Escort overheating. Not sure what else to do

[97escortowner]

Hello everyone,

I have a 97 escort and have had problems with the car overheating during the summer. Aprroxiamtely 2 years ago I would drive the car for a week or two and then it would slowly start to run hot. Checked coolant level and found it to be low. Filled it up and could go another week or two until having to add coolant. I finally discovered the radiator was leaking at the seems. Changed the radiator and thought everything would be good. I thought wrong. Same problem, loosing coolant but from where? I have since replaced the thermostat and the radiator cap. Can find no coolant in the oil do not smell coolant when the car is hot. Over the past 2 years it has been getting slightly worse. Last summer i could run the a/c but this summer i cannot run the a/c when it is hot outside. If the temp is below 80 i can run the a/c all day. At the same time if the temp is below 80 i don't really need the a/c.

One question i have is would it be ok to run the car without the thermostat during the summer? Would this even help?

Could the water pump maybe have lost some of its circulating power?

The fan seems to run when the car is hot but not sure if it starts running when it should.

What else can i check? I really like the car and have got alot of good miles out of it. I will mention it has a little over 184,500 miles on it.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

[cha1nsaw]

sounds like it could be sucking water into the combustion chamber (headgasket), with the engine hot hold a mirror in front of the exhaus pipe and look for condensation, also pull the plugs , if one is getting water inside it will be real clean. also may want to try a compression check., I had a car that was doing same , drove it for years like that. it was definately a head gasket.

[butch100]

Your water pump might have a slow leak or the dreaded heater
core. Can you smell coolant at all in the passeneger compartment?
A compression check might reveal the blown head gasket.

[Wollf]

taking out your thermostat wont help unless you plan to run straight water ,and then put your car in a demo derby Rad doesnt have a chance to cool anything down with no thermostat in place.

[OldCarNut]

Originally Posted by 97escortowner

Hello everyone,

I have a 97 escort and have had problems with the car overheating during the summer. Aprroxiamtely 2 years ago I would drive the car for a week or two and then it would slowly start to run hot. Checked coolant level and found it to be low. Filled it up and could go another week or two until having to add coolant. I finally discovered the radiator was leaking at the seems. Changed the radiator and thought everything would be good. I thought wrong. Same problem, loosing coolant but from where? I have since replaced the thermostat and the radiator cap. Can find no coolant in the oil do not smell coolant when the car is hot. Over the past 2 years it has been getting slightly worse. Last summer i could run the a/c but this summer i cannot run the a/c when it is hot outside. If the temp is below 80 i can run the a/c all day. At the same time if the temp is below 80 i don't really need the a/c.

One question i have is would it be ok to run the car without the thermostat during the summer? Would this even help?

Could the water pump maybe have lost some of its circulating power?

The fan seems to run when the car is hot but not sure if it starts running when it should.

What else can i check? I really like the car and have got alot of good miles out of it. I will mention it has a little over 184,500 miles on it.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

I'm relatively new to forum, the only option I see to reply is with quote as appears above. How does everyone else reply without quote, which just wastes space, since the orig. question appears at start of the thread? Thanks...

Back to your question. I had slow coolant loss for years in my '95 Escort 1.9 liter. Just an ounce or two per month. Never saw leak on driveway or at water pump or radiator. Finally, the driver side carpet got soaked, natch it was leaking heater core. What fun to tear out entire dashboard to replace... nice design, Ford!

NEVER run a car without thermostat. Is it reason enough to know that the engine will never achieve normal operating temp so it'll wear prematurely?

Water pump designs (the common centrifugal impeller type) are such that they either pump ok or fail. Failure mode is usually bad bearing or leaking seal. They don't slow down.

Agree with butch100, could be leaking head gasket (run a compression test), OR heater core. Could use a cooling system pressure tester and see if it'll hold 15 psi for at least several minutes. If not, you need to find where it's going, play Sherlock Holmes. Listen at the spark plug holes with plugs removed while under pressure.

These cars have some cooling fan problems. Pick a warm day (about 80º or higher), drive 'til warmed up, park it while running. Cooling fan should cycle on pretty soon. If not, suspect problems with any of the following: one of the fan relays or fuse, the fan motor itself, or the thermostatic fan switch which screws into the block under the big black rubber air intake hose between air filter and FI throttle body. All of these can be independently tested to rule them out. Cooling fan should always run when A/C is on no matter what the engine temp is. You'll only get overheating with cooling fan not working properly if you are in traffic. Don't need cooling fan when you're driving at highway speeds in most ambient conditions.

