UGH help...coolant gone crazy!!

[NowUCMeNowUDont]

so im driving like usual...see a WRX do a few rat races...and when we fniish my temp gauge goes all the way up like past red and stayss there!! i here a gargling noise from the engine...the resevoir for the coolant is like boiling...and its spilling all over the place..and now the check engine light is on...whats going on??? do ineed a new radiator?? thermostat??
can someone pls tell me exactly whats wrong and what i need to have done...erfff i dont think the fans are working either now...i check the relays and fuses all fine..and everythign is plugged together...should i jsut start ordering a new radiator and fans from partstrain.com????

[felkajamine]

you overheated your engine dude!?

it could possibly be your thermostate, i'd be praying that's all it is! Did you pull over immediatly? or did it take you awhile to notice that it was hot? good luck with everything man, i'd check the thermostat first though and hope for the best!

[EDIT]
also after you noticed it was hot, if you did drive it any, did the temp. go down when you revved up? when my thermostat went out, it would go all the way to hot, and then when i put it in nuetral or revved to like 4k the temp would go back doen (really fast too).

[Eye8Pussies]

if your overflow tank is bubbling, it means that you're low on coolant


and I have no idea about the CEL- sounds like you messed something up, thought it could be a whole myriad of things

[felkajamine]

did you try to take the coolant cap off? or was it too hot? if it was overheated then im guessing you didn't atempt that, but if you did, did it boil over, or was it okay?

[ag6286]

Problem 1: you raced your car against a WRX

Problem 2: you didn't have the sense enough to keep an eye on your temp guage

Problem 3: you overheated

Problem 4: your now low on coolant

Problem 5: you problem didnt pull over to LET THE ENGINE COOL! ( i assume this cause you stated the temp "stayss there!"

Problem 6: You could have warped/thinned some of your bearings

Problem 7: Your water pump is most likely the culprit here, NOT your temp guage

**Will you need a new radiator?: most likely not, unless the pressure was so great but if indeed it was your cap would have blown off to prevent damage. I assume you have an I-4 5sfe since you mention fans instead of just fan. In this case they are electric and it would be an electrical problem if they didnt work. IF IN FACT THE TEMP GUAGE CONTINUES TO CLIMB AND NOT COOL AT SPEEDS CONSTANTLY (MORE THAN 2 MINUTES) OVER 30MPH THEN YOUR WATER PUMP IS MORE THAN LIKELY DONE FOR

**If you did warp your bearings your screwed cause that can lead to major short to long term damage. even if you dont HEAR evidence of this problem it doesnt mean you didnt thin them to a dangerous/problematic level

**you may have slightly warped just about anything metal, more likely gaskets will be ruined than anything

**check for leaks

**check compression

**how does the engine sound when you start it cold? hot?

**how does it sound through the RPM range

****DO NOT have the engine on long if your cooling fans DO NOT work and/or water pump is shot, it wont take long to overheat...trust me, ive been there with my 3vz-fe

**your CEL codes will most likely link to either the water pump (if it has a sensor) or the fans if they really are not working properly

**The extreme temperatures somehow may have melted wires together related to teh fan...very rare but ya never know

FYI: fans/motors should be replacable, able to detatch from the radiator if thats the problem, you can pick them up at just about any junkyard or u-pull it for super cheap

[zoni]

i guess that'll teach you to race anything with a stock 5sfe camry

[NowUCMeNowUDont]

where would i get a new water pump...anywhere online ???


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Water...spagenameZWDVW

would that work??

[DarkMastyr]

Well, assuming that you re-filled your coolant, what happens when you go for a drive now? You might want to figure out what the symptoms are before spending money on a fix that may or may not help.

