99 Ford Taurus - Overheating

Hello all,
I have a 99 Ford Taurus SE. My problem first started when I noticed what smelled like anti-freeze coming out of the air conditioning vents. I stopped using the air. Now whenever I am stopped the engine starts to overheat, when I start to move again the temperature goes back down. Could this be as simple as a thermostat?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Q

Could be the thermostat. Could be the coolant temp sensor. Could be fan clutch. Could be fan relay. Could be the Water pump. Could be head gasket. Does your Radiator cooling fan run when the car is hot? Do you have coolant in the oil (watery)? Do you leak any coolant? What ever you do, try not to let it overheat, it can cause expensive damage.

My wild guess, check your fan/fan relay.

Thanks for the tips Dave. I'm at work now so I'll have to check it out later. How do you check the Fan/Fan relay?

Thanks
Q

Just make sure the fan kicks in.

Still haven't answered the smell of anti-freeze coming from the air vents when A/C is on. What in the world is going on there, anybody? Absolutely related to your overheating problem. You have a leak somewhere, check your coolant level and check it often. I know when a heater core is bad and leaking you'll get that smell when you run the heater, but I don't have a clue about the A/C system.

OK,

I know I'm not the smartest person when it comes to cars but after looking at my taurus again, how do you check the Radiator Coolant level?

All I see is the overflow reservoir, the radiator is buried in the front and I don't see anywhere where there is an actual radiator cap.

I have seen the fans and again I'm at work and I will check those out later.

Ok this is what I know at this point.

I checked the oil and besides being dirty it looked OK.

I thought I was told by a mechanic friend years ago that if you loosen the radiator cap that might help some overheating problems, so I loosened the only cap I could find which was on the coolant reservoir. The car started to get hot after driving only a couple of miles and wouldn't go down until I stopped and tightened the cap back up.

I also noticed that when I'm idling and the car starts to get hot, if I put it in Park it goes down.

So, I will check the fans later today. When should they come on?

Also how do you check the coolant level? I know that sounds dumb, but I am really mechanically declined!


Last thing is I am going to take it to a mechanic next week, I will post back then to let you all know what the final diagnosis is, I really hope its not a head gasket!


Thanks for all your help!

Q

The pressure cap is on the overflow tank. On those it's called a surge tank because of the cap location. You can check the level of coolant by the lines on the side of the surge tank or taking the cap off. The heater core and the air conditioning evaporator share the same housing. When you turn the heat on does it smell like coolant in the car? It could be leaking there. When you do turn on the ac, do the fans kick on? It could be a number of things still, if you can check those and let us know what you find.

The purpose of the pressure cap is to maintain specific pressure in the cooling system. For every pound of pressure on the coolant, you raise the boiling point about 3 degrees. So a 15 psi cap raises the boiling point by 45 degrees. That increases your protection. If the relief valve isn't working then it would continue to build pressure and eventually rupture something in the cooling system. If you were to loosen the cap you take away that added boiling protection, causing the car to overheat. Low coolant can be a big problem, so it could be a leak (even a small one) in the heater core or somewhere else on the car. Do you notice any coolant on the ground if it sits for a while? Or anything in the passenger compartment? Another good hint was to make sure that the fan(s) are kicking in when the car reaches temp.

Just so you know there is no radiator cap on the radiator itself. The coolant system is filled through that clear plastic resevior tank located at the right side of the engine compartment next to the alternator. The coolant system in your car requires 16 psi of pressure to be able to operate properly. Thats why it overheated without the cap installed. Well that and I have a real good feeling it's low on coolant.

Should consider a dirty cooling system. What kind of water have you been putting in it? A high mineral content water will form constrictions in the radiator that can't be flushed out. Is like cholesterol in your blood stream.

Good point, it is a 99' and the overall condition of the coolant system is unknown. Have you kept up on the coolant system flushes every three years or 36,000 miles? Still there must be a leak somewhere for an odor of anti-freeze to be coming out of the heater/air-conditioning vents. Let us not forget that. Let me ask you to do this and let us all know how it turns out. Turn on your heater and flip it to defrost. Tell us if your window fogs up. If the heater core is bad/leaking it will fog up the windwhield in a matter of moments and smell like anti-freeze. Even a small leak will do this.

Alright this is what I did, at lunch I went out and looked in the surge tank and its pretty much empty! I then started the car, put the heater on defrost and let it run for awhile, no heat came out and the windows didn't fog up. Then I checked the fans and both of them are working.

