Hey guys. I recently had my cav overheat, and ta-da, water pump was gone. I had a shop here (that had just changed my oil and coolant) to the work. Got my car back and no overheating, yay! (pump, belt, thermostat, and 'tstat' gasket replaced).
Well the car seems to be running fine (no overheating) but the temp gauge in my instrument panel seems to be still broken. If I put the heat over the second (of 4) fan setting, the temp gauge wonders between 1/4 and 1/2 up the gauge [100(bottom of the scale)-195(middle of the scale)-260(BAD)]. The heat seems to be fine (not getting colder/warmer with the changes on the gauge) but the needle is wacky.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I don't want to take it back
Also anyone else have this engine, any other problems i should worry about? thanks
Coolant temp sensor could be bad or the heatercore could just be cooling off the motor that much on higher blower speeds causing the thermostat to open/close. Did the shop do a compression test to check for a leaky headgasket since the car overheated or pressure test the cooling system?
I replaced my water pump at 84k miles, but
No matter what i do, my temp guage can at times, go one little notch over medium in idling situations.
I've been told that the fan doesn't come on until these engines are *damn* hot.
Sadly, no more..
Turning on the AC will cause the fan to come on, and you can always do the fan bypass mod. You were told correct about the fan not coming on until the engine was dam hot. 3/4 on the temp guage hot. I did the bypass mod myself after witnessing this firsthand.
do you guys think i should take it back in?
First, was the guage acting funny before the car overheated. If it wasn't then I'd definately take it back and describe what is happening. If the shop is about anything they should stand by their work, and I'd expect them to do a compression test on all cylinders and pressure test the cooling system to see if you have a problem with the head or headgasket. If the guage was acting up before then I'd change the coolant temp sensor. It's only $12, and it's either that or the cluster/guage itself. The temp sensor can be checked with an ohmmeter as well, but if I was going to check one I'd do it out of the car with a pot of hot water and thermometer to check the resistance of the sensor with the meter and compare it to the chart in the manual. Honestly for $12 I wouldn't go to that trouble though, I'd just slap a new one in.
yeah it was fine before overheating, so i think ill call and see when they can see it again, and im not paying
ohvrolla wrote:Turning on the AC will cause the fan to come on, and you can always do the fan bypass mod. You were told correct about the fan not coming on until the engine was dam hot. 3/4 on the temp guage hot. I did the bypass mod myself after witnessing this firsthand.
Hmm could you tell more about this mod?
My car--->
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2569452
Your problem could be the temp sending unit, but also could be the wires going to that sensor. Being that the motor overheated and where the wires are they could have gotten messed up.
FU Tuning
I took it in again and complained that the car was still cooling off way to quickly. they replaced the thermostat again, but the temp gauge is still going down to about 130 degrees when i am on the freeway. This seems to only happen on the freeway anymore. Any other suggestions? (had a friend say maybe the thermal coupler, but i have no idea what that is...)
yeah, i had that problem, the fan turns on automatically at 3/4 temp (pretty hot). I also drove a chicks pontiac sunfire, and even on the high way the temp flew past 1/2 temp. I think this is common, but do the fan override (which still maintains automatic functioning).
Its easy, check the library on this site.
