Ah my first problem with this car after 3years of ownership.. 139k miles.

So the problem happened today, I was driving around 30-40 mph and my temp went to 75% but no overheating...come to a complete stop and my needle went to normal temp..maybe a little over normal.. everytime the car is moving the temp goes up to 75% and and stopping goes back to normal

I checked the tank for the coolant and it was low.. I always check it and it had some the other day, I know I have no leaks...

 

Josh, in some ways this seems like a thermostat. But it can also act that way if you are low on coolant. You say that you have no leaks.


Please check for low coolant when the car is cold. Open the radiator cap and add coolant there if needed. Do not assume that coolant in the tank always goes to the radiator. Do add coolant to the tank to the minimum line.


Monitor coolant every day for a while and let us know what happens.


Sometimes coolant will be burnt by the engine if the head gasket fails. I hope your low mileage car does not have this problem.


It is also possible that you have the beginning of a bad water pump or its seal.
I noticed low coolant levels and also just a little coolant behind the right side tire.
I replaced the water pump and the leak stopped.

 

Yeah I put some antifreeze in the revisor and radiator as it was low and now are both full, But afterwards it still does the same thing . It Is not overheating... It just sticks to 75% hot which is.not normal and am not okay with that.. Don't want to risk damaging anything,

I'm thinking something is about to fail somewhere in the cooling system, either thermostats or something in those lines

 

The tempature gauge should always be a little below mid line at all times when driving at any speed or in idle correct? From what I am experiencing is not normal right? Which is the gauge needle creeping up to 75% the after a few seconds of moving the car. And then going back down to 50%

 

This is normal tempature and should at be here at all times correct?


This is where the needle is when I'm driving:. When I slow down or come to a stop it goes a little over middle. describing the normal line as of now on picture 2 on first post

 

Does not look normal. Do you have wetness near the water pump?

Radiator leaks or steaming?

 

Maybe your coolant temp sender starting to go bad .. Not registering right .. Just throwing that out there

 

The sensor appears to work. It is responding to low coolant levels.

 

ok so my mechanic that I known for 20 years has come by, he filled up the radiator properly to full, Took it for a 20 min drive, not once the needle go over normal..the needle was where it was supposed to be at...it would take easily 5mins for it to act weird before... Then we parked, checked for leaks..
he pulls the throttle cable to 2.5k rpm and looks at the radiator and what you know.. on top of the radiator it is leaking. so eventually I lose all the coolant.. which makes sense because the other day I saw green dots splatters on my engine cover, looking at my coolant reviser is low..

I'm having him replace the radiator tomorrow, doing a tune up which is clean throttle body, mass air flow, fuel filter, air filter, new spark NGK copper plugs. as I have been wanting to do the tune up for a while and dont know how old the filters and spark plugs are.. it hesitates sometimes but has no CEL so im assuming some tune up parts are a bit old and im sure it'll run better afterwards.. I have not done any of the filters for 3 years so hence who knows how old the spark plugs are or the filters..dont know when previous owner did a tune up so i rather have it replaced..if its 5 years old..7..8..still better new parts in there than old ...

 

Platinum plugs last twice as long.
So why copper?

Radiator means an easy fix .

Should run better soon.

 

This would have been nice to know in the first post, and illustrates why we ask "stupid" questions.

We could have told you it was a hose or radiator.

And for future reference, if you ever have to add coolant, you can bet your @$$ that you have a leak.

 

Copper is a better conductor of electricity and offers less resistance to the coil. Our spark plugs are not hard to change, so why get the expensive ones and be lazy at the cost of performance?

 

yeah I know, I just find myself why I don't point these out first...but where the radiator is leaking is on the left side where the black plastic is.. its cracked..when the RPM is at 2.5k that spot leaks coolant out and eventually I would lose all my coolant.. I would of never really thought of that, and who knows if the radiator leaks anywhere else other than the top.. cause I would always ask myself where my coolant went but It would not leak underneath the car.. So I get confused in that aspect.

Either way the radiator is going to be replaced and a tune up as well.

 

 

So much lol at this!

 

I know, I'm learning... all about the experience, thats the way I learn

 

Its all good haha. Out of Curiousity, why didn't you replace the rad yourself? I changed my rad on my 97 auto pretty easily before selling it.

 

because I'm not too confident in doing those kind of things as I have no experience doing that, I would prefer a pro who knows what their doing do that stuff especially if hes been doing it for 20+ years.. I don't want to screw anything up and besides my mechanic is trustworthy and does really good work for good prices..there are very few mechanics that are trustworthy and do a good job these days and I thank him for that..
So I rather sit back and pay him to do it so he can make his money, Thats how I roll lol

 

got the car back from the mechanic, got a new shiny radiator installed...filled up the coolant in reviser and radiator of course, did the tune up as well.. the air filter i had was so dirty lol, the spark plugs were replaced with NGK laser plugs..no cheap ones..I saw my old spark plugs and they were quite old.. fuel filter changed and cleaned TB and MAF, runs and idles a bit smoother now, Overall happy cause he charged me $400 for both of the jobs.. $280 for radiator and the rest was tune up. no more 75% needle creeping up and stays right below middle where its supposed to be at all times..so if it creeps up and down..for sure not normal at all on these cars.., took it for a nice drive..More miles I go and enjoy, if anyone experiences this problem.. well here you go!

 

400 is not too bad. I paid less than 200 for the radiator, plugs, filters. But I did my own work.

This is all stuff you could have done yourself, and learned from.

At least you get good help here.

 

yeah the radiator was $140, and the tune up parts were around $90 cause I told him not to get the cheap stuff, then labor was $170 and managed to finish it in 5hours.

 

That's a good labor rate Josh.

 

yeah I know, very happy to have him as my mechanic. now my coolant will be good to go for a good amount of time..years i hope.. before this job I knew this was coming and was always keeping an eye on the temp needle.. cause I knew my coolant was always low somehow and of course it was just an old radiator leaking it all out. never overheated though and probably never would allow that anyway.. cause thats stupid lol

coolant reviser is full, radiator is topped off = happy cooling system

 

Sorry to revive an old thread but I had this same problem and I thought the radiator was leaking at the top. I had coolant on the front of the engine and could see coolant at the top of the radiator. The radiator wasn't very old and on a hunch I put my spare radiator cap on and problem solved. Same symptoms as yours exactly. Hope this helps someone down the line.

Reservoir is the way you spell it in the future.

 

Icemule, Interesting timing. My car has had its entire cooling system replaced.
I drove to work this morning, 10 miles on the freeway. 50 degree day.
As I listened to the radio a bit longer, I noticed steam coming from under the hood.
Uh oh..... newish radiator was fine. The cap was on the radiator. I did not tighten it properly. Duh... We als make mistakes.