Is it my water pump?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,400
Likes: 3
From: Sarasota Florida
Is it my water pump?
My 02 coupe with 61K miles overheated this afternoon. I pulled over and noticed that the cap to the coolant reservoir was slightly loose so I after the engine cooled down a bit I unscrewed the top and let the engine idle for a few minutes (lots of air bubbles came up) shut off the engine, tightened the cap and repeated the process 3 times to hopefully purge any air that was in the system. However, the car immediately overheated again. Again I let the engine cool down while I purchased a new thermostat. After installing the new thermostat I restarting the engine and had a friend place his hand on the hose between the thermostat and the radiator. Neither one of us could feel any fluid running in the hose even after the engine temp. reached over 220 degrees. I shut the engine off when the temp reached 240.
I am thinking I have a bad water pump. Anyone agree, disagree or have any suggestions what else might be causing the problem (I checked and as far as I can tell the radiator and AC condenser grills are clean and unobstructed and the fans come on when they are supposed to)
Thanks
I am thinking I have a bad water pump. Anyone agree, disagree or have any suggestions what else might be causing the problem (I checked and as far as I can tell the radiator and AC condenser grills are clean and unobstructed and the fans come on when they are supposed to)
Thanks
Drifting
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1,715
Likes: 1
From: cAshburn VA
My 00 Coupe is over in Chesapeake, VA getting the motor swapped, if you dont have a solution by end of week, you could go over, grab it, and swap it on your car to check if you want.
Electric water pump going in with new engine, so no worries.
Let me know..
Lee
Electric water pump going in with new engine, so no worries.
Let me know..
Lee
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,400
Likes: 3
From: Sarasota Florida
I don't think so (fingers crossed). I checked the oil and it is clean
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,400
Likes: 3
From: Sarasota Florida
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Team Owner
Joined: May 2001
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From: Dear Karma, I have a list of people you missed.
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16
There are only three things that can cause an otherwise normally operating cooling system to "overheat".
1. Loss of coolant.
2. No/insufficient coolant flow (blockage in cooling system/inop thermostat, etc)
3. Insufficient air flow through radiator. (blockage/no fans, etc)
(or any combination of these three things)
A system pressure check rules in or out #1
Bear in mind btw that 220* is not necessarily "overheating" for a C5, but 240* is definitely pushing it.
HTH
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,400
Likes: 3
From: Sarasota Florida
Well, I had a coolant pressure test done today the good news is there are no coolant leaks, it doesn't look like the radiator is blocked and the water pump is working fine. It appears that the problem was caused by two events.
1. I had air in the coolant system. Actually lots of air, the heater wasn't even bowing hot even when the DIC read over 240 degrees. We think we have purged out all the air.
2. I think I may have a bad coolant sensor. My DIC was reading 240 degrees but according to the point and shoot thermometer the neither of the radiator hoses rose above 209 degrees. I have ordered a new sensor and I will install it tomorrow.
As usual the few times that I have problems they are the ones that are hard to diagnose.
1. I had air in the coolant system. Actually lots of air, the heater wasn't even bowing hot even when the DIC read over 240 degrees. We think we have purged out all the air.
2. I think I may have a bad coolant sensor. My DIC was reading 240 degrees but according to the point and shoot thermometer the neither of the radiator hoses rose above 209 degrees. I have ordered a new sensor and I will install it tomorrow.
As usual the few times that I have problems they are the ones that are hard to diagnose.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,437
Likes: 59
From: Bay Area (Danville) CA
how did you get the air out of the system???
My 97 is spewing coolant after i drive as well and its rediculous. The DIC doesnt indicate overheating and when i stop i can hear the coolant in the overflow bubbling!
i ws told it was vapor lock and that i had air in the lines by someone and to unscrer the lines at the back of the heads and fill system until coolan t comes out of the lines. but i have no idea how to access those lines.
what did you do?/
My 97 is spewing coolant after i drive as well and its rediculous. The DIC doesnt indicate overheating and when i stop i can hear the coolant in the overflow bubbling!
i ws told it was vapor lock and that i had air in the lines by someone and to unscrer the lines at the back of the heads and fill system until coolan t comes out of the lines. but i have no idea how to access those lines.
what did you do?/
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 10,078
Likes: 17
that's what I thought.
