Over heating problem?????

[SlackerOfSociety]

Hello. I have a 1997 Chrysler Concorde. I know this is an Intrepid forum but I was told that these two cars are basically kind of like the same???? The other day I left my car running for a few minutes when I stopped over at a family members house. When I came out to get back in the car, I noticed there was smoke/steam comming from the hood. Also there was a puddle of anti freeze on the street by the front passenger side of the car, right by the tire. I got in the car and the temp gauge was in the red. I put on the heater full blast to drive it home (I was getting heat through the vents into the car, so I was told that if your heater works, it is not a problem with the thermostat). I bought three new fuses (fan low, fan high, and rad fans). My car still overheats and boils out all my antifreeze..... Could it be the radiator is clogged, or bad? I was going to buy a radiator flush kit, and then re fill my antifreeze. Some one told me nine times out of ten, a flush kit will not fix it, that I need a new radiator, or one from a junk yard.... Any one got any info, ideas, help??? Oh and by the way the last time it overheated and I rushed it home to turn the car off so it would cool down, before i shut it off at home I popped the hood and the 2 fans were running.

[G.A.S.]

Install a new thermostat and blead the air out of the cooling system and that may be the issue. If not post back.
this is the easyest and cheapest first move.

[ashley87]

im kinda having a similar problem. i have a 2000 intrepid and the other day my boyfriend and i had to go pay a bill and while he went inside i stayed in the car and left it running. after a few minutes i smelled something kinda burning i looked up and in the drivers side corner , up by the windsheild. there was some steam . and i noticed the temp gauge was up towards the "H" so right away i shut off my car and my boyfriend came out so we popped the hood and thankfully someone else in the parking lot took a look. he took the cap off and the antifreeze boiled over and out . and he said the steam was from the antifreeze hitting the hot hood . he checked the oil and said it didnt smell burned . so we put more coolant in it and it dreained out into the radiator and brought the temp gauge down some. we drove it to the nearest auto zone and put more coolant in it , some leaked out again so we put a little more in and it seemed to stay in fine. we drove the car home and the gauge dropped even more towards the "C" and we checked the antifreeze again and it hadnt drained out anymore. we let it sit over night and this morning i let it run idle for a little while , the temp gauge didnt rise very much . i checked the coolant and it had drained some but its still at the max line. i looked under the car in the driveway where it had been sitting all night and there were no puddles or spots of nething. ive heard a few different things that might be the problem , like a broken head gasket , and then soome else said that if it was that the car would prolly not even run. and another person said it could be the thermostat or a water hose or something. im just trying to find out wat the most likely cause is ... please help!

[G.A.S.]

Change your thermostat, purge the system of air and then go from there. That would be your first and cheepest step

[mr.fixit1964]

if you have a puddle of antifreeze under your car, you are looking at replacing the water pump, which is very expensive, because the timing chain goes around the water pump, so you may as well change the timing chain , also if it is the 2.7 engine. if not you may be ok just changing the waterpump....

[indaworx2]

if you have not yet repaired the veh....check your fans by turning the a/c on high and see operation to verify.both fans should operate after a few minutes.if not continue with the other stuff.

[djkurious]

Any resolution to this issue?

[SpinnerCee]

I'll just add my experience here as how I solved this issue: -- 1999 Concorde lxi 3.4L -- driving down the road, temp gauge pegs at max, then steam and colant everywhere -- in my case most of it was at and around the metal rad pressure cap on the plastic coolant case -- which over time wears out making the cap loose -- the loose cap releases the pressure on the cooling sytem which lowers the boiling point of the system -- hence the belching and overheating.

I tried several new universal caps, even locking ones to no avail, but the simplest solution that worked was to casefully bend the tabs on the cap that secure the underside of the cap to the outlet lip -- it's an interference fit, and I guess over time the plastic just creates more clearance so that mormal vibration allows the cap to work loose enough to release the pressure on the system.