Strange Over heating of a vehicle

the vuthe vu
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
It all started about two weeks ago when my heater stopped producing genuine heat, even after the car engine had heated up. So yesterday I turned on my car 5 minutes before leaving for work and turned on the heater hoping to give it enough time to warm the frigid inside. It didnt work and it still blew cold air.



On my way to work, for the first time since I got the car, the car's temperature reading started to climb past 1/2 way -quickly. I was in heavy traffic and inched my way off the freeway. To my surprise the temperature decreased when I got off the freeway. But as I took side streets to work the temperature reading continuously rose and fell. (played games with my emotions) I got to work OK and filled the anti-freeze when i got off work, but it acted up again that afternoon.



There didnt seem to be much reason to what made the temp fall or rise. (accelerating, braking, uphill, downhill.....slight increase when idle)



I did have the heater on, but im not sure if that had an effect considering it was blowing cold air.



side note: i was driving in 40-50 degree weather. ....i hope its just the thermometer





HELP!!!!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    the vuthe vu Posts: 3member
    btw: im referring to the engine temp reading after the first paragraph.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Water pump. Almost certainly your pump died, and there's no heat exchange to the heater, nor to the radiator, which is why it's overheating.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    dentondenton Posts: 725member
    Take your car to a licenced mechanic. The water pump sounds like a good diagnosis, but a good mechanic will get under your hood and tell you exactly what's up. If you don't have a regular mechanic that you trust, talk to some people that you work with and ask them if they use a mechanic with a good reputation. Cheapest is not always best! In fact, where your car is concerned, you normally get what you pay for. Make sure that they are licenced! This information should be hanging proudly on their wall. If they are not licenced, then they are not trained to handle your car, and while they might be good, they're probably just hacks who tinkered with their chevy in high school; and you don't want just anyone fiddling around with your car. Good luck!
  • Reply 4 of 8
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post


    Water pump. Almost certainly your pump died, and there's no heat exchange to the heater, nor to the radiator, which is why it's overheating.



    Were you the guy who told the "gwanjeep" story?
  • Reply 5 of 8
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,180member
    What kind of car ?
  • Reply 6 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    Were you the guy who told the "gwanjeep" story?



    Geez, that's a blast from the past, but yeah. Separate incident though. Water pump went a couple years ago in a NC summer. Went from cold to red zone in less than three minutes.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post


    Geez, that's a blast from the past, but yeah. Separate incident though. Water pump went a couple years ago in a NC summer. Went from cold to red zone in less than three minutes.



    Come Jan 2007, I will have been at AI in one form or another for 7 years. That's a long damn time.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    the vuthe vu Posts: 3member
    thanks for the input so far.... the car is a lexus sc400 '92
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