working on the kids car, which is a 1996 Saturn sl sedan. had a problem with very little heat coming out. had heat for about 15 seconds, then went cool. i messed with it and believed that the thermostat was bad, and replaced it. drove thing around for a few hours, and it all worked great. lots of heat, stayed at a constant temperature for the entire time.

now, she drives it today and the damn thing over heats! steam coming out the reservoir. now its doing the same thing all over again with the heat, and heating up when i come to a stop sign.

i know its possible that the thermostat is defective, but is there something else i should look at?

also, the radiator hose on the drivers side has no pressure at all, and when i squeeze it, it just gurgles in the reservoir

Thanks in advance for any help. She is supposed to take her drivers test on Thursday, so i need to get it taken care of(she is not going to take the test in my newcar )

 

Well in this case the last thing you fixed should be the first thing you look at. As in I gave my car a tune up now it runs bad.


Before you do anything check and or replace coolant cap.

Engine cold:
Fill coolant bottle
Start engine
Hold Idle @2000 rpm's (helper does this)
Add coolant as needed untill the car is at operating temp.

If it push's out steam or boils before you get that done then you have to ask why.

 

ok, so you assume that the thermostat is bad then? im kind of leaning that way as well, and will probably replace the temp sensor too. hopefully that will take care of it, liek i said, she needs this car for thursday

 

No I don't assume the stat is bad.

I'd do the steps above to see if the car is full of coolant, to see if it pushes out coolant when I know it's full, and to see how long it takes before coolant does start backing out. Thats once I know the cap is good.

 

If you got that thermostat at Autozone or Advance, then odds are that's your problem. I never buy one from either without first testing it in a pan of boiling water. Pull that sucker out and check it. And while you're at it, I'd recommend flushing the heater core. And do the things sw2Cam mentioned. A defective cap can drive you nuts.

 

yeah, got the thermostat at advance...

 

Ummm what sw2cam is saying is ............ check things out, don't just replace parts till you get the right one.

 

bought a new cap, and the temp sensor. since they are both resonably priced i figured it would hurt to replace them anyway. especially since i read all the horror stories about the temp sensor

 

I quit buying my t-stats at Advance. The last two I bought were defective. I just got my money back and went to my local NAPA store.

 

I don't buy any hard parts at AdvanceCheckerZone. WhoaWhoa O'reilly is another good place to stay away from.