94 camry le coolant temp rising and falling

[94CamryMan]

As I drive my camry along at a steady speed my temperature gauge will rise almost all the way up then a few seconds later fall back to the mid-range. This will repeat until I'm at a stoplight where the temperature rises and doesn't fall until I start driving again. Any ideas what could be causing this?

[davemac2]

sounds like your rad fan is not working at all. Open the hood and check the fan when it goes up.

dave mc

[Camry_rider]

Could be a number of things.

If your driving and its doing it the E-fans have nothing to do with that.

1. You could have air in your system...this will cause the air in the system to super heat and create steam and throw your temp gauge off. Check your radiator cap for any type of damage and make sure the rubber in good cond. You can always go to the dealer and buy a new one...its cheap.

2. My second guess would be your thermostat. If you have never done a thermostat in your car and you have high mileage...good chance this is your problem, one way to check this is you run your car with the radiator cap off....once the car gets to operating temp the thermo will open up and allow water to flow. If you do not see water flowing and the temp is going past normal...well then there you have it...thermo is bad.

But, honestly...check your radiator cap first...air in a system can cause alot of problems like this, I just learned the hard way with my MR2 that radiator caps do go bad, and they do cause this problem to happen. Mine would overheat, then drop....constantly.



Good luck man.

[94CamryMan]

Thanks for the responses guys. I parked my car when my temp gauge started to go beyond normal today and checked under the hood. My radiator fans don't seem to be going on when the gauge gets high. I'm hoping that this is the problem. What could be causing my fans not to go on?

[1996camry]

You need to check if both your fans run..

1) turn on AC as you normal running AC
2) look to see if both your fans are running
3) if both fans are not running, then you have problem sensors

do that and report back...

[94CamryMan]

I turn on my AC and both fans do run. So I guess that rules out sensors?

[new echo owner]

The cooling fan is turned on by a separate sensor, should be somewhere around the thermostat housing.

It is power through a different circuit when the A/C is on.

LE, it is a four, right? Have you check the coolant level?

N.E.O.

[1996camry]

Well, you ruled out your fans are working OK. Can you check two things?

when your temp. gauge go up to normal (HOT)... try to touch top hose and the bottom hose of your radiator (BE CAREFUL NOT TOUCH THE FAN BLAZE). Was the top hose HOT or the bottom HOSE COLD? you could have the thermostat got stuck without allow your cooling circulate? Do you remember when was the last time you have your thermostat changed? the easy fixed (cheap) go Toyota Dealer get yourself a new thermostat and change out... (about 30-35 bucks from Toyota Dealer)..when you install the thermostat, make sure you know the small around ball (pin) align on your Toyota.

Is your cooling really dirty (smell or looks brown color)?