As most of you know -Houston, Texas is in recovery mode right now from the aftermath of hurricane Ike. Majority of street lights has caused each and every stoplight to become a 4-way stop. It practically took me 2 hours to drive home from work which usually only takes me 30 to 45 minutes top. Anyways as I got closer to my pad my temp. guage would rise as a I accelerated up from idle to 40 mph if and when I was given a chance to accelerate at a distance of two blocks at certain routes I was taking to avoid traffic. Radiator has been replaced, coolant has been topped off, and thermostat has been replaced as well. Is this normal for our cars to do once they have hit 140'000 in mileage, one thing I can conclude my oil was running low so I added 10w 30, it was down to a quart so I added about 2 quarts to it and it is about 400 miles past stil waiting for an oil change.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

dirty oil? or just low?

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oil was low, down to a quart on the stick so I added 2 quart of 10w-30

your temp guage would rise up but does it go down again immedietly? is the rad fan working?

Yeah, Id keep an eye on that oil. If you have less oil than normal it is possible that it will affect your engine temp; as oil lubricates your engine internals, lubrication helps keep friction down, and friction produces heat.

make sure those rad fans are working




if so, turn on the car and allow it to heat up and keep your hand on the upper rad hose, squeeze to check to see if you have pressure and to see if it gets hot. within a few minutes of your car hitting the normal operating temp, you should feel heat and pressure in that hose.

Check your radiator cap - have you replaced it lately? Check for air in the radiator too?