So twice now my car has been driving down the road and I look down to see my check gauges light on and the temp in the red, but I had only been driving both instances for less than a few minutes.

I pulled over and shut the car off the first time and looked around, saw nothing, got back in, started it up and everything was fine!

So about a week or so later it happens again, while I'm driving down the road. This time I shut if off in a turn lane and wait for a minute til the light turns green. This time when I started it it was the same. I pull off into a parking lot right away and get out and notice about a gallon or more antifreeze on the ground (passenger side up front). Soooo....i'm thinking a hose has come off. Nope. I found NOTHING! I filled it back up and was able to drive it home after it cooled, but only if I didn't stop. So the next day I put in a new thermostat (which the old one didn't seem to be bad) and since then everything has been somewhat ok.

Now though, it seems to always run hotter than before, especially when sitting at lights. It used to never run above 200. Could I have an intermittent fan problem? Or maybe my radiator has something that's causing it to randomly clog? I just don't know what to do and I'm tired of having to worry about it randomly overheating. I'm thinking that since it's a random occurance, that the thermostat didn't actually fix it, it just wasn't overheating anymore when I put it in, kinda like the first time when it just all of a sudden went away.

Thanks for any help given and sorry for such a long description.

Kyle

 

Thermostat without a doubt. The antifreeze is from the thermostat staying closed and then overfilling the overflow.

This new thermostat is probably a stock one which opens at 195 which is why it runs hotter. The one you removed could have been a hypertech.

 

UPDATE:

Well, yesterday it decided to do it again. I was less than half a mile from the parking lot where it had been parked when it overheated, so obviously water isn't flowing. I messed around for a while and got down the road as far as possible til it overheated again. It dumped out a couple of gallons of coolant on the ground (overflow tank). It would actually drop temp when I would weave back and forth.

So...I filled it back up with water, it was WAY low after it dumped all that out, and after that it's been fine. I'm so lost on why this started in the first place. Something must have gotten stuck in the radiator, now it's gone? I'm so confused, I hate my car!

 

Go to Walmart and buy a Prestone coolant flush kit. Its got black and yellow pieces and is next to the anit-freeze. I had a hard time finding it but it works great. Just install the hose piece on the inlet piece right before the bleeder valve. I removed my thermostat when i flushed it so it worked really good. I just did this yesterday and had flushed the radiator less than a week ago. It cleaned out so much gunk. In the overflow tank you need a jam the hose in there and let it overflow until clean water come out. There will be alot of mud in there.

With this kit you just turn the hose on put the spout in the radiator so it sprays forward. You run the car, rev the engine a few times and let it run until its clear. Then rev it some more and watch all the gunk that breaks loose. The kit is only $3.34 and well woth it IMO. Try that and you engine should be very clean.

 

That sounds like a good idea, but I don't think it's smart for me to let all that anti-freeze run into the street? Maybe I'll try it anyways.