Overheating problem

Hi I'm new here, this is my first post. I've looked through threads trying to find the answer, and I have an idea what the answer to my problem may be, but I'm not sure and I need you opinion.

So, I have an 85 Escort. On Saturday we noticed smoke coming from the engine, pulled over and saw coolant leaking. We figured out that the coolant is not leaking from a broken hose, but rather coming out of the overflow hose out of the top of the expansion tank. We looked in the tank and it was empty. We had just checked it a little over a week before and it was full.

Now please excuse any ignorance because this is our first car and we are just learning stuff and don't want to get screwed by mechanics. When it first happened we took it to a guy to look at it. He sloppily poured water into the tank so that the water went everywhere, even onto the radiator, and then INSISTED that the radiator was leaking when the water dripped down from it. We may not know much about cars, yet, but we weren't born yesterday. WE KNOW where the coolant came out of, it was not the radiator (still isn't). So that pushed us to want to figure out this problem on our own first, so if we can't fix it by ourselves, at least we know how to talk to the mechanic about it.

ANYWAY, back to the issue. We know that the fan on the radiator runs, so that's not an issue. There are no broken hoses, only liquid coming out of the overflow hose when it overheats. Also, when it does start to overheat and overflow, there is NO temperature reading on the gauge.

After talking it over with my father (who knows quite a bit about cars, but he lives thousands of miles away so can't look at it), and checking ford escort do-it-yourself books and forums like this one, we think it may be the thermostat, and that all we'd have to do is change it.

What do you think???

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and answer it if you can :biggrin:

yeah sounds like it, plus its just a good place to start, it will most likely, probably 90% gaurentee fix your problem, but there always are other things. but I would say do that first then see.

Coolant Temp Sensor....Then replace your radiator cap. The temperature of overheated coolant can sometimes damage the rubber seal.

Thanks for the replies!

We changed the thermostat on thursday night ourselves, drained out all the old fluid (which was mostly water since that's what we were using while trying to figure this out) and replaced it with new properly mixed fluid. Test drove it a bit. And then gave it a big good test drive yesterday. So far so good. It seems to have worked!

Phew!!!

Thanks!