If these cars lose coolant, can get airlocks. That can make you think coolant is full when it's not, you can't rely on the level in the reservoir bottle until all air is bled from the system. Airlocks can also give bad readings (ie. false lows) for the thermostatic fan switch and the eng. temp sending unit. When engine is cold, open radiator cap and add 50-50 coolant 'til topped up. Add same to reservoir 'til it's about halfway from full cold to full hot. Close up system and run for a while. Next time it's cold, check radiator cap again and repeat 'til system is full. Might have to do this several times.

[jeffescortlx]

If the head is over heated, the intake manifold gasket can deform (I've seen it done). The IM gasket block's coolent sections in the head, so if it's bad, you can suck coolent right past the the intake manifold.

But I'd suggest doing a compression check to see if it's the head gasket.

[JLDent]

I've had a similar problem. About two years ago I had a massive overheat (about redlined) and pulled off the highway, had it towed and then (of course) the commies at the dealership said bad radiator. Then replaced it and it still does the same exact thing on hot days, or long long drives. I've extensivly troubleshot the problem and all causes and it doesn't fix anything. It can't be a head gasket because the oil isn't milky or yellowish and there is no tailpipe steam (other than normal); it isn't the water pump because turning the heater on will aleviate the overheating most of the time; it isn't the thermostat because of WHEN t overheats and the coolant pipe temp/compression; it isn't a radiator blockage because of the pipe compression. The only thing that i haven't done is replaced the cap, i will do it, but i don't think that it'll help. From what i've read, some cars are just designed with ineffecive cooling systems and i think mine is one of 'em.

I can tell you my plan for next spring though: I'm ordering three 120mm computer fans (they are cheap, like $4) and rigging up a mount for them to blow air thru the radiator. Then are 12V so with some fancy wiring i can either put them on a switch or wire them into the current fan wiring. I'm betting $$ to pesos that that will solve the promlem though.

[butch100]

Originally Posted by JLDent

I've had a similar problem. About two years ago I had a massive overheat (about redlined) and pulled off the highway, had it towed and then (of course) the commies at the dealership said bad radiator. Then replaced it and it still does the same exact thing on hot days, or long long drives. I've extensivly troubleshot the problem and all causes and it doesn't fix anything. It can't be a head gasket because the oil isn't milky or yellowish and there is no tailpipe steam (other than normal); it isn't the water pump because turning the heater on will aleviate the overheating most of the time; it isn't the thermostat because of WHEN t overheats and the coolant pipe temp/compression; it isn't a radiator blockage because of the pipe compression. The only thing that i haven't done is replaced the cap, i will do it, but i don't think that it'll help. From what i've read, some cars are just designed with ineffecive cooling systems and i think mine is one of 'em.

I can tell you my plan for next spring though: I'm ordering three 120mm computer fans (they are cheap, like $4) and rigging up a mount for them to blow air thru the radiator. Then are 12V so with some fancy wiring i can either put them on a switch or wire them into the current fan wiring. I'm betting $$ to pesos that that will solve the promlem though.

Why not try the thermostat?? it's a $2 part. As for the water pump it
can not leak and still be bad. If the vanes inside the pump are
corroded or worn down it will not move enough coolant at highway
speeds to cool the engine. I can assure you the cooling system is
effective as I live in FL and drive my 94 'scort on the highway all
the time and it always runs cool......

[JLDent]

From what I read it doesn't fit the profile for thermostat problems though. If it was the thermostat it would over heat shortly after it reached optimum or so in the engine and that would be far before when mine does it. I could be driving for hours on the highway with no problems or sometimes in and around town for quite some time before it does it. I'm willing to try anything that doesn't involve a machanic though. Do you have any good "how-to" links?

[butch100]

It's not abnormal for the car to get to the upper end of the temp.
gauge if your'e at idle for an extended time. The fan should come
on at that time to cool things off. Is your fan comeing on at all??
Maybe you have a thermostat that sticks on an interminett basis
again for $2 and 1 hour of your time I would check it out. If your
going to do it yourself, buy a Haynes manuel for $11@ autozone
pep boys, ect.