PDA

View Full Version : Lets play the guessing game...


treeh8r
12-09-2005, 04:38 AM
Yesterday morning, had to open the gate. Got out; noticed fan was on. Unusual. Get back in the car, and the temp is 1 bar hotter than normal operating temp. Hum? So I find the coolant and its low. I figure its from air in the line displacing the fluid (which I had changed ~1mo ago).
After work, I add distilled water to the reservoir to try to get to toyota to first, buy more coolant, and second, have them make sure there really isnt anything wrong w/ the car.
Driving down the road, need gas. While sitting at a light, the temp gauge switches back and forth from normal operating temp to 1 bar greater. Stop at Mobil, fill up. Reservoir is still full. Start car, temp went down, continue driving. ~1/4 mile down the road, the temp goes up the extra bar again, then not even 1/4 mile after, redline (shes hot, oh yeah!) Turned heat on, hot air for about 30 seconds then cold air comes out.
So ~500 feet, I pull into a blockbuster parking lot and park. Pop the hood, no smoke. A little steam from the bottom. Reservoir still full. Oil full. Sat for about 2 hours waiting for the tow to a local shop. While waiting, fluid level in reservoir slowly reduced...there were about 5 or 6 different spots on the oil-change underbody plastic that were dripping coolant, very slowly, like 1 drop every 10-20 seconds. Car is at the shop right now. Haven't gotten a call yet. Any guesses as to what went wrong???

stein
12-09-2005, 06:17 AM
Coolant hose most likely. At least you were aware of the problem and didn't overheat to the point of messing something else up!

2kbluegts
12-09-2005, 07:22 AM
you have air in the lines.You should have marked "other" on your polls. Do a flush and make sure to have no air in your tubes. This very same thing happened to me. Hot air came out the vents then turned to cold air when i was trying to get it to cool down. If that isnt the problem, then i dont know what is....

slidr
12-10-2005, 10:51 PM
I doubt the coolant was filled correctly...

Unbolt the coolant tank and elevate it with the engine on and the bleeder plug and lid removed. That should get the coolant circulating. Then put everything back together and unscrew the bleeder plug peridocally to get excess air out.

Blue Bomber
12-11-2005, 05:52 AM
I doubt the coolant was filled correctly...

Unbolt the coolant tank and elevate it with the engine on and the bleeder plug and lid removed. That should get the coolant circulating. Then put everything back together and unscrew the bleeder plug peridocally to get excess air out.
:werd:
It's not run refilling our cooling systems. The coolant was dripping because we have an overflow hose, which will spit out coolant if the pressure rises too much in the cooling system. This basically pours coolant onto the left fan, which sprays it all over the engine bay (good thinking, Toyota :rolleyes: ).

stein
12-11-2005, 07:10 AM
I doubt the coolant was filled correctly...

Unbolt the coolant tank and elevate it with the engine on and the bleeder plug and lid removed. That should get the coolant circulating. Then put everything back together and unscrew the bleeder plug peridocally to get excess air out.
:werd:
It's not run refilling our cooling systems. The coolant was dripping because we have an overflow hose, which will spit out coolant if the pressure rises too much in the cooling system. This basically pours coolant onto the left fan, which sprays it all over the engine bay (good thinking, Toyota :rolleyes: ).


Run a longer hose down below the plastics to avoid this. I noticed this last year after seeing dried coolant all over the place.

6speedGTS
12-11-2005, 07:11 PM
I say water pump....

treeh8r
12-12-2005, 04:49 AM
APPARENTLY...the thermostat was stuck. I guess this is why the heater was blowing cold air. Sorry, wasn't an option in my poll (I didn't know there was a thermostat there...not very mechanically inclined). Anyway, the guy finished the work on Fri afternoon, but didnt have a chance to "test it out" to make sure this was the ONLY problem, and he closed at 4PM, so I left it there for the weekend, I'll let the liability be his. Anyway, going to find out today if its OK now...what do you think is a fair price (labor included?)...he hasnt told me what I was looking at yet, but he did say he was having trouble bleeding the air out of the lines; would he charge me extra labor for this? The part is <$15, and if he charges $40-$50/hr, this would be 3-4 hours to repair; does that seem correct? If Im going to end paying as much as if I had gone to Toyota (my original destination, before she started overheating) I think I'll argue that; Toyota would have gotten my car back to me on Friday!

treeh8r
12-12-2005, 11:06 AM
New thermostat...she runs smooth still...but the temp takes longer to go up, and shes steady at 1 bar less than normal. is this all right?