling the coolant in reservoir.

My guess is--> radiator Flush??

One other question is, Is the reservoir supposed to be Leak proof? Ive heard the radiator sucks back the coolant?? There seems to be some play where the Reservoir cap and tube is.


I'm trying to omitt problems with cheaper prblms first.. avoiding expensinve ones, i.e., Water Pump.

Any help would be great.

Will post end result if Fixed and How.

Thanks a bunch.

-Radiator has been replaced, date unknown.
-Cap Replaced
-Thermostat replaced
-Belts fine
-Both fans operating

It'll hold the coolant for a week, but it'll throw it out through the reservoir little by little until it is gone... causing the car to overheat.. and bubbling the coolant in reservoir.

My guess is--> radiator Flush??

One other question is, Is the reservoir supposed to be Leak proof? Ive heard the radiator sucks back the coolant?? There seems to be some play where the Reservoir cap and tube is.


I'm trying to omitt problems with cheaper prblms first.. avoiding expensinve ones, i.e., Water Pump.

Any help would be great.

Will post end result if Fixed and How.

Thanks a bunch.


*EDIT:


-Thermostat is OEM.
-Gasket is fine. No coolant in oil. or Combustion chambers.

thanks

*edit:

No fluid under the car. ONly coolant leak comes from Reservoir.

hmm.. I think it's a vacuum rpblm.

-

***************************************
*******************

Narrowed down to Fluid not going back into Radiator from Reservoir.

Cant find leak in small hose or Cap. I checked the reservoir bottle and from what I thought was bad, seems ok.

ARRRRRHHHHH!!!

Flush ?? will help flow back to radiator??

help!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

I don't know what kind of car I'm dealing with but I'll still try to help.
Real simple and cheap..........Remove the thermostat , run the engine ,take the radiator cap off can you see coolant circulateing ? This means that the water pump is working.
Reinstall the cap , does it still over heat? If not your T-stat is bad
Put a fan in front of the engine , does it still over heat ? if not you may need a fan clutch . Not pulling enough air.

Answer 2

You have highlighted one potential..and likely..problem area : the coolant return. Yes. The coolant is pushed out of the rad into the reservoir as it expands through heating. The idea is that as the coolant and system cool down, a vacuum is created which sucks the coolant back from the reservoir into the radiator. If you have a leak on the radiator, or a leak on the pipe to the reservoir, or the cap of the reservoir is not tight, you will NOT have coolant returned. This then leads to a rapid cycle of coolant ejection to the reservoir and rapid overheating. You must check the system with the engine idling and see if you se any leaks, or signs of white/green deposit at any point on the system.

Another point. When you refill the system, you MUST DO SO WITH THE RAD CAP OFF and engine running and wait until all gas bubbles have escaped. You will need to keep filling the rad during this time. It could take several minute. Do NOT eplace the cap until there are no more bubbles and liquid is overflowing smothly from the rad.

Good luck!

One more thing. Since you have a thremo fitted, you will have to wiat until the engine is at operating temp to ensure the thermo is fully open and no air is trapped in the engine.

I also forgot :

sometimes the pipe inside the overflow bottle comes off. If the pipe end is NOT below the coolant level it cannot suck back to the engine. They DO fall off sometimes!

Answer 3

Do you see fluid under the car? If it is losing it out the bottle a little at a time it sounds like you have an old or wrong radiator cap. The cap holds the fluid under pressure other wise it would just boil out so if its old and not holding pressure you would lose water slowly.
Are you using a pre mixed anti freeze to top off? If you are adding just water and you re adding all the time you may not have enough anti freeze in the system. Last run your hand over the radiator with the car off. Please make sure not to put your hand where the electric fan can hit it as they can turn on even if the car is off. Do you feel spots hotter than others? If so your radiator is plugged. If it is plugged try back flushing the system refill with the proper coolant mix, however keep in mind that if the plug is bad you may have to replace the radiator. Good Luck.

Answer 4

A few simple things. Is the replacement radiator any good? Some new thermostats have been known to not work properly. It's rare, but happens. Now, the bad part. Possibly, the head gasket might be leaking, pushing out your coolant. Is your water pump operating correctly? If the coolant in the reservoir tank is bubbling, that kinda leans towards a bad head gasket. If the head gasket isn't real bad, some stop leak may solve your problem or at least buy you some time. Stop leak has saved my butt more than once.

Answer 5

We the surfers of cyber world meet with so many people every day. Surfing the net is the best pastime one can ever develop, as internet has the most knowledge, a surfer will never have to wait for a answer. The vast knowledge of cyber world is nothing as compared to the cyber society that it gives. Internet is a community but so vast that we need a place to make conversation easy. What more can be better than a chat room for this purpose, well a chat room and a message board along with a forum is the best combination really. I was actually looking for a place where we can find all these things with a profile and photo brouse option. Finally I got this site, this place is a very nice community where we can share every thing online. And also about the leader board, I must tell it is great. The thought of the leader board is unique, as not to many people has thought about this thing. And the method of getting the leader is very different and one must check out this site once. The cyber culture is growing, and it is about time that we find our club and that to a very different club, which is not a part of any big website house like the yahoo and google. This site am talking about has every thing that a cyber surfer ever wants. This is the website address, http://www.friendscyberclub.com/ Features of this site is: 1) chatting 2) view profiles and photos 3) upload your photos and make a cool profile. 4) your message board 5) forum 6) See your name on the leader board. There are also many more features available in the site, free to join.

Answer 6

if radiator has been replaced use motor flush you mat have water ports in the engine clogged this will help unclog them that is the cheap version check your oil to see if it is milky looking and brown if so it is your head gasket if the resovoir is to full it will spit it out it is hard to see but there is a line that tells you where to fill it if your resovoir cap is lose you may have lost the gasket under it when you start the car what is in the resovoir will suck into the radiator when you shut the car off it will run back into the resovoir so be sure it is not to full flush the cooling system it could be your heater core all of these are the cheap way except for the head gasket do not take the thermostat out and leave it out some cars will not run with them out
i think some here misunderstood your question

Answer 7

Check to see if you see consistant bubbling in the overflow tank/surge tank. If you do this is an indication of combustion gases getting into the cooling system. They may be getting in through a bad head gasket, crack in the engine block, crack in the cylinder head, warped cylinder head. Even if you don't see consistant bubbling, this still may be the problem. Either go to a garage and ask them to do a block test (to check for combustion gases in cooling system) or buy the tester a parts store. Basically you have a tester, which you fill with test fluid. Drain the rad 1-2 inches to prevent coolant contaminating test. Place tester on rad cap opening, and draw air into it. If the test fluid changes colour, combustion gases are present in cooling system. Not good!! From there the only remedy is a costly/time consuming engine teardown to find problem.
Other things to check, pinched hoses, plugged rad.
hope this helped!!

Answer 8

Head Gasket needs changed

Answer 9

Replace the Thermostat again, sometimes they are bad out of the box. or Try no thermostat, that will eliminate one option.

And yes the overflow will leak some, most overflows have a drain when they get to full.

Yes you should flush it out.

Answer 10

Be sure and mix antifreeze with it, it raises the boiling point of water. Back flush it first. The water goes into the overflow when hot, back into the radiator when it is cool.