Saturn - SL :: 1997 - When Idling The Engine Starts To Overheat
May 21, 2014
My 1997 Saturn SL has had an odd overheating problem for several years now. When idling the engine starts to overheat, but the fan does not kick in until/unless I turn on the AC.( I do a lot of idling, as I work from the car a good deal.) I've had the car serviced, even had the fan specifically checked in the shop, & had the AC components changed out last year (whole other issue, barely blows cool air). But the overheating abides.
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I have a 2000 vw Gti vr6. It leaks coolant smokes and starts to over heat when idling. Does fine when driving down the road. It has a new radiator. When pressure tested I can see a little stream of coolant coming out. But there's no space in the engine bay and I can't see exactly where it's coming from. Like I said it only happens when it's Idling for an extended period of time. It does fine going down the road.
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We have base line 2004 Cavalier coupe that has about 130K miles on it. It is currently doing two things: When the car is idling the engine begins to overheat, and the air conditioning goes awol. As soon as forward movement begins again, the temperature goes back to acceptable levels, and the air conditioning becomes cool again. Since these problems occur simultaneously, it leads me to think they might be related.
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The 1997 Saturn SC2 is new to me. It was delivered to my home after purchase and died. The car had been sitting for a while and was suggested by previous owner that it was the battery. After having charged the battery, she ran for about 5 mins and stopped. I was also informed that the fuel line sometimes would disconnect, but that is not the case now.
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My 2004 Saturn Ion, 235,000 miles, 2.2 engine is idling erratic when I turn on AC. It sounds as though the compressor is turning on and off. The air is cold then blows warm then cold etc. Is it the compressor or could it be a relay or fuse. It also overheated last week but not sure if problems are connected. I am idling car right now with AC off to see if fan comes on.
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I have a 1995 Saturn SC2, stick shift, 58,000 miles. Occasionally when I am driving, both the engine light and radiator lights start blinking on and off, the radio goes off and the wipers do not work. When I stop the car and start it again it stops. I don't know if the lights are off then also. I was told by my mechanic that all of those are on different circuits and he is puzzled. Of course it doesn't ever happen when I can conveniently drive to the mechanic's shop. Otherwise this car drives very well except the AC just quit . . a broken pump I was told. Lots of miles left on this car but this problem is driving me crazy--I think my mechanical is skeptical.
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Ok so I have a 2004 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport AWD. It has started to over heat only when stopped at a stop light and only when the A/C is on. It will red line and as soon as I start to drive the gauge will drop back to normal. Then as soon as I stop again it will red line. But when I turn the A/C off it will fall back down to 3/4 over heat and drop immediately as I start driving. I notice that the A/C will go from ice cold to blowing hot air when it starts to over heat. I took it to the shop and they did a pressure test on the cooling system and it didn't do it again and the shop said that they couldn't find anything wrong with the car. It didn't do it for about 2 weeks and just now it started back again!!!!!!
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Elantra has set for a couple months. Wife totaled her other car so is gonna start driving this again. Well any ways wen the car sets and idles it starts to overheat. When driving it never gets hot. New thermostat and fluids...
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I have a 1997 Saturn, and have noticed for the past couple of months that when the car is idling at a stoplight, the engine seems to rev or almost skip a little bit. The RPMs go from about 1000 down to 500 for a couple of seconds, and this will happen once every 10 seconds or so. Otherwise, it runs fine...but this is happening more and more frequently than it used to.
I had the transmission rebuilt over the summer and its still under warranty. What might be causing this?
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The problem is my new-to-me 97 Ford F150 5.4L SOHC engine, auto transmission, is overheating after driving it for a short while. Seems to be fine at idle. I have read previous posts with the exact same issue, but the consistency seems to be all over the map from burping the system, head gasket, thermostat, and possibly a plugged radiator.
Backstory:200,000+ miles.
Truck sat for 6 months after previous owner broke the shift cable.
Truck was in a front end collision. Frame looks bent underneath the engine.
