Before you read this I warn you its long!

I checked the radiator fluid this morning and it was at the top. I drove around for about a hour a two running errands. Before my last stop I turned on the AC for two minutes,stop the car and got out. When I got back in the car. I had the AC on for 20 minutes and went home. The car was off for 4 hours. I check the radiator fluid again and it was still at the same level. I picked up my sister and drop her off and then went to the bank. while waitng in the drive thru for about 10 minutes my car started to overheat. I pulled out and turn my car off and let it sit for 20 minutes and my car was at normal temperature again. I checked my radiator fluid again and it was still at the same level as twice before. Can anybody tell me if there is something wrong with my thermostat or radiator?

 

Have you checked to see that the electric fans are operating?

--SAM

 

Yeah the fans work

 

When you say, "overheat," is this based on the temperature gauge or some other symptom(s)? It is normal for the gauge to rise some when idling for an extended period. Twenty minutes is a relatively short time to wait for an overheated engine to return to normal, perhaps your car is not overheating?

http://www.2carpros.com/topics/overheat.htm

--SAM

 

yeah the overheating is based on temperature gauge. you do have a point maybe its not overheating because theres no radiator loss or nothing. I used the clinton and hayes manual and everything came out fine

 

When I had a new A/C compressor installed last year, I was having the same symptoms as you after I got it back...the temp gauge would read way higher than it used to when running the A/C, but the car wasn't actually "overheating" but I was still concerned. Took it back to the mechanic, one of the hoses they had to undo/redo when installed the compressor wasn't on airtight and it was causing problems. Check all your hose-ends very thoroughly that they are on tight, that might fix it.