[NowUCMeNowUDont]

k i just tired turning the car on again and the CEL is off thak goodness i refilled the radiator and resevoir...made sure no air bubbles...then went driving....it was okay for awhile..then it just got hott again!!...i look at the engine...the resevoir is bubbling/boiling once again...and suddenly the cap of the resevoir pops off releasing the pressure and smoke...i looked in the resevoir and the level of the coolant rose UP confuses me...then i just let the car sit again...a few hours later i check it out and the resevoir is emtpy..veryy weird...well i just ordered parts already..new rad two fans from partstrain.com ..and a thermostat and water pump from ebay.maybe that will solve it

scratch the ebay stuff..i just got all the stuff from partstrain.com heres the exact listing:

thermostat
theremostat housing
theremostat gasket
water pump everything comes with it
a new radiator
a new bottom hose (i bought a new top one a few weeks ago)

anyone know where i can buy a good timing belt??


^^also bought two new radiator fan assemblys



Use this -->

[[SMAN]]

I had this happen to my buddy and I just last weekend. We were sitting in a parking lot with the engine of his jeep running and we were tunning his sound system. All of a sudden the engine temp went all the way up and white steam started comming out from the engine bay and the overflow tank was overflowing with boiling coolant. We turned off the car and let it cool down. It turns out, the radiator cap was to blame. The springloaded part inside didn't have any tension on it for some reason. This caused the whole system to not presurize correclty. So we replaced the cap and filled up the fluids again and it has been fine since. So check the cap to see if it's working right.

[ag6286]

Originally Posted by NowUCMeNowUDont

scratch the ebay stuff..i just got all the stuff from partstrain.com heres the exact listing:

thermostat
theremostat housing
theremostat gasket
water pump everything comes with it
a new radiator
a new bottom hose (i bought a new top one a few weeks ago)

anyone know where i can buy a good timing belt??

DUDE REALLY COMON, YOU DONT NEED TO REPLACE EVERYTHING, reread my post it will explain that you dont need all these parts, depending on whats happening you only need one OR the other NOT all of them. Once again, if it heats up severly AT AN IDLE within about 5-15 minutes (only idle) then its the pump, GIVEN the fans are working, if they are NOT replace them with some from a JUNKYARD for $10-$20. Replace fan and let car sit at idle again, if it STILL warms up past half way then its going to be the pump. Unless your radiator is severely blocked or leaking then you DONT NEED TO REPLACE IT. Your Thermostat is more than likely OK!

ALWAYS ELIMINATE THE CHEAPEST POSSIBILITIES FIRST! WHY WASTE TIME AND MONEY??

[Gary_602Z]

A pressure test on the cooling system will tell you a lot. If you were going to replace everything why did you even post? What if it is the head gasket or head? Then all that money went to waste!

Gary

[ag6286]

Originally Posted by Gary_602Z

A pressure test on the cooling system will tell you a lot. If you were going to replace everything why did you even post? What if it is the head gasket or head? Then all that money went to waste!

Gary

not likely in the least. have you ever blown a head gasket or seen one blow? its like freakin the Iraq war with all the smoke and loudness and burning oil/coolant going on. Massive power loss if it even works, which he's not complaining about any of these obvious problems

[NowUCMeNowUDont]

how many pressure caps are there for the cooling sytem two correct?? i bought the one for the radiator..wheres the second one the resevoir tank?? where would i get htat one

[Gary_602Z]

Originally Posted by ag6286

not likely in the least. have you ever blown a head gasket or seen one blow? its like freakin the Iraq war with all the smoke and loudness and burning oil/coolant going on. Massive power loss if it even works, which he's not complaining about any of these obvious problems

Not true! Head gaskets can and do go bad in different ways. You can have leakage between the cylinder and a oil passage or coolant passage. You can have cross leaks between oil and coolant passage, or you can also have external leaks of the various passages. Also you can have varying degrees of leaks some so bad that it is obvious that it is a head gasket and some so slight that that you may only have a slight coolant or oil loss. I don't know where you got the idea that a blown headgasket is so obvious. I would like to know if you have ever actually tore one apart. If you have you would know this! I have done probably 25-30 in my life and all have started as a minor problem that gradually got worse. If one blows out instantly past the compression seal to the outside you have bigger problems!

Gary