Yes the weather is warming up and I have an overheating problem...

My car... 88 GXL N/A... see sig for mods... mods have been done 2 years ago.

Problem... Car overheats when idle and during slow traffic.

Temporary fix 1 ... turn on the heater... keeps it from getting higher on the temp gauge.

Temporary fix 2 ... drive faster... above 60 km/h... cools down to normal very quickly... i mean less than 30 seconds.

As I have heard of this problem many times and searched about it and the e-fan mods etc, I went and bought a brand new clutch fan from my local NAPA store for 320$ with a discount and installed it.
Why is my car still heating up like this?
Its not leaking or losing any water... wtf? Can my thermostat do this?... or maybe even my water pump failing slowly????

Thanks for your help,
Ben

 

Im going to assume that you checked to see if your fan was even coming on. If not i would check that first. if its not check the fuse as it might be blown. If the fuse is ok then start to think about maybe it being your thermostat. It most likly will not be because you would be overheating all the time if it was stuck closed.

As a test when the engine is at normal operating temp feel the upper rad hose to see it it hot. If its cold the thermostat is stuck closed and coolant is not being circulated.

 

As mentioned on my post... its not an e-fan.. it's a replacement CLUTCH fan from NAPA.

Going to check the fan now with the flick test and recheck the rad hose, belts, coolant level etc.

I will update later since I have stuff to do in town at the same time.

 

Is the fan shroud on?

 

Now that I think about it, I don't have a fan shroud o_o Got an extra Monkay?

 

Ok now I am statring to worry...
Everything checks out good... but...
It seems that I lost a little coolant since 2 weeks ago... not much.. but I did lose some.

I will have to make an appointment at a local shop to check the compression and pressurize the coolant system to check for any leaks.

Not good news... not at all.

Anybody know a GOOD shop in Toronto?

 

and yes my fan shroud is in place... including the plastic underbelly pan.

 

Viper, you can get a coolant pressure kit to check it. Also you can get this thing called a Lisle Funnel and check your system for air bubbles.

 

i think i have a spare, maybe.

 

Thermostats can stick at any position. That would have been the first thing I replaced after checking the level/air in system/leaks... especially if you don't know ehn it was last done

You can easily tell if the fan clutch is working by popping the hood at idle after you've warmed up. If the fan is spinning without slipping and it's moving plenty of air, then your problem is elsewhere.

and... Why are you driving a car that has a cooling system malfunction? No offense, but there are old ladies that come into the shop with more sense than that.

I've never seen a W/P of our design have a blade fail and cause overheating. I've seen ones with plastic blades that come off the shaft and simulate a bad t-stat, but ours are cast metal. If your water pump were failing, it would be via the shaft seal or bearing.

 

OK, checked again just now and the fluid level has not dropped visually, but I have noticed that the problem is randomly there...

Seems like my replacement clutch fan is operating erratically and is sometimes very slow when idling observing the temp gauge carefully with the hood up. Revving the engine up to 2000rpm in neutral and holding it there made the fan go a little faster and stopped the temps from rising.

I have decided to try and get a return for the clutch fan and set up an e-fan with automatic thermal control. Following will be a new thermostat, pressure cap and a system flush.

 

yea...replace the tstat with a new OEM tstat

 

i would also have to bet on t stat here. if it gets hot in traffic and cools down while it is moving, that means that the t stat is getting stuck open and it isn't slowing the coolant down enough to cool it down.

 

I'm encountering the same issue. Slow traffic or stopped it seems to get warm, once doing a solid 60 mph it doesnt overheat.

Thermostat has been replaced, clutch fan has been replaced, undertray is in place. what else would cause this? the car is all stock, A/C still in place so I understand thats gonna cause a higher temp but...it goes up as high as half way once in a while.

would the factory condenser fan help?

 

Ive been battling this **** too lol. Car runs at 180 sitting in driveway. Then usually creeps up to 195 and kinda holds around there but recently saw it creep to 200 so back to checking things and found im leaking from the waterpump. So after changing tstat and radiator hoses thru out turn up its probably my pump had gone bad the whole time. Only thing left to change on mine would be radiator and overflow hose. That be some **** if it were that hose lol. But gl maybe some of this will help you.

 

try flushing the radiator and heater core. a failing waterpump is possible. the fins can be damaged

 

Perfectly normal, the thermostat isn't fully open till 194°.
Maybe. maybe not.
The WP seal can be going bad but the pump is still spinning and moving coolant just fine.

 

Turns out my issue was just the clutch fan. I had tried 3 units. all of them were bad. I found one more in my basement from a low miles car. After putting that on the gauge doesnt move from 1/4. I never heard the fan really spin up loud until putting this latest one on. Now when sitting in traffic I can hear it woosh up loud in first for a few seconds as I pull away. Check your fans people!

 

And what happened to the waterpump leak?

 

That was someone else haha

 

i had a car that the impeller in the WP had worn/corroded. So the pump would obviously spin but when stopped and no air flow the car would over heat.
it did not weep out the hole it just made the car run hot when stopped.

 

Ya that was me, still waiting on it from mazdatrix. Im on east coast so takes a week. Might be looking at an efan too. I also have 3 clutch fans and all three seem to operate the same. This car has had so many issues i see why the dude sold it lol. But its a good challenge trying to fix it up to be a reliable street/track car. I wont give up on her!