I drove the car to the auto parts store to buy some antifreeze, on the way I put the heat on again and it was working, I had all the windows rolled up and still no fog on the windshield. Then the heat stopped putting out hot air, I did not smell any antifreeze. I turned off the heat and continued to the store. At one red light it started to get hot but nothing over 3/4 of the way up in the white box area on the gage.

Now when I came back and was in the parking lot and parked I noticed the heat gage rising again, I hit the gas a little and it quickly jumped back down.


Now I'm going to put in the antifreeze after the car cools down for a few hours. Again this will sound dumb but just to make sure I add it with the car running, right?

How do you know when you put enough in?

Thanks for everyones help on this!

Q

As far as changing the coolant, I've only owned the car for the last 20,000 miles or so, it has 109,000 miles on it now.

Were the radiator fans running?

Also, it may not be leaking because it is way empty! Get some fluid in there ASAP or you are going to do some real damage. I'm not sure where you live but I would just dump in a half gallon of anti-freeze for ever 1/2 gallon of water, keep adding to the reservoir and as the engine warms up it will get sucked into the radiator. keep adding until you are at the "full hot" level on the reservoir.
For the time being if you must just put water in it but don't drive it until it is full. Check to make sure your fans kick in.
You can go to most service stations and have the coolant system pressure tested for leaks for only a few bucks.

Good luck!

Thanks Dave, and Yes, both fans on the radiator are working.

Use distilled water.

My 99 tauras did the same thing. it had around 110,000 on it. My regular machanic said that it is very common. Mine was overheating due to road dirt and crud that had gotten stuck in the radiator. Their is not much room under there and after all the miles I put on, it had become really dirty and the car was overheating. My machanic fixed it by taking it to the quarter car wash and blasting it with water. He said he had to pull something off in order to get a good shot at it. Since being cleaned the car runs great. Hope this helps!

I had a problem with smelling antifreeze on occasion. I added a little water here and there, nothing to worry about. One day the car overheated when parked. A mechanic friend told me to remove the water reservoir and check for a crack on the bottom. Common to that car. It must have been small at first, then when the water ran low, it over heated and cracked big time. Tough to diagnose without actually removing the reservoir (two screws)

Just had this solved...the timing cover gasket had to be replaced on mine. I still need to get the coolant temp sensor. My mechanic pressure checked it and pinpointed the problem.

Hello I have a similar problem,
I have a 98 Ford Taurus SE. My problem first started when a month after I have the coolant system flushed at Jiffy Lube, I noticed what smelled like anti-freeze coming out of the air conditioning vents and whenever I cutoff the engine a few minutes later after the fan stop circulating hot water force it self out of the coolant reservoir. The temperature gage shows normal temperature not overheating. After this happen I try to re start the car but it hesitate like the battery its low but after checking the battery I found that its fully charge and after 15 minutes it cranked right up. I don’t know what else to do other than take it to shop and let hem figured it out.

Thanks
Ramon

I think the heater core is leaking. Go to Auto Zone and get a loaner pressure tester. Put pressure on the system and watch the drain for the heater core.
Under the passenger side small rubber tube.

Your cooling system needs to be flushed, so that the coolant passes freely through the radiator. A plugged up radiator may result in over heating.
Beware of over using radiator sealants, as these are only for minor leaks and they may only provide a temporary fix. Too much and the radiator or heater core may get permanently plugged.
Do you have water coming out of the tail pipes?
You need to get your car repaired before freezing weather comes, so that you don't get a cracked engine block.
Antifreeze fumes are poisonous, so you should disconnect or replace the leaking heater core.
Unfortunately, a proper repair becomes more costly the longer this problem is ignored.
You may need a new thermostat, a new heater core, a new radiator, a new water pump, new head gaskets, new coolant, or more.
Add labor and the cost escalates.
Check the radiator behind the A/C condenser coil for debris covering the cooling fins, as this is a commonly missed cause for overheating.

Do not do a cooling system flush,sends all the dirt and crap back into the cooling system.I know a lady that had it done by an oil change place and it does not heat up very good anymore.There might be air pockets in the cooling system still.Which Engine,the 3.0 vulcan or the duratec?The vulcans do have head gasket problems once in a while,by a miss only.I have heard of one shop that has seen this.

Those instant oil change places are known to drain the transmission pan instead of the oil pan on certain foreign cars. So, they may also may not know how to properly flush a cooling system. Some cars require special coolant, which can not be mixed with that supplied by an instant oil establishment.
Also, any flush chemicals must be completely flushed out of the cooling system with water before adding antifreeze. Distilled water also is better than tap water, since it will not cause calcium deposits inside the engine.