Hey Guys,

I'm currently traveling back from Oregon to North Carolina. Had a little problem in Wyoming of all places today. My Mom was driving, had the car in cruise control when the SES light appeared which was followed by the cruise control immediately disengaging. She tried to re-engage it and it disengaged again. This was followed by the car shuttering for about three seconds when I told her to pull over. I looked under the hood and it appeared there was light smoke coming from the coolant area and there was coolant leaking very slightly. I moved the car up and off the road a little more about 5 minutes later and didn't see any more leaking. The car was taken back to Evanston where a guy looked at it and it thinking thermostat. Unfortunately my Mom didn't notice the engine temp when we pulled over. He'll be working on it tomorrow which is lucky.

Anyone had this experience - anything you recommend I should ask about? Thanks all.

 

good luck,
i got no ideas.
thermostat is an easy fix, but depending on the miles could be a water pump issue. keep an eye on the temp rest of the way home

 

Did your car indicate overheating?

I'm thinking the only thing that would prevent the cruise from being engaged and your rough running would possibly be a speed sensor. I'll try to pull up some diagrams.

What was the check engine code?

Does the cruise control SET liight blink when you try to engage cruise?

A bad thermostat will not disengage the cruise.

 

No code yet - I'll be over there tomorrow to see. No SET light either..I'm was thrown for a loop with that part too. Bit confusing part of it.

 

so update on Shugg's situation. i just got off the phone with him and he said that he did pull a code yesterday - P1217, the overheating code i believe.

today he ran the car for an hour and there was no problems at all so i suggested he just go for it and constantly monitor the temp gauge. as he drove around town there wasn't much change but as he hit the interstate and really started accelerating there was a "rapid temperature gauge increase" so he shut it down and limped the car back to the garage where it will most likely get worked on on monday.

could just a bad thermostat cause this?

 

A bad thermostat will cause it to overheat.

The engine temp sensor must be tied into the TCM which shuts down the cruise. Never would have thought....

 

Be careful that there is no air pockets in the cooling system either. Also keep checking the coolant level every so often on the trip. My old Frontier (VG33E) would read fine on the temp gauge but would run out of coolant over a period of time. Once coolant was gone the temp gauge would then start to rise. Evidently the heads got hot enough to where they didn't seal correctly and the coolant was being evaporated/burned up never the comb. chamber. Was the cooling system pressure tested? This would tell if the radiator cap is acting up too. Does it have a "sweet smell" anywhere in the engine bay?

 

Car is currently being looked at. I bought some coolant for the ride before I knew that there was in fact a bigger problem. I'll definitely be monitoring it the rest of the way. We'll see what he says in a couple of hours..

 

Glad the problem I had on my trip was very obvious...hard to miss a huge hole in the wheel after you hit a driveshaft at 65 mph!

Hope you get it taken care of quickly, I know how frustrating it was to cool my heels in a town I didn't know, waiting for them to find me a wheel. Even worse when you have a problem that could be several things. Thermostat not opening, very low coolant level or maybe even a bad head gasket or water pump.

 

my vote is for a tstat problem, and maybe water pump - but i doubt it.

 

Shy to ask, but is the fan working?

 

So here's the update..

Basically the mechanic did a very thorough look over of the coolant system. He feels fairly sure that it is in fact that thermostat with a very slim chance of a gasket problem from the initial incident. He took it home with him and checked the tstat in a pot of boiling water and it didn't seem to be opening fully even at 200 degree water.

He drilled another hole that he felt made a difference in flow and reinstalled. He took it for about a 30 mile test drive and managed to keep the engine temp pretty constant by using the heating system, monitoring rpms, and speed. Basically the part is totally unavailable anywhere in a 100 mile radius or so until Tuesday, so I feel good enough about the test drive to make it down to Rock Springs which is about 100 miles to a dealership who can take care of it.

Preciate the input from you guys..certainly a bit frustrating. Bad wheel bearing on the way out and thermostat on the way back..

 

Glad to hear that you can at least begin to get on with your trip. At least the Tstat is fixable and cheap. I personally replaced mine when my radiator began to leak from the top end tank, and the car actually heats up sooner. Go figure. Please keep us posted on your progress.

 

tstat is just normal routine maintenance so this won't set yall back too much. good to hear you're back on the road

 

Well update..made it down the road 100 miles really with no trouble. Watched the temp gauge very carefully and really experienced trouble only on inclines. Simply jacked up the heat all the way full blast, kept the RPM's low and made it up. It's at the dealership in Rock Springs, so we'll what they say..

Really the problem itself wasn't what bothered me, simply the amount of time we have been stuck just because nobody out here has tstat for an 02 max! Guess we should've left on a Monday..haha.

 

Dealer part only that I know of. Mine went bad (running too cool) and no one carries it because it comes with the housing for some reason.

 

http://www.napaonline.com/MasterPage...utlet+Assembly

Napa. $11.29.

 

Thanks Reizy, but the problem is our location and we know it's possible to order. Simply the fact that we're in the middle of no where and we've been stuck since Friday and they said Tuesday would be the earliest it could get in.

So spoke with the dealer this morning and the part will be overnighted to Rock Springs as they didn't have the part either. They'll look at it first thing tomorrow and make sure that's the only problem..so frustrating

 

Cool. My comment was more for Scott who thought it was dealer only part.

FWIW, I had similar overheating issues and my first course of action was the T-stat. It didnt fix it. I flushed the system and got a new radiator cap. That didnt fix it. In the end it turned out to be a partially clogged radiator. It had flow just not enough. Its happened to a few others on here that I know of.

Good luck.

 

^^That's exactly what I was thinking of as well.

 

Good to know, I had to have a dealer order it.

 

UPDATE

so just talked to the OP on the phone and he said that the T-stat is fixed but a new problem has come up - his fans wouldn't run on the high setting. the dealer he was at said that they didn't have a master technician there so they couldn't figure it out. they thought it was the ECU not getting the signal through but considering his circumstances they got around the problem by 'pulling a sensor that made the fans stay on high all the time'.

so any ideas on what this new fan problem can be? personally i find it hard to believe that the ECU is now the problem.

 

Coolant temperature sensor

 

Thanks Boris - that's dead on with the what's going on. Interestingly enough the car wouldn't start this morning in Nebraska (21 degrees without the wind) and once I plugged the sensor back in it was all good. I'll be taking it over to the dealer when we get back...

Thanks to all for the responses. Not fun driving across the country when you know there's something wrong..