I was driving on local street (grandpa chillin' style, shifts at around 2K~2.5K) when I noticed my temp gauge went rocket high. Immediately, I stopped the car on the side, popped the hood and let it chill for a bit. Then, I poured in about half a gallon of 50/50 (I have a gallon left over in the trunk from I forgot when), and tried starting the car. Everything seemed normal. I started driving the rest of the way to work and everything seemed normal...

Q's:

I poured the 50/50 into the tube until spill, it's about half a gallon I poured in. Does half a gallon of coolant really make an engine overheat?

Or

Would it be a faulty sensor?



This is the first time ever the temp gauge wasn't in the middle.
It should be about 86 ~ 90 degree outside.

These hot days will really test your cooling system. What I see most is bad water pumps. Do a visual inspection for leaks first, then try putting the system under pressure and look for leaks.

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Where do I check for leaks? After a day, all the coolant is still there, doesn't seem like it's being drained.

This post has been edited by tomazws: Jul 13, 2007 - 2:31 PM

if you were able to put in half a gallon of coolant then you were definately low! filling it up should make it not overheat anymore (unless there is some other problem with the cooling system). keep an eye on it and if it starts to get low again then you have a leak somewhere.

If he was low the coolant is def going somewhere....just gotta find out where.

How often do you check your coolant? If you added it to the overflow tank then you could have just had it low and then filled the entire tank up. Did your fans come on? If you were going slow they would have had to come on to cool the car. Keep an eye on your coolant level.

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umm... last time I check was last summer lol.... Yes, I poured half gallon into the overflow tank thingy. I will definitely keep an eye on it.

If you wanna check to see if u got a leak as well, run ur car around the block for 5 mins, pop it up, and slide urself underneath. take a look for any green/orange fluids dripping from sumwhere. likely that u have a coupler not on all the way.

if i were u, i would maybe test the sensor, or check the specific gravity of your coolant. coolant does break down over time and it could be that the precentage of coolant in your system has broken down enough to raise the boiling point up closer to where the boiling point of water is. You ever had it fully flushed?? Also, since it is summer and its hot out, use a coolant addative like water wetter, purple ice, or the NOS brand coolant addative. Its around 90 degrees out here pretty much 3 weeks of the month every day, and my engine runs stupid hot as is and with new coolant, my cooling pannel and some of the NOS coolant addative and i run wayy below the middel line on the temp gauge.

Dam foo, that seems awkward for a celi to overheat, ur celi MUST have sumthing wrong with its cooling system, i say ur fans arent working or maybe juss one, the antifreeze isnt the problem, if u were half full it is still enough for a toyota, hell yea it is lol ive ran mine with no water at all and i noticed it wen the temp gauge moved a centimeter, i got off the line, stopped and it was completly empty, it seemed like if it . OK ima give you an example i live close to the border n i pretty much go everyweekend and the line to cross the border gets a little long maybe 1-3 hrs. it is 115-120 degrees outhere for about 4 months and i cross the border with the AC on with no problems, my temp gauges doesnt move a millimeter, its awsome. But maybe ur radiator is jammed u should drain it a couple of times n take it to clean.

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Altho you certainly right, this is lightly not his problem. The first and BEST thing to do in this situation is to take the car to shop and ask to have the cooling system pressure tested. What this does is put the cooling sym under the same psi it would be if you were driving. If something leaking, it'll be sure to do it under pressure. Once you find the compent, you can just replace it.

That's the way I've been trained to do it and I've been in the feild for about 3 years with an assoc degree in autotech. I'm not saying I'm smarter then anyone on this site, I'm just telling you what a trained-to-be-a-dealership-tech would do. And it's in my expirence, this is the best method.

Happy hunting