The other day I was in the drive through at Mcdonalds trying to get a delicious Frozen Strawberry Lemonade and I noticed my temp gauge rising. I shut the A/C off and it went back down to normal. I went home and popped the hood. The overflow was full. I popped the Radiator Cap off after it cooled down of course and this is what I saw.

I had to get some pliers to get the lil piece that was down in there.

Of course most of yours should look like this lol


Im sure glad it wasn't something serious going wrong with my cooling system.

 

thats not normally how they fail though......



but at least you caught it in time though, by the way it sounds

not best thing i would say is change the coolant out, but also change out the thermostat too, just to be on the safe side (it's cheap insurance)

 

How do they normally fail. I just did the TimingBelt/waterpump not even 20k ago. Do they normally do the thermostat? It was done at the dealer.

 

so coolant is probably fresher (was thinking more of possible shit in the radiator causing it to run that much hotter then normal), so you don't really need to drain it all that much, as far as doing the thermostat not normally, it's on the completely wrong end from where they do all the work lol



as far as the cap failing, it's normally the seals that go bad, or the spring looses it's tension not allowing it to hold full rated pressure

 

Im going to disagree with you fries

on normal cars-- they fail as you describe~

many reports with pics here on azine in the last 6 months- of this exact same type cap failure
sudden temp increase,,,,spring found in rad top!!

if your car has more than 100kmiles or 7 years,,buy a new rad cap --just in time for summer
your TL may run better if there was a slight pressure loss and loss of flow related to dieing rad cap

 

Update!!!!!!!!! my car started to over heat again. Its was 101 degrees today and i cut the ac off once more and the temp went back to normal. I went out and checked the fluid levels. cut the car on once again and what do I see. Passenger side fan not blowing when the A/C is on and the temp slowly rise lol. Now I need a new fan unless there is a fused tied to the one fan.

 

part of the reason for me saying to also change out the thermostat, to have cheap insurance (but yes the fan not spinning does not help at all either)

 

im sure thats my problem.. temp only raises when it is over 95 deg out side and i am chilling with the ac on at a stop. So fuses, relays... and if they are good fan i guess... well i will check the fan first.. couldnt i use some wire and connect it to the battery to see if i get it to spin?

i see another guy is having the same issue right above me this post

 

That fan motor is 300 freaking dollars!!!!!!!!!!

 

yes you can run jumper leads from batt to fan for testing

look in junkyard-auto dismantlers for good used one
or try parts stores-rockauto,, NAPA- has lots of stuff
or get aftermaket fan and install in front of rad/ac condensor..use the normal power source for it to work like stock
maybe fit a larger fan in front than will fit on rear side?

 

Thamks for the info. i ended up getting on e for 100 at a salvage yard. installed the new fan and no more over heating. fan blows hard. i did it with one hand cause i broke my wrist the other day.

 

too much fast and furious azine scrolling and clicking???,,

repetative stress maybe,,,but we dont really believe thats what happened

 

Lol, would u believe it was a softball accident?? I got the rash from the dirt to prove it lol

 

rash~,,ball injury, dirty knees,,, and a bunch of quarters in your pocket!
what have you been up too?!!!