Previous owner had overheating problem. He said he changed the heater core. Looks like brand new coolant in the system so story probably checks out. Desperately needs an oil change. Very black oil.
Previous owner thought the system needed a burping. So I'm largely assuming the problem started after the heater core change, or he misdiagnosed an overheating problem and thought the heater core could cause it. I have found a radiator cap and thermostat in the truck which seems to indicate he tried many things to fix the overheating and was unsuccessful. Engine looks pretty clean for the miles.
Symptoms/Backyard Tests :
Blows cold air with heat on highest level and on defrost.
Blender door fuse intact.
Doesn't overheat at idle.
Ran the truck for 15 mins with the coolant bottle fill cap off on level ground to try to burp it after draining some coolant and checking the thermostat orientation. Coolant level increased in the bottle. Large air bubbles came out. (Another session before this one, I ran it for 30 minutes with no coolant cap, and eventually coolant overflowed the fill bottle. Normal or no?)
Seems to overheat after the thermostat opens. After doing the 15 minute warm up/burp, I took it for a test drive. I drove it about 20 blocks with the temperature gauge on the dash reading the same as the warmed-up idle temperature. Got to the 20th block and the gauge immediately spiked to overheat with the oil pressure dash light coming on. I could be mistaken as the oil pressure light almost looks exactly like the overheat dash light. But I'm pretty sure the temperature icon was on the right side of the oil can icon and not the left.
After the above drive: Upper rad hose too hot to touch.
After the above drive: Lower rad hose medium warm. Could hold on to it if I felt like it.
After the above drive: Upper part of rad pretty hot. Not Insta-burn but hot. Tempature decreases to warm to cool as you go lower down the rad.
After the above drive: Both heater core hoses going to the cab luke warm.
Coolant looks brand new.
Radiator looks slightly bowed. Probably from the accident? Otherwise looks clean and minimal bent fins.
Drained some coolant and pulled the upper rad hose to see if the thermostat was upside down. Looks installed correctly.
No signs of weep hole leaks from the water pump.
Fan seems solid. Has maybe 1-2mm of play in the bearings.
Something that looked like steam from the muffler at startup, that disappeared after getting closer to a normal range warm engine.
I have driven crap cars for many years and I've never seen a plugged radiator which makes me skeptical of it being that. All the radiators I have changed were because they were eventually leaking from cracks in the radiator.
I would also be interested in doing an informal poll if you have read this far and have had this era of F150 that overheated. Have you ever repaired the head gasket? And/or have you ever changed the radiator?
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1997 Ford Explorer 4.0L the engine just died while idling. The engine will not turn over at all. Battery and cables are good. Able to get engine to turn over with screw driver on starter relay but still won’t start. Checked spark when bypassing relay with screw driver and spark is Ok.
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A week and a half ago, the Service Engine Soon (SES) light came on and has stayed on pretty consistently since. Shortly thereafter, the Battery light came on sporadically, but over the last couple of days, it's started staying on. Today, the car stalled while I was idling briefly. I had put the car in neutral so as to "turn down" a rattling noise, then shifted back into drive when the car stalled out. All of the dash lights came on, and I was able to restart the car and make it home 20 some miles without further incident, but it's definitely unsettling.
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I have a 2001 Saturn SL2 1.9 liter DOHC. I am getting a metallic rattling sound from under the car. The sound happens only at certain RPM idling speeds; what could this be?
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I replaced the heater core in my truck this weekend. The only thing I was worried about was pulling the dash. The truck is a 1998 f150 with the 5.4.. Everything went fairy well and decided to replace the AT Shift cable as well. Got everything put back. Truck runs, no leaks, no antifreeze smell. After running about 20 minutes, it started idling a little rough and my check engine light came on.
The codes are p0136, p0156, p1131, and p1151. I know these are related to the OS sensors. My question is could it be as simple as I miss an electrical connection when putting the dash back in? Was thinking possibly somewhere on the passenger side under the kick plate or possibly something while hooking up the heater hoses? Maybe even a ground that didn't get connected back when putting the das back in?
