[Eye8Pussies]

My car overheated on the highway last night....which was quite a feat, considering that it was -39 Degrees Celcius outside.....:

On the side of the highway, I checked for leaks and loose hoses, etc and found none (though it was extremely dark), and the reservoir was still full. The car was steaming like mad, since the rad cap was letting off steam pressure, and I couldn't see too well, with the dark and all the steam combined.

To help the car cool down faster (but not always the best idea, since I then lost all my coolant), after the car had cooled a bit, I opened the rap cap to let the hot steam out. I then was able to limp it to the gas station.

Long story short, I kept an eye on my oil temp the entire time and was able to limp my way off the highway and to a gas station before I called for a tow.

At the gas station, the car sucked up all the reservoir coolant and contined to steam. I looked again since there was light, and nothing was out of place. At that point, I called for the actual tow, since there was no way I was going to be able to drive it home.

This morning, I went to work trying to find out what was wrong. And I found nothing wrong, short of an empty cooling system, which I filled up before testing.

I found no leaks and no loose hoses. When I took my car for a test drive, I gave it the acid test after it seemed to be operating fine- in town driving, highway driving, sustained high speeds, stop and go, boost, no boost, etc. Basically normal driving patterns. After the temp needle hit the middle, it never moved again. I touched the rad, and the coolant is going through it.


At this moment, I am thinking that the thermostat got stuck last night. Unfortunately, I didn't think to touch the rad to see if coolant had been going through it when I was checking.


Anybody else have any ideas? At this point, I think I'm going to put in a new thermostat.

 

[TTercel]

Damn, right now all I can think of is a malfuctioning thermostat. When last has that thing been changed anyways?

 

[toyomoho]

Anything fly up of the road and block the radiator. And now the cars run OK. Might get a failsafe type thermostat. Clasped lower radiator hose? At –39C you may be stretching the limits of the antifreeze, it may have started to turn to a slushy when the car sat. Although it would not turn completely to solid ice.

 

[TTercel]

^ From what I got from what he said is that he was on his way home and driving on the highway and his car overheats. Now even if the antifreeze slushed up it should liquify pretty quickly, no? Since I know his car has a lot of kilometers I strongly believe that its the thermostat unless he has changed it recently....

Or even a blockage of some sort, if your fluid was in bad condition which I doubt...

 

[GrkBallaG]

Sounds like a timitat :lol: (thermostat)

 

[Eye8Pussies]

I actually don't think that the thermostat's ever been changed in 275000kms...but then again, neither has the waterpump....but from what I've gathered, when a waterpump goes, there's really no way to drive a car at all....

on that particular note as well about the thermostat....

are the toyota oem thermostats fail-safe? I forgot to ask the guys at the dealership...

 

[71Corolla]

are the toyota oem thermostats fail-safe? I forgot to ask the guys at the dealership...

They are, at least in my experience.

I have only ever owned one Toyota (I've owned nearly every Toyota model at one time or another) where the stat failed and caused the car to overheat, as almost always when they fail the car will never heat up. So it does happen.

I DID once have a radiator freeze, which prevented coolant movement, and the car boiled over when it was nearly -40. Sounds like that could have happened to you. Either way change the thermostat.

 

[bB626]

check the thermostat first. if its still overheating, check the radiator.

when my bro first got an AE86, it kept overheating. he replaced almost everything. finally he changed the radiator and its working fine now.

 

[Dave's]

Once you've lost coolant the gauge may read ok but the engine's still too hot. The sensor should be reading coolant temp and without any you're just reading the heated air. If the waterpump goes it's quite possible to still drive the car, there's just no circulation. (Unless it locks up and stops the belt, of course.)

 

[Komodo]

Check the thermostat first. It's the cheapest part to replace.
If the water is circulating then I doubt it's the water pump. Your rad hoses should be hard when you rev the car a bit. You will be able to tell the difference.
Other thing to look for is tiny bubbles in the coolant. If the head gasket is bad gases can get into the coolant and cause over heating.
A poorly maintained cooling syatem can get alot of sludge in the rad passeges which can reduce the amount of heat exchange that takes place causeing over heating. But I doubt this is your problem @ -20C plus.
Good luck.

 

[Eye8Pussies]

well, update on this....

I finally figured out what's wrong with my cooling system.....and it's not the thermostat...it's in fact the waterpump. But the waterpump is still working...it's just leaking like a bitch.

I didn't notice it at first because it only leaks when the car is on, and I did all my leak checks while the car was off. The bit that I did see on the ground, I thought I spilled while filling my coolant back up.

So long story short, the overheating was really due to a lack of coolant from it being all leaked out over a period of time.....the only thing that made me not think that it was low on coolant was because the overflow tank was still full....usually when you run out of coolant, the reservoir is sucked dry as well.

I'm trying to decided right now if I should try tackling the waterpump change on my own, or take it to my mechanic....I'm not sure if the stated SST's are essential for the work


And by the way- thanks for all your help peoples....

 

[Hamsterman]

Yeah - isn't the waterpump run by the timing belt on the 1MZ? If so - that could be a pretty labor intensive install, and might as well through a new timing belt on there when you do it...

That sucks man - i remember when el blue car was on the flatbed. It took 3! trips from the towing company to get it right, but it was my stupid driving that made me requre the flatbed - so you can't be too sorry for me

 

[DAMON]

thats a real bummer king, Im glad you got it figured out and the car wasnt hurt more!

 

[Eye8Pussies]

yeah...it's run off the timing belt

but I just called my mech, and luckily, he said that since it failed within 100K of my last timingbelt change, he's going to cut me a deal on the labor- a pretty good deal at that!

and I've gone through the shop manual, and I would tackle it myself if I had the time and another car to drive in case shit happens. But though weekends are good for working on your car, the friggin dealerships can't get parts until tuesday then if something goes wrong.

I need another daily driver so I can really work on my car...:hammer:



and haha....yeah...I remember that little "incident" that you had with the curb.... we all learn from our mistakes....as well as other's :lol:

 

[nodrogkam]

glad you found the problem. glad the tow went well because you were lowered.

water pumps are usually done at the 90K service interval along with timing belt etc.

 

[Eye8Pussies]

^ yeah, and I was going to do it during my second timing belt change at 205K km...but my mechanic said that there was no need, so I didn't.....75K km later, here I am with a leaking waterpump.

in the future, I'll get it done regardless

 

[nodrogkam]

good idea. this just reminds me of suspension...if you're going to take apart the suspension for springs, why not replace the struts while you're at it?...lol.

 

[project trueno]

Theres a little hole on the top and bottom of the waterpump body (called weeping hole), its pretty much an indicator to show if the pump is leaking.

If you stick your finger under there and find the hole, and find it is wet, that means the shaft seal is shot. Hence coolant leaking out. 1MZ engine bays are pretty tight, but if you manage to shove a small mirror down there you'll see coolant residue around the hole. (Red or neon green depending on your coolant colour)


BTW, care to PM me the tow truck's contact? Seems like he did a good job with lowered cars.

 

[toyomoho]

At least you caught the problem in time. 75K is not that many miles for this type of catastrophic failure to happen. That must be some leak.

 

[Eye8Pussies]

^ very true...at least I found out...still not definitive, but I'm pretty sure it's the case. My mechanic will get the car up on a lift and take a look at it this weekend. and, actually...since the waterpump's never been changed, it's been on the car for 275000 km now....:hammer:


project trueno - yeah...I know about the weephole.....but I basically can't see anything around that area, since my supercharger belt assembly completely covers that area up...you think it was tight before? now there's no space at all....and you've got PM