well last night I was driving and I saw the temp gauge going up and up and it almost reached all the way to 260,I was close to my house so I shut down my car and opened the hood and the antifreeze was boiling from the reservoir so I need to know is it something with my thermostat or my water pump

its for a 3.8 camaro

 

Does the fan work? And did you check if you have radiator fluid?

 

yes I checked the fan works and there is fluid

 

Fill it back up water....yes water will do just fine for now.

Start it up...and let it warm up at idle.

As it warms.....see if the upper coolant hose gets warm.

While doing this, squeeze the upper hose, your should feel pressure (1) and pulsations (2). If both happen, then the water pump is probably ok.

If the upper hose doesn't get hot for a looooong time, but the gauge goes up, then the thermostat is stuck.

Also, look under the car in front, and see if maybe you sucked up a newspaper or road junk, and it is blocking the air flow into the radiator.

 

Ok thanks guys,today I flushed my radiator and filled it up started the car and it started doing the same thing when the temp gauge was going up I checked the fan and it didn't turn on at all,I turned on the ac and the fan works,the car started overheating again and I turned it off checked the antifreeze and it was fine,after a few seconds I turned my car back on and the temp gauge was in the middle went to check if my fan was on it this time it was and the engine wasn't overheating,so again I shut off the car and turned it back on and the same thing again the engine was overheating ,so I think somethings wrong with my fan not turning on,I'm going to replace the thermostat on friday and see if it helps at all,or can anybody tell me how can I fix my fan

 

As it warms.....see if the upper coolant hose gets warm

ok I checked it and the hose was hard as a rock,is that good or bad and it was hot

 

So...when the fan when the fan is on it doesn't overheat? Sorry your previous post wasn't coherent.

If that's the case...check the coolant temp sensor or the fan switch.

Just a tip if you need to drive the car...if it starts to overheat and you can't pull over try turning on the heater. That should help bring down the temp.

 

ahhh I checked it again tonight the fan would turn on when the temp almost reaches the red but it still overheats,I guess I'll try the thermostat first

 

Yay finnaly I fixed the problem,it was my thermostat