Overheating Problems (Specially at night)
 

Hello guys, this is a little 'interesting' and weird, so please read on:

I live in Minnesota, if you guys haven't heard yet, we are experiencing below zero temperature, 2 nights ago I warm my car like usual, hop into my car to go the gym, and then I feel the air that was coming was cold, the heat wasnt working, shortly after that the car over heated and the 2nd fan kicked in. So I checked the coolant levels, they were low, filled the car up and waited until the morning.

Before I jump to any conclusions, I waned to turn the car on and see if adding the coolant fixed te problems, so in the morning (where it was still below zero but sunny) I turned the car on, and sure enough the heat was back on like normal, and no over heating problems, I drove it around the block, revd up the engine, even went a little faster than usual, and again, every time it reached 190 degree it would cool it self down.

Problem solved......well not really

So in the morning it worked, but now I went to the gym, and on the way back the over heating is back on again. The heat still works which is great, I checked my coolant level and there seems to be no leak or anything missing there, but I have no idea why its over heating again.

What do you guys think? I do add water into my coolant reservoir in the summer, and I did in the fall, but I haven't in the last 3 months, could it be something is frozen? and thats why it over heats at night? is it a thermostat? (I changed it about a year ago)

I am a bit lost here, I am hoping nothing major a head gasket or a water pump, could it be just something is frozen? or is there something bigger goig on?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

When you say it is overheating, what temperature are you talking about? As it warms up you should see the temp get up to 180+ and stay there, fluctuating a bit between 180F and somewhere around 205F or so as the thermostat and fans do their thing.

You say you added water to the system a few times, including recently.

Was it straight water, or did you do the proper thing by adding a 50/50 mix of water and anti-freeze? If it was water, how much did you add overall? If you added a couple quarts of water overall, the antifreeze is likely pretty diluted.

The system holds approximately 7.4 quarts total, so if you added two quarts you would reduce the protection to only about approx. 15F. .

A coolant tester can be purchased quite cheaply at most auto parts stores to check the % of antifreeze.

If you have to add coolant/water, then it's either got a leak or it's burning it internally.
Need to find out where that coolant/water is disappearing to.

It's also possible your car may be experiencing an air pocket in the cooling system. Caused from the low coolant level.
Our little cars have to have the system "burped" to get any air pockets out when changing coolant or even adding some to a low system.

When you changed the thermostat and coolant, was it an AC Delco stat and Dexcool?
Or aftermarket and green stuff?

Second fan? On a LT?

Hmm. Interesting note there donbrew. Not sure what the OP means either.

Funny thing. My 1st read of the OP's post, my brain interpreted that to say
"the second the fan kicked in".
After reading it again, I can see my reading comprehension was wrong. :propeller:

Car over heating and heat stopped working at the same time
 

Hello guys,

three days ago my car started to over heat (I live in MN and it is below zero) and then I noticed that the air was blowing regularly, but it was cold air and the heat stopped working.

So I went and topped up with coolant, next morning I turned it on and the heat was back on and no over heating sign...

however....

later on that night the heat stopped blowing hot air again and the car started over heating as well...

I am noticing any leaks at all, the coolant level seems to be where it is at. I did change the term about a year ago, I opened it and doesnt look it shut closed....

Any ideas on what is going on here? I am not sure what happened, I take excellent care of my car and because of the freezing weather in MN I make sure I warm the car up for at least 15 minutes before I drive it anywhere...

Please help ASAP, I have numerous job interviews lined up and I need my baby to be running again without a fever...

Hello, it goes up to well over 250, and then I shut it down, the second fan does kick in.

Also, I havent added water in the coolant area since september. when this first happened i did notice my coolant level was low, I was wondering if maybe that car needs to be 'burped' now since maybe that created some air pockets....is it hard to burp these cars?

Sorry i was bit a naive, there is only one fan, and it does kick in once the temp goes over the half mark.