Weird temperature problems

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » October 8th, 2006, 10:21 pm

I crashed my car a month ago and I just finished fixing everything today finally. Now I got a problem. I changed my radiator and filled it with antifreeze and all that.

1.When I start the car cold it takes forever for the temp needle to go up to the halfway point that it used to stay at. It used to warm up in 3-4 minutes, now its takin about 10 minutes.

2.I can leave the car running at idle for an hour and the temp needle never moves past the halfway point. But when I turn the steering wheel from left to right and the idle goes up because of that the needle starts to move up towards the hot side. But whenever I stop moving the steering wheel the needle doesnt move anymore, it doesnt go up anymore or lower it just stays there.

3. Whenever I rev the car up or hold down the throttle to keep the RPMs at 2-3000rpm the temp needle goes up towards the hot side. Again just like above, when I stop the revving the needle stops and nevers moves back up or down.

Fan is working properly and the car doesnt overheat, it just goes up to hot. I was thinking it could be the thermostat, but if it was the car would go up to hot no matter what, revving or not. So I'm kinda stumped. If anyone could help I'd appreciate it alot. I miss driving my baby. The ZE is way faster than the 2006 Nissan Sentra 1.8 I've been driving.

max kl · Post by **max kl** » October 8th, 2006, 11:22 pm

how bad was the wreck ?
the temp sender is on the pass top midle of engine the one with 1 wire & a short jumper horness
if debris or body dammage mangled wirring or sensors . you may have a bad sensor or connection..

unless you engine is full of air. there is no way a higher idle would make it overheat.

if its not an electrical problem ???
then did the engine over heat during or after the wreck?
did a body shop have car with an empty cooling system?or an impound lot? they may have let the car run with out cooant and severly overheated ur motor or during wreck..
need to check for co gass in coolant. if your heads or headgaskets blew than the coolant temp will rise very fast if you have exhaust boiling the coolant inside the engine. soory so scary but it fits your discription.

make shure you have no air in cooling system.

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » October 9th, 2006, 3:34 pm

I do have air in the cooling system, I have broken A/C pipes that are just open so I didnt cover cause I didnt think it'd cause any problems. I'll cover those pipes and see if it helps out.

The body shop never had my car, I fixed it myself and all the electrical connections are good, the car never overheated and the crash was a light accident.

Also, I got a new radiator for the car and installed it but it has one extra pipe coming out of it that I dont have a hose for because the old radiator didnt have that pipe. Would that be a problem if I just blocked it off?

max kl · Post by **max kl** » October 10th, 2006, 2:11 am

are there 2 of them on the drivers side? are they small like a fuel line? than thats a auto trans cooler and you can leave it alone.

a quick bleeding procedure .

remove both caps [1 on rad & engine]
fill cooant into 1 on radiator untill you see coming out of the engine cap
install rad side cap
start engine fill engine side
shut off keep filling
when no mor air is bubbling
install second cap

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » October 10th, 2006, 2:15 am

The extra hose is porbably for the auto trans. Most aftermarket rads are for both auto and manual to cut down storage costs. It is fine leaving it open.
Get all the air out and replace the thermo. It should be fine with a 50/50 mix of fluid and no air with a working thermo. Check the cap too, if the seal fails they will cause funny overheating issues as the pressure cannot stay constant. I'd buy a new cap and thermo, replace them, refill the system, bleed the air and go from there. You are looking at an afternoon and about 20 bucks and then you know all the parts are working.

max kl · Post by **max kl** » October 10th, 2006, 2:33 am

did the weird gauge stop yet?

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » October 10th, 2006, 8:03 am

I gotta try bleeding it after work today. I'll let everyone know.

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » October 10th, 2006, 9:24 pm

Is there any way I can change the thermostat without draining out the coolant? I really dont feel like going through all that but if I have to I will. I just dont got a driveway or anything like that and all these nosy a55 ni99as will be watching and all that.

ariesdude · Post by **ariesdude** » October 11th, 2006, 12:52 am

this is not the recommended way - but it worked for me - just take out the old one and put the new one in - coolant will flow all over the place when you take out the old one. So top it off after everything is done, idle the engine and keep the rad cap open till about 10 mins after the engine gets hot (normal operating temperature). Also set the heater and fan to the highest setting. This will eliminate any air bubbles that got into the system. Also the leaked coolant may smoke a little when it gets hot.

2RotorsNaDream · Post by **2RotorsNaDream** » October 11th, 2006, 11:08 pm

I did the bleeding of my cooling system and it worked out perfectly without having to change the thermostat. Thanks alot max kl, even if you cant spell you know cars hehe. Thanks to everyone else too, everything all good now and my cars back on the road.