2001 Intrigue Clicking when temp gauge gets halfway?!

Hey :) I have a '01 that I just put a water pump on (the bearing was going out.) Then (unknown to me at the time because I told him three times to get universal coolant or Dex) We ended up putting half a gallon of regular anti freeze upon fill up. I'm going to have that flushed later this week.

BUT the main problem I have now, is there is a really worrysome clicking noise coming from where my heater core should be behind the vent. It will only click (not in a pattern) when the temp gauge gets to the halfway point or higher, and will stop once it's back down. Now, granted my gauge until the new water pump was put on NEVER went past the 1/3 mark...now it is, quite easily too. But that could be from the wrong coolant as well.

So has anyone ran across this before? Because I have no clue. Thank you :)

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Thank you! Will do that tomorrow on my day off. Luckily it's a 3.5L so the pics are super handy. Totally appreciate it and will post the outcome heh.

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So flushed the entire system along with installing a new thermostat and still doing it. I might need to re-install the water pump and check to make sure all is going good on that end, I can't think of anything else it could be.

BTW lol those pics are quite descriptive, good job.

Sooo, for an update:

We re-installed a new water pump. Still doing it. So the only thing left are the coolant sensors. Process of elimination shows that: SES light is on now, gauge is reading hot (triggers light and all) but coolant in res doesn't raise past the FULL line...so the only thing left is the sensor. Plus I noticed a puff of dark smoke come out the muffler today when started up.

From your first post

Now, granted my gauge until the new water pump was put on NEVER went past the 1/3 mark...now it is, quite easily too. But that could be from the wrong coolant as well.
my bolding.
The first sentence in the quote above is important. I think your chasing your tail. Like suggested , It sounds like air lock. Air lock can cause a no circulate scenario resulting in lots of heat in the engine but not making it to the rad etc. If the bleeder won't work, leave the resovoir cover loose to allow air to vent.

Type of coolant won't make no never mind, as long as you do't mix them.


What's the code?

From your first post


my bolding.
The first sentence in the quote above is important. I think your chasing your tail. Like suggested , It sounds like air lock. Air lock can cause a no circulate scenario resulting in lots of heat in the engine but not making it to the rad etc. If the bleeder won't work, leave the resovoir cover loose to allow air to vent.

Type of coolant won't make no never mind, as long as you do't mix them.


What's the code?

Haven't had enough free time to go by the 'Zone yet and see what the code reads as. (I have a 5 month old so a little hard for me to leave sometimes) Here's the catch about the air lock scenario.

The coolant is moving through the system, I can feel it in all the hoses being pushed through. Before we wasted more time yesterday putting on a new pump, I did all my errands with the rad cap off, coolant line never lowered and popping noise along with temp was still erratic. Plus I had the entire system bled and flushed after installing the pump the first time (by professionals)... only to have it do the same problem.

If it is air lock then it's the most stubborn one I've ever heard of. I know GM's can be hard to burp but I took it to the dealership and had it done, so there should be no reason why their own guys left air in the line.

Don't trust a stealership to bleed properly just cause they are a dealership. I had at least three occurrences where peoples have brought me their various GM's bleed by the dealer cause of overheating only to have me bleed it and cure the problem.

Check for the code. Verify, as you most probably have, that the rad hoses are getting so hot that you can't hold onto them or use an infrared thermometer. Also squeeze the hoses when cold and when the engine heats up, there should be a noticeable pressure change.This would indicate that the thermostat is opening and the pump is circulating.

If'n an air bubble collects under the thermostat, it will be immersed in hot air and not heat it up enough to open it. I always tend to leave the thermo housing just loose and add coolant until it starts to weep out and then tighten down the housing bolts.

And of coarse you're sure the serpentine belt is installed correctly. hee hee

So an update:

Problem still happening. I'm pretty sure I now hear a bearing going out, just more fun noises to add in the mix of driving hah. Had the codes checked, one was for my throttle position sensor, going to replace that Sunday. The second code came up as a possible vacuum block, or bad fuse/relay.

Serp belt wouldn't be the issue, never had to take it off to put the pump or thermo on :)

I'm about ready to take this car to a mechanic... but fear the same problem will be back shortly after.

P.S. I find it amusing that within 4-6 minutes of driving the temp goes all the way to hot, but if it were to sit and idle it would be fine for at least 20. And it's even more amusing that when it goes to hot the coolant in the res tank never goes above the warm/hot line.

Can you confirm that YOU have bled the system of air, not someone at the dealership saying they did, or joe blow down the street?

A lot of people, even mechanics, dont realize that some cars need to be bled, and assume that the system will self-bleed like an open cooling system will...and its simply not true.

I only ask because I havent seen you mention in this thread where YOU bled the system, all Ive seen is you taking someones word that they did. Air in the system would do exactly what youre describing, which is why I bring it up...again.

I agree with LittleHoov and based on experience the Intrigue has been the most difficult car I've owned to bleed air from. I actually purchased an Airlift tool to vacuum remove the air, but I don't think it's neccessary. I got fed up with it.

One thing I learned while doing the power steering pump, that would help is removing the two nuts for the radiator tank that are attaching the tank to the strut tower.

Lift up on the tank.. This comes out quite easily, without disconnecting hoses. Have one helper lift the tank high, with cap partially loose, while the other helper opens the bleed screw. This can be done both with the car off, and car running.

I had problems getting the coolant bottle to be the highest point of the system. After realizing how easily this tank can be "removed but not disconnected" I wish I would have tried it.

You will still have to open the bleed on the radiator, like Krivasauto and Hoov have mentioned.

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SOOO thought I would give everyone a update. Car is in the shop now, should be able to pick it up tomorrow when they call me. So Thursday night it finally died when I took her out for her little 3 mile road trip. Made it all the way to two miles until the serp belt snapped. Which was only 6 months old btw, but apparently the cause of it breaking was the AC condensor locked up when the bearing went out. So after a $1,170 dollar fix we'll see if maybe that was also a cause in the strange noises and 'overheating'. I just thought it wouldn't be anything AC related because my heat and AC worked perfectly.

If you have not fixed it yet. Save some time and a lot of money and pull the thermostat and drill 2 5/32 holes in the silver steel round (2") end toward the engine. This will allow the trapped air to bleed out. I put mine one toward the top and the other toward the bottom. This part only opens above 2000 rpms and that why you can't get rid of the trapped air. I wasted 80 hours and more money the I care to think about to figure this out.