Is my car overheating? Advice please

SON240sx Automotive
1

Hey guys, I need a wee bit of help.

Ever since I bought a car it’s been having this issue. I posted a couple times about it here but couldnt find a solution, now I have an idea, please read :slight_smile: I’ve had the car since December, and the first time it happened was maybe in january. Basically I tried to start it, and revs would bounce around 100-1000 RPM and then it would just die. While revs were bouncing the whole car was shaking A LOT. If I gave gas it revs up a little, but not properly… it makes a fucked up noise while revving and even if i keep the pedal floored it won’t go over 2000 and still bounce around. It would bouce around for like 30 seconds and die sometimes.

Anyways that happend pretty rarely… like maybe once every 2 weeks and usually when i started it up again it would keep dying for 2 or 3 times but then eventually stabalize and be ok. Sometiems it would be fine for liek a full month.

Then it happened once where i must have started it like 15 times and it just kept dying. Sometimes it wouldn’t even start really, like it turns over and then “starts” and by “starts” i mean it goes to 100 rpm for a split second then back to 0. I Left it for a while then it started fine. This scenario was very rare.

I really had no idea what it was bit I knew 2 thigns: 1 is that it NEVARR happened on a cold start. Cold starts were 100% fine. It also didnt happen when u kill it and turn it on RIGHT away. SO basically if you left it for a while, not too short and not long enough for it to cool off there was a chance this would happen :(.

Today it happened again, and I popped the hood trying to look for something that would fix it (me being the dumbass when it comes to cars it was probalby not useful). Note that I tried starting it like 10 times and it was at the point of dying half of second after it came “on” to 100 rpm. Sod I put my hand ont eh rad hose, and it was fucking hot! I touched my vavle cover and it was hot as fuck too! I Couldn’t keep my hand on it for 1 second. This sounds stupid but as this is my first 240 I dont’ know how hot its supposed to be… does what I described seem like its too hot ?

So I got an idea…I blasted my heat for like a minute and started it, and guess what, after shaking around and being annoying for a few seconds the idle actually stabalized and it was fine.

So could my car be overheating? I look at my temp guage 24/7 but I think it sucks as devin on here said his coolant was boiling and it still showed normal temp…

My coolant is kinda dirty, I need to flush it soon, will this fix the problem? I also don’t have a clutch fan, and according to Marc it’s been like this fore ver and it never overheated and it’s fine. He also never had the dying issue that I had…

Any ideas how to fix it? Does it sound liek its overheating ? I’m thinking of getting an aftermarket temp guage to monitor it more properly since the stock one sucks, is this a good idea ?

2

No ideas? I"m getting new coolant tomorrow cause it runs hot as fuck tomorrow, but I don’t think that will fix the dying problem :(.

3

sounds to me like you have an electrical issue.

a car will do that when the battery is extremely low, and you may have a drain somewhere, or shotty ground.

next time it happens try to get a boost and see if that changes anything

but remember, you’ll have to give the battery a chance to charge, when it’s completely dead even a boost doesn’t help right away

and yeah, the engine gets hot, anything above 60C you can’t tell the difference because it will give you 3rd degree burns almost instantly and considering the operating temp is close to 100C… well, “touching it” isnt’ a very good test of heat :wink:

4

Thanks for the reply luka. Yea, I realized that it was a fluke that turning the heat on made it work, cause it was dying and that didn’t do anything today :frowning:

I don’t think it’s the battery though, because if I wait 10 minutes and start it up again it’s fine. If the battery was dead it woudln’t start up at all, ever, right ? It’s worth a try I guess, so yeah I"ll try boosting it next time…

Please keep them coming guys, I want to fix this :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

5

you could also have loose/dirty battery terminals. check them out, make sure they’re clean/secure.

6

Few tips for you:

The car running warm is normal for KA’s. The upper radiator hose will be really hot, that just means your thermostat is working fine.

Get yourself a clutch fan! You need it. It aids in warming your car up and cooling it down. It is an essential part of your cooling system, unless you are running electrical fans! Get one from a junkyard.

Flush the fluid out and refill it with some fresh 50/50. Double check the thermostat and all the electrical ground connections.

If everything else fails… take it to someone who knows what they are doing and wont rape you.

G’Luck

7

Thanks guys.

I am running an electrical fan (yes, I just realized that, yes, I know I’m slow).

I also got my coolant changed cause it was old anyways.

I’m hooking my car up to that program that reads codes (thanks to s1495, great guy) to see if it does anything.

Can’t wait till my car is running perfectly, I’m gonna be happy in the pants.

Kryptonite your car looks really good :slight_smile:

BTW, how does the rad hose being hot mean the thermostat is working ?

8

it means that your coolant is flowing through your rad.

when the thermostat is closed coolant only runs through the block (to heat it up faster)

once it gets to operating temp. the thermostat starts to open up and allow the coolant to flow through the rad so it can do it’s thing or else the coolant would heat up indefinitely (well, until the engine blows up).

consequently the rad hoses get boiling hot, and the only way they can get hot is if there is flow between the block and rad, ie, the thermostat is open.

ps, make sure your battery terminals/grounds are clean and secure, bad connections can cause a bunch of unpredictable problems.