Hey guys,

My problem arose last Friday night on the way to the mountains. I boosted it 3rd through 4th gear and looked down to see my temp gauge spiked all the way out. I cut the car off... got out, popped the hood and relieved the pressure in the system. Well, no leaks or drips at all.

Pulled the water pump off and it looks to be a replacement and looked pretty new. Drained the system and filled it. Assembled everything again and started it up today. It idled fine and took its time to get up to temperature. It stayed at 1/4 on the gauge and when I drove it around the block it was fine. As soon as I started to pull in, it spiked out again. Almost no signs of creeping up. Just went up super fast.

My clutch fan seems to be in working order and the pulley seems to be spinning fine. The car doesn't smoke at all during start up and doesn't when it gets up to temperature. I went around to the rear of the car and it doesn't smell sweet like it would if I had a blown coolant seal.

Could it be that I have a block in my coolant system somewhere? Has anyone ever had this kind of problem?

-Allen

 

anyone?

 

mods? fmic blocking air flow to rad? is coolant boiling over or filling up the spill tank? i'm sure you know that the temp gauge on the cluster tends not to give good readings, have you check the connection? mite want to get a aftermarket one to get a better reading.

 

Do the easy stuff first...check/replace the thermostat and radiator cap.

 

^^^agreed. 80% of the time, it works all the time!

 

It sounds alot like an air bubble getting stuck near the sensor. The car simply cannot add enough heat, even with the t-stat closed to spike the gauge (please say this is an aftermarket gauge) in under 30 seconds or a minute. Bleed the system well after you replace the thermostat.

 

The S4 gauges tend to be more accurate than the S5 gauges.

Try running the car in your driveway with the rad cap off to see if its drinking the water. Any smoke from the exhaust?

It's possible that where ever the leak is at that it only leaks under load so you wouldn't be able to see it while its just sitting running in the driveway.

 

mods:

GReddy fmic but that is completely irrelevant to the issue b/c I've had it on the car for months now running the mountains w/ a solid 1/4 temp gauge reading. It stays 1/4 when boosting it like all day on the freeway as well and cruising, sitting in traffic, etc.

But replaced the thermostat and rad cap... wasn't oem but I'll go ahead and get those on the way to the house anyways.

 

yeah sounds like an air bubble to me. if you let it run for a minute or so do the rad hoses get hard or can you still squish them. with the rad cap off and looking at the coolant, do air bubbles come up? if you say no to both those questions then i would assume that your water seals are probably ok..

step one: get a good aftermarket temp gauge.

 

ok well just got back in from fooling with it again.

-popped the hood
-checked water level
-filled it right to the lip of the thermostat housing
-started the car
-no bubbles coming up except a few when it fired up. But no bubbles while it ran.

Car was running for not even a minute and the temp guage was spiked all the way out 4/4 of the gauge. popped the rad cap and the water was still cold.

This was when the car had been sitting all day. Block was cold. Pulled the gauge cluster and couldn't really find out anything that would make the gauge act erratically.

How could I check to see if the gauge is in working condition electronically? The little sending unit that is beside the oil pressure sending unit is connected.

 

Try running down to your local auto store and picking up a aftermarket gauge to hook up and test it with. This will rule out the gauge being bad or not.

 

thats the best thing to do, just get a autometer gauge for like 40-50 bucks, i prefer the mechanical ones, just me, but i think it would be less likely to fail. you should do this anyways, so you can get more of an exact reading instead of low, normal, and fried motor.

 

hate to admit but the coolant temperature sender was not fully snapped on. I feel like a ******* retard. lol. So embarrassing. But when I slid it on, it felt like it couldn't go on anymore. Well today I tried forcing it and it snapped into place. Thanks for all of the input guys. I am going to go bang my head against the wall. lol.