| Author |
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Steve H
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 11:55 am: | 
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Hello all,
I have a 98 D1 with about 130K on it, heres my problem, during the past week the temp gauge would spike up to the red mark for about 5 seconds and then drop back down again and be fine for the rest of the day. Next morning same thing. So I changed the thermostat, and flushed the radiator and refilled, everythings fine for like two days then this morning it spiked and went down and spiked and went down and.. well you get the idea. Well I pulled over and shut it off for a few minutes and then started it back up, and all was well on the drive back home. BTW I have good heat (before I flushed I didn't have heat at idle) and the coolant level is good. I did notice that when it spiked I could rev the engine and the temp would immediatly drop. Any ideas? Any way to test the temp sending unit? No CELs either.
Thanks |
John Moore (Jmoore)
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 12:08 pm: |
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Sounds like a blocked radiator. Did any sludge come out when you changed the fluid? |
Steve H
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 12:12 pm: |
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Nope, no sludge, but the coolant looked kinda nasty. |
johnb
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 12:18 pm: |
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could be a coolant loss,head gaskets.or you might need to bleed the air out of the system. |
Steve H
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 12:42 pm: |
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I'v looked for bubbles in the coolant and oil contamination and the plugs all look good, so I don't think it's a head gasket problem (plus I'm not losing any coolant). Could air in the system cause this? If so how do you bleed it out? I thought thats was one to the functions of the expansion tank?
Thanks for the responses! |
Milan (Milan)
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 04:41 pm: |
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If it's not the temp sensor then what about a faulty water pump? If you rev it and it drops maybe it's because it's moving coolant at higher revs but not at idle. |
charles pastrano (Charles)
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 05:37 pm: |
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Have your radiator rodded or bite the bullet and new one. |
Randall Smith
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 05:39 pm: |
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Steve
On my RR there is a fill tower for the coolant on the passenger side of the intake plenum. If there is an air pocket in the heads the system will overheat quickly.
However I would be willing to bet 10 to 1 that you need a new radiator. After your radiator has been replaced, be sure to use distilled water, and change the coolant every two years. Otherwise you will be back on this BBS wondering why your head gasket is leaking.
Randall |
Steve H
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 08:18 pm: |
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I thought the water pump was a all or nothing proposition. Isn't it just an impeller driven by the serpentine belt? If so, how can it slowly go bad? How do I bleed the air out of the cooling system? Randall, why use distilled water?
Thanks for the responses. |
Milan (Milan)
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 08:43 pm: |
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I guess I should not have suggested the pump. It is kind off all or nothing by your logic - the rpms are in direct proportion to the rest. So if things spin, it spins. When it's going bad, the bearing will squeak first a little, then lot (I assume based on other engines), but the pump still spins at same rpms as before. I guess what I was trying to get at was, that if you blip the throttle, the pump goes faster and suddenly water circulates - this could mean it was not churning enough coolant through the passages at lower rpms. Why? The aforementioned plugged up system or air in there. But I was kind of hoping it would be that senor. |
Steve H
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 08:52 pm: |
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Milan,
It may be the sensor, I have yet to find how to check it. I would think that there is a simple resistance check for it, but I cant find it anywhere. I'm going to pull the radiator in the morning and have it rodded. May not be the problem but it can't hurt.
Thanks for the responses |
Randall Smith
| | Posted on Friday, February 07, 2003 - 11:42 pm: |
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Impurities in tap water allow all the various metals to trade ions (corrode). The salts created by the corrosion clog up the radiator. And the head gasket, which is sandwiched between two blocks of alum and bathed in 200F water, gets eaten away over the years.
That's what they tried to teach us in chemistry class.
Randall |
Steve H
| | Posted on Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 07:42 pm: |
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Thanks for the explanation Randall. I pulled the radiator and took it to the shop, well after the guy took the tank off he called and said that about 1/3 of the radiator was completly blocked and the other 2/3 was partially blocked. Got it back and all bolted in, now I all I have to do is fill it up in the morning and try it out. Man I hope thats all it was!!! Thanks for the responses, I'll post after I give it a test drive and let you know the results. |
Steve H
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 10:30 pm: |
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Well, after putting the radiator back in, I still have the same problem. I am picking up a block tester tomorrow to check for exhaust gasses in the coolant. If it turns out to be a headgasket, anything special I need to do while changing them out? I'v done a few on old MOPARS but never on an OBD-II type vehicle. Anything special? I'm going to order the service manual before I satrt, is it going to have all the torques and everything in it or is there another more in-depth manual covering rebuilds? |
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