I have a 2007 matrix with the 1.8 54000 miles
th coolent was a nice clear pinky orange. the temp would be slow to rise to full warm ...5 miles at 45 mph on country roads .
then it got so it would randomly drop from half to a quarter on the temp scale and the heater temp would drop too.
then it got worse.
I dumped the coolent swaped out a new toyota thermostate for $ 22 and after flushiong the system and draing it at the radeator with water twice i dumped and added preston yellow mixes with everything juice.
warmed it up worked the air bubbles out all good temp is right at 47 % of the gauge scale ..this was great for 5 ~6 days poof back to erratic cool/cold temp !!! aaaagggghhhhh!
the old coolent had no smeel of oil , it was not loosing any fluids and still is not . the oil is fine . the old thermostate o ring was bigger than it should have been /swollen ? and that was replaced with the new one.
any ideas why ? my next try is a napa thermostate for 8 bucks at least i'll save some $$ for crummy performace and a cold ride.
I have had issues with ...childish vandalisum over the past 30 years . so nothing no mater how bizzare is out of the question. and how would i test for it ? confussed and frustrated, Thanks !
Check the coolant temp sensor and rad cap, make sure everything is connected and looks ok. How is your gas mileage? Did you get a recall notice from Toyota?
What do you mean by the o ring was bigger than it should have been?
caps, fine rubber hoeses are fine antifreeze looked fine ,no film.
the o ring on the thermostate was swollen like it got some chemical that makes rubber swell.....brake fliud? it been on the shelf for 5 days and is still too big to fit on . so its not drying out. the temp I double check with a infared thermometer pointed at the heater vent blowing on my face, they all match in time temp feeling.
gas milage is down but snow is deep and I Dont give it much slack with 4 snowtires ,she goes good!
Do the radiator fans kick on as soon as you turn the key to run on the ignition? If they do, possible that you have a bad ECT switch on the thermostat housing. The failsafe mode is to run the fans constantly, but in cooler weather, will "overcool" the system. Could also try running a radiator block, a piece of cardboard that block some airflow from moving past the fins on the radiator.
Weird part is the new thermostat worked for a couple of days before this happened again. A restriction in the cooling system (deposits, etc.) would cause this intermittent behavior, but should have seen some signs of this when flushing the radiator.
Waterpump is turned by the serpentine belt - if the belt is really worn out, could be slipping on some of the pulleys and not fully circulating the coolant.
the fan is not running, but i did get it to come on wheni was flushing the system idling getting the water to circulate,and air bubbles out .
if the water pump was slipping I would expect to get a bump in temp and then a dip ...follwed by a rise back to "normal3 30 ..pointer just above wavy lines of the bottom of the icon . but it might drop to 5 oclock and rise to 4 30 or come back to the bottom of the scale say 4~ .
next thing I'll do is flush the system with laundry deturgent ! then water then refill with 2nd thermostate.
brake fluid would be my worst case guess...what elles makes rubber parts swell that does not leave a sheen on antifreeze?
\and I am paranoide....I have had very bizzare things happen to my stuff, 1 ton ford king pin lock bolt....".loosen up " that cost a front end rebuild
intake manafold bolts I 6 on rebuilt engine same van loosen up...just the top 3 easy to get to. carb loose one monday starter loosened up untill flex plate junk.front end adjusted toe in toe out ,exhaust system pinched nearly off at header. list goes on and I'm not sure who ...or why
different van ujoints on good ballanced drive shaft last from a month to 5 days they were wellgreased but every time i found themone or two capsw were full of powdered rusty metal bits like they had been flushed clean,and then packed with an oxadizer. manual transmission loose .
lug nuts loosened on different truck 3 loose 1 tight 3 loose 1 tight allaround except teh one I found all 8 loose on
power steering lines rotted off inless than 6 months, brake lines and gas last less than a year front replacment and being painted !
yes I have reported to the cops after it got overwhelingly hard to explaine away .
sorry about the mini rant!, its been going on since high school! when the brakes on my Dad's w100 would be adjusted way out of wach so the brake peddle was on the floor and the self adjusters would fall out!
nope ! what could /should it hurt?
if I have a polluted with oil /brake fulid cooling system it will clean it out !
now i just came back from a 7 mile destination and the car smells like the blower is getting ready to burst into flames.....hot melting wire smell.
it is a pontiac vibe...and knowing cheapy Gm they probably changed somthing .
Do you have all fan speeds on the blower? Any seem to be missing, i.e., you have low and high, but none in between? Noticed any coolant loss, coolant gain, how does the motor oil look like?
Also on the detergent, that is an old school trick on diesel engines to get oil out of a cooling system. But you have to use something that doesn't foam, like dishwasher detergent, not dishwashing detergent or laundry detergent. I've seen this posted on BITOG forums lately, and I know I'm going to see a bunch of posts on "my car blew up after I flushed the radiator with Tide".
The principle action works the same as commercial detergents/chemical descalers for cooling systems - but a word of caution. Just because something has the same "ingredients", does not mean it will be in the same proportions and work the same way. Many of the water "conditions" in dishwasher detergents will cause solids to precipitate out of solution, will clog the cooling system much worse. Only thing you are taking advantage off is the alkaline chemicals and salts in the detergent to breakup and suspend oil contamination - the rest is all extra junk you have to make sure is flushed out, or you've just made the problem worse.
thanks for the heads up on why not just pour palmolive in to clean what ever out..
fan speeds all work . the wire smell has not come back , I was getting gas at the time ,the door was open , maybe it was the pump at the station that was having an issue, ? funny how smells can linger or my nose might have been fooled??
Yeah, odors are really tough to pinpoint, some tending to linger longer than others.
Quick questions - if you raise the RPMs, does the heat come back? Or once the heat drops, it doesn't come back at all/after the car cycles overnight, etc?
for a up date ; I dont think it maters but I started the car this am in the gargae left the heater on and went back to the house for more stuff.
checked on the temp as i went back and forth loading the car , it was half warm , ok good , went back in 2nd of stuff in the car ,drove out checcked the temp . it was colder than it was 4 mins prior !
not full warm but just about the c ! how nutty
the car has acted predicatably latly, I do want to do a spring time oil change brake check rust preventive ...and double check the engine temp sensor , where is it located ?
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