benhart21

I just drove my car 20 hours straight from Virginia to San Antonio and I've been having some problems. I'd look a little farther into it now, but that much driving straight is taking it's toll. I'm also now 1200 miles from all my tools. The car in question is a 95Z with 122,000 on it. Now onto the problem...

While driving, within about 2 minutes(fast enough for it to happen between me looking down and checking my speed) the temp gauge went from about 180 or so to the red where the check gages light comes. I pulled over and popped the hood to find the coolant overflow cap blew off and it vomited coolant all over the ground(about a gallon or so). I cracked the bleeders to let the steam out, started it up and bled the system and topped it off with the bottle of coolant and water I brought with me. Started driving again and everything is acting normal again. The temp kept constant around 180 the whole time, including when I pull in to get gas every 300 miles or so(only times I stopped or even slowed the car down). Everything was normal still, but after I filled up, within minutes of getting back onto the highway the temp would shoot back up like it did before and the overflow tank would be boiling over. I'd crack the bleeders and fill it back up again(buying water and coolant at every gas stop) and it would go back to normal. This happened 3 or 4 times before I made it here to TX, and when I parked here at the house, I popped the hood to check and see if it was doing anything abnormal after I shut it off and there was a hissing sound coming from the general area of the passenger side exhaust manifold(couldn't pin point exactly where because it started to rain as soon as I opened he car door) and there was steam coming from somewhere underneath the PCM. I've got a couple weeks to fix this before I need to drive it back and I can't exactly afford to take it somewhere, especially if I can do it myself. Any ideas, input, suggestions...

Tomorrow, after the whole family meet and greet, I'm gonna head down to the parts store and get stuff so I can pressure test it.

JP95ZM6

Steam from under the PCM....Well, the heater core is in that area, and the HVAC unit has a drain roughly below the PCM. A leaking heater core could send hot coolant out that drain, but I think you would also smell coolant and get steam inside the car, from the HVAC outlet, defroster vents, etc. And, your heater hose connections to the heater core are a little inboard of the PCM (about a foot). Sounds like maybe a leak in the heater system somewhere. If it's the heater core leaking, you can pull both heater hoses off and stick a piece of tubing in both of them to bypass the heater core but allow coolant flow. You might be able to simply plug both of them, but I'm not sure if the system would flow and bleed correctly without any flow in that part of the circuit. Good luck.

BUBBA

If I were you, I would not wait til tomorrow, since most shops will either close early or not open at all. At least get a shop to pressure test it for you so that you can get the necessary parts to fix the problem. Otherwise you are probably going to have to wait til you make the long trip home (taking plenty of coolant with you---risky venture at best.JMHO

blitzer454

Overheating could be caused by a bad thermostat. The steam from under the PCM could just be coolant that made its way down to the exhaust pipe after it puked it up from the radiator. I would change the thermostat and then look for leaks after you cleaned up the left over fluid from all the puking.

benhart21

Thermostat is about two weeks old. Gonna cruise out to the parts store soon. I'm not gonna rush to get it done before the holidays, just sometime soon. I've got a girlfriend with a car to bum rides off of for now.