Recently after a long trip i was on my way back home and sitting in near dead stop traffic for a while. I notice my temp gauge go about 3/4 of the way to the top. Immeadiatly turned on heater full blast and rolled down the windows and the car was able to cool again until i started driving. The car will only start to overheat if its left idling after a drive for maybe 10 mins or more. I thought maybe it was an issue with the secondary fan but i popped the hood and noticed both fans are running when it does this. Coolant level is good, although i noticed that the overflow resevoir looks like it boiled out at some point - there is dried coolant on the side of my battery and on the sides of the resevoir. Sometimes even after a drive at night (cooler temps) I will turn off the car and the fan will be running for a while.

I have had the UR Crank Pulley and thermoblok spacers installed for quite a while now and i just dont think they have anything to do with it. My next step is to flush and refill with new coolant to see if this has any effect. But the bottom line is temp gauge will never move under normal driving, even at stoplights it stays cool. Its only in situations where the car idles for long periods of time like very heavy traffic. Also need to add that i dont think the thermostat is stuck closed because heat does come on inside car and feels "hot." Any ideas?

 

really sounds like it is the crank pulley because of the slight underdrive of the water pump. I really think this because it sounds like everything is normal except under very high stress/heat situations for the engine. A coolent flush wouldnt hurt, but I really think its just the pulley from how you decribed it.

I really doubt it is the spacers - I have had them for a while now also, and this weekend I was in Houston and Dallas with temps 100+ with the AC on all day and sitting still for a long time and everything was fine.

 

Check thermostat. Looks like cool water is not flowing into the engine block causing the water in the reservoir boiling from radiator.

 

How many miles on the car?

Thermostat would be my first guess, but it could also be the water pump. I remember this car that my friend Andrew had to work on at his work. It came in with an overheating problem, and everything looked to be working fine. But after 2 attempted repairs, it was still overheating, so they checked the water pump. The car had over 100k miles on it, and never had the coolant flushed. It had turned so acidic that it ate through the blades on the water pump and it wasn't circulating properly.

 

Just turned 60,000 miles, I dont think the coolant has ever been flushed- not since i owned it at least.

 

It should be fine, then.

Have the thermostat and the water pump checked, though.

Good luck

 

my guess would be the thermostat if the fans are running (unless you are low on coolant). you can test the thermostat by putting it in boiling water (on the stove) to see if it opens up and at what temp it opens up at(with a thermostat that you can read the temps)

 

Thanks for the input.