Overheating issue on Cavalier 2000 with 2.2L

[hopeless4life]

Check the ECT sensor, (engine coolant temperature sensor) these commonly go faulty in these vehicles, if it is faulty it is causing your fan not to operate which in turn will cause the car to overheat. THIS WILL HAPPEN AT ANY TEMPERATURE OUTSIDE, I'd imagine it happens more at idle or low speeds when air flow is less of an issue through the rad.

[amac209]

up here in alaska the first time it got cold -30 3 people i know had overheating problems. i blame it on bad antifreeze. all of them ended up with new waterpumps my theory is that the antifreeze gells up and wears the fins down on the pump impeller. if anti-freeze isn't ever changed it turns into really nasty stuff like acid.

[go__oilers]

I guess this is a common problem, I just bought a 2000 and it seems to run very hot all the time, have any of you guys fixed the problem? how much to fix? I picked up my car out of Calgary, so its seen some cold weather in its days.

Thanks Chris

[jgagnon_2020]

Just letting you know, it went up to 10 degrees(Celcius) above 0 over the weekend, and I did not have any problem with overheating. I havent' yet had a recurance.

Currently I'm having about $2000 CND worth of work: full tune-up, fluid changes, break and suspension work done on the car. The roads here in Montreal are a haven for pot-holes

I'll see if the coolant system flush helps.

I now know that I hade badly worn spark plugs and one bad wire. Could that be stressing the rest of the engine to cause overheating in particular circumstances?
I'll let you know once I get my car back from the shop how it runs with after all the work. It used to always run a little hot, a couple of degrees over the mid point of the temperature gauge. I thinks it's supposed to be a couple under. I'll check it and let you know.