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'97 dodge dakota engine starts and vehicle will move and then engine dies. Just bought it and it ran fine. Coil was replaced by previous owner four months ago. At times it will run fine but is not reliable and wife will not drive in it. Had it towed to dodge dealer and they said it needed a new coil which they installed and still have the same problem and now think it might be the ecm which is mine even if it does not cure problem. Truck has 145k miles and otherwise is in good shape. When it does run, engine is strong, automatic shifts good and all accessories work. But, it won't keep running.
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Have a 2008 Saturn - 30,000 miles. Most times it only starts in Neutral first time of day it is used. After this, fine. Had with dealer mechanics for 2 days and they say they can find nothing wrong. Can't do anything unless they have the problem.
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My engine started to overheat and I have a very specific stream of smoke coming from, what I believe, is the water outlet housing. I'm pretty sure the hoses that are connected to it are heater hoses of some sort. My question is what would make that specific area smoke?!? I have oil, I have plenty of coolant, although there was coolant leakage the first time I noticed the smoke underneath the car right about dead center, there wasn't a distinct epicenter of fluid, which lead me to rule out failing water pump. Got the diagnostic codes and the coolant temperature sensor checked out fine as well. Did not see any specific spots for leaking, just coolant sprayed everywhere on the underside of the car, behind the engine, towards the middle of the car and smoke coming from that water outlet housing.
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I was in traffic the other day on the express way and I noticed my engine was starting to overheat. I think it has something to do with the AC because as soon as I turned it off the temp went back to normal. What it could be?
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I have a 2002 Saturn SL with about 160k miles. She's been a great car but recently she starts to oversteer when making moderate left turns over 35 mph. It always happens when the car's weight shifts to the right side. It is predictable but it still feels unsafe to drive. Unfortunately My mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with it.
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I have a 02 Saturn sl2 and every time I pump gas, the nozzle will click every few dollars as if my tank is full even when its near empty or half full.
2 weeks ago: I started my engine up and went about a few feet then my engine went dead. My car would crank but not fire up and I wasn't getting a reading on the instrument panel so I figured it was a fuel pump related problem. I took a look at the fuse panel for any fuses that could be blown or in bad shape. The only fuse I pulled out was the PCM-b fuse but upon further inspection, it was good and after that, it started up fine.
Next day: I get gas after work, drive home, grab a few things, start the car up, get a few feet, dies, won't start, its instrument panel reading, pull the same fuse, put the same fuse back, go on my way.
Next week: So I haven't put any gas in my car for a week and it has been working perfectly. I start to get near 1/4 tank so I put another $25 of gas in, started my car up and only got far enough to get away from the pumps when I notice my gas gauge going down, low rpm, and lost power steering. My car then died as I was pulling into a parking space. I did the same little trick and it started up again.
Today: Make a list of reasons why my car is stalling and plan to fix them from cheapest to most expensive. Start with putting gas line antifreeze as I rule out if there is water in my tank or not. ( I meant to put in one with water absorber, but I put a normal bottle in) Start my car up, get to school which is about 6-10km and when I was pulling in I noticed that my gauge was almost empty. I stopped the car and went to start it up again to see if I would get a new reading but my car just cranked. Tried a few more times but it wouldn't start until I did my little pcm-b fuse trick.
Now I am just wondering what you people think could be the problem but this is my conclusions and debates.
Water/Air in the tank - Why would does my car stop giving me an reading on my instrument panel after it stalls.PCM fault -Why does it only happen shortly after I open my gas tank (or maybe coincidence)PCM fuse blew -It works after I put it back inFuel filter clogged or fuel pump blew -why does my car start after I do the fuse trick.
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I recently removed my timing cover due to a coolant leak and found the cover was cracked. I had it welded and reinstalled but i did not remove the crank sensor from the cover while it was being welded. Now the engine starts but shuts right back down. Do the welding may have damaged the sensor and giving me this condition? 1997 4.2 ....
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