So, the car in question is a rebuilt (6000k mi) '88 TII with exhaust, street-ports etc.

Yesterday I went on a 6 hour round-trip drive in my TII.

I was suprised when on the way back I noticed my temperature gauge hovering just below half... This is unusual because my stock temperature typically reads right around 1/4 to 1/3.

So, for safety's sake I turned on my heater and opened my windows. After turning on the heat my car dropped back down to normal...

When I got home I checked my coolant level and it was fine... I topped it off and looked around to see if there was something caught in my bumper (or something) and everything looked normal...

Just a few minutes ago I was driving and my car got warm very quickly and just stayed right below 1/2 on the gauge. I pulled over, popped the hood and looked around and saw nothing abnormal. Well, The gauge got to 1/2 a few minutes later, so I turned on my heat and turned around and came home.

What could possibly be wrong? T-stat, blockage in my stock rad.?

I'm planning on getting a Koyo in a couple weeks (going FMIC) in case someone suggests upgrading my rad.

Thanks guys,

 

Where did you check the coolant level? Remember, overfill tank and radiator levels are different! The buzzer goes off if the level in the radiator is low. You could have an air bubble in the system too.

 

i think this shoud in the the faq
take the coolant sensor(top of radiator) and sand it clean with sandpapper.
it doesn't matter if the water it top/full, if the sensor to dirtty and not getting direct ground from the water, it'll keep buzzing

 

That's true and a good idea, but the problem here is not that it's dirty. The enegine did overheat and the buzzer did go off, so it's working fine. The problem is low coolant.

 

Yeah, I popped the caps off the water-pump housing and the radiator and the coolant levels were good.

I know a bubble will cause the buzzer to go off, but would air bubbles cause me to be running hot?

 

But the coolant isn't low, lol.

 

Are you checking the radiator level? If it's topped off and you're sure you don't have any bubbles, they next issue may be a clog in the radiator or the thermostat is stuck.

 

opps i read the tittle only

 

I've had problems like that in my series 5 too after a rebuild, now im not sure how it works where you're from but in AUS after a rebuild the car is running only on tap water only while the silicone adhesive that keeps the engine together sets. there is not coolant... what i'd suggest is tap the radiator cap off the one with the cable attached it to it and fill the water through the main filling tank. let the water flow out of the radiator sensor hole.. you may notice brown silicone crap coming out (this is leftover from the rebuild) if you do this and flush the coolant every so often you wont have this problem. suggest maybe take it back to your mechanic it may be the water tank.

If the car gargles alot of water this can also be bad and can mean lack of compression due to housing wear and tear. during a rebuild you get new seals and the crap cleaned out but the housing are not usually exchanged. the new seals need to wear into the rotor housings, if the damage is too great you may need new housings (as i did).

 

Yeah... I'll try kind of "flushing it out" like you're suggesting.

But since I've got 6k miles on the rebuild and this problem started yesterday, it's probably not from bad engine internals.

I'm going to flush out the cooling system and replace my T-stat and see if that gets rid of my problem.

Thanks a lot people,