help plz...overheating

ok this is what happened. i was driving when all of the sudden i see my temperature gauge climbing fast. i pull over and go to open the hood and see that water gushing out of the small tank where water goes when the car heats up. i wait for the car to cool down to add water. i turn on the car and everything is normal until i start to drive. thats when the car start to heat up again. it seems that it heats up only when i start to drive the car.

what could be wrong with my car...plz help, someone!

Start with the easy stuff. Change the coolant and the cap first. If that doesnt work try the thermostat.

yeah, once that happened to me, and it turned out that my thermostat was stuck closed and not sending any of the hot water to the radiator and overheating
-a

thxs for the help guys.
ill change the thermostat today. where would the thermostat be and how hard would it be to change?
sorry for this dumb questions...i have to admit im a newbie but i have learn alot here in the forums.

thnx for the help.

The thermostat housing is under the radiator cap. Its not hard at all to change. Can be done in 15-20 depending. You'll have to disconnect some of the hoses in order to make life easier.

If thats not the problem, check to make sure your radiator cap is tight enough, otherwise the pressure on the cooling system will allow for too much coolant to come out of the cap and reservoir container.

You should pick up a Haynes or Chiltons manual for your car at an autoparts store. This will cost about $15, but it will show you how to do many simple repair and maintenance items on your car, including the thermostat.

You should pick up a Haynes or Chiltons manual for your car at an autoparts store. This will cost about $15, but it will show you how to do many simple repair and maintenance items on your car, including the thermostat.
best advise i seen all day!

that happend to me and a buddy when we were driving upto alaska. it was right at Dawson Creek, BC when we had to pull over and let it cool down for about 15 mins, and had to keep doing so every 30mins, we couldint figure out what was causing his 95 jeep to overheat, eventualy we blew the waterpump and had to change it out at Fort Nelson, BC. once we changed it out, and checked the thermistat, the same thing happend agian and againg in the middle of Fucking nowhere. after alot of cussing we found out the radiator was absolutly Caked with dead bugs from driving the Alcan. =)

i thought i would update on my situation so here it goes. i'll start off by thanking everyone for the help...thank you!

im happy to say that my baby is up and running again.

:cheers:

Beautiful thing, isn't it?

nice bug story...

awesome i have the 420a should i try the same things...it takes a little longer b4 it overheats maybe like 10-20 min...the only things other than the thermostat(which im going to go try) is the water pump and or the radiator.i read my haynes, and there didnt seem to be to many other parts to replace in the cooling system. ? so if its not the thermostat what should i try next?

ok well as an addon. i tried the thermostat and checked it...the radiators hot so its not that. i think the heatercore hose is getting pinched but thats only some of the problem...i still cant figure out why its overheating..some guy is trying to tell me is my headgasket. and im just not sure do radiators break. i cant find any water coming out of anywhere just bubbling to hell in my radiator reservoir.

bubbling in your coolant reservoir is bad. it probably means you have a bad headgasket. does you oil have any water in it? does your coolant look brown/black? do you have steam coming out your exhaust? all of these are signs of a bad HG

yeah no steam in the headgasket, brown looking coolant, but i figured its always like that from the radiator sealant liquid stuff. umm as for the bublbing yeah and not sure about the water in the oil but it wasnt obvious or anything. maybe it is a headgasket. im tired of paying out the ass is it an easy replacement? i know i have to buy new bolts and a torque wrench as well as the gasket( i was thinking copper racing one)

I don't know how you checked your thermostat, but if you take it out and put it in some hot hot water you should see it open up. If it doesn't open up, its bad. As far as your coolant being brown, that just doesn't sound right even if it is a sealant.

i would recommend sticking with the oem gasket, its held plenty of horsepower and is cheaper then a metal one. its a pretty involved job especially if your turbo since you have to do the timing belt at the same time then. search here there was a thread a couple weeks ago where kevin explained a bunch of it to some guy. do you have a shop manual? you will need one.

non turbo, and just the haynes repair manual, as for cheaper i had seen the copper ones for 53$ whereas the oem ones run 100-200 from what i hear.as for checking the thermostat. i readthe haynes manual and if the top radiator hose is cold and the engine overheating its the thermostat. but on my car the hose was hot and so was the radiator meaning it was flowing just fine. as for the color its kinda always been that color a redish brown, and the raditor sealant i added to the fluid a while back 6 mo or so was the same color thats why i thought maybe its just whatever is left over

sounds like you should flush and fill your cooling system first. i dont recomend putting sealer in the coolant if you have a leak fix it right. if you put in fresh coolant and it still oveheats and the coolant turns brown then you know almost 100% that its a HG