Ran hot today, then not?

[haggarSHO]

Drove home from work (15 miles - 90% interstate) to my apartment, parked the car, ran inside for 5 minutes, got back into my car, drove to a walmart ~5 miles away.

Noticed on the way to Walmart that I was running hot. - Water temp gauge showed 210 degrees F. Temp gauge on dash was on the top part of 'o' on 'normal'. It has never run this hot since I got the car.

The hottest it got was 215ish water temp, and touched the 'n' on 'normal'. That was after I let it cool off a bit at Walmart, then drove it ~5-6 miles to my buddies house. (High temperature today was about 90 degrees)

While at the house I cranked it and let it run idle, it sat at the 'o' and water was at about 200 degrees F, better, but still warmer than I'd like.

Car sat for a few hours while I watched the Draft.

Drove it home, ~8 miles, hottest it got on the drive home was to the 'o' and to about 200 degrees. So I kept driving, essentially circling my apartment complex to see if it would get hot again.

It did the opposite, I did a 3/4 2nd gear pull to see if it would get hot. It didnt, in fact it cooled off, to the normal 180 degree water, and between the 'r' and 'm' on 'normal'. (This is what it's been running at since I got the car) I ran it hard 3-4 times, it did not get hotter. (Temperature tonight was about 82 degrees)

So, what the heck?

 

[SHOtimer]

It stayed in the 'normal' area, it's fine.

Did your fans turn on? Did you have your AC on?

Their are so many different factors that contribute to the temp of the motor at any given time, it isn't gonna run exactly the same all the time.

Doug

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

thermostat may be on the way out.

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

might be air in the system too, and until you mash it, not flowing enough coolant against the thermostat to open it all the way.

 

[Bob Gervais]

+1 for radiator fans, and/or thermostat.

Start it and let it idle with the climate control in the off position. The radiator fans should kick on at some point. If they don't, it's time to start troubleshooting.

 

[93rev2sev]

Both my 93s would act that way when I was a little low on coolant. I think the water pump is cavitating because of air in the system and not pumping efficiently. The high-RPM runup you did got the coolant moving.

 

[jelloslug]

Mine was doing that and it got progressively worse and worse to the point were any stop an go traffic would make it over heat. My cooling fan motor had a bad bearing and it was only running at about half speed. I replaced the motor and it's fine now.

 

[haggarSHO]

It stayed in the 'normal' area, it's fine.

Did your fans turn on? Did you have your AC on?

Their are so many different factors that contribute to the temp of the motor at any given time, it isn't gonna run exactly the same all the time.

Doug

Fans worked fine, AC was off.

When I was driving to my buddies house, when it got the hottest, every time I'd come to a stop it'd settle back down to the 'o'. Every time I'd go from a stop and start driving, it'd warm up to the 'n'. That is the hottest it'd get.

might be air in the system too, and until you mash it, not flowing enough coolant against the thermostat to open it all the way.

I'm thinking this. When I drive normal I drive it pretty easy.

But once I was in a position that if it did overheat, I was less than 30 seconds from home, I was able to get on it real good, and once I did, it ran at a very comfortable temperature.

It'll give me an excuse to make sure I give her a good spanking every now and then.

 

[haggarSHO]

might be air in the system too, and until you mash it, not flowing enough coolant against the thermostat to open it all the way.

Ran perfect on the 20 minute, 15 mile commute to work this morning.
I think I'm good to go.

Sorry for the alarm, thanks for the responses gentlemen!

 

[shobote]

Have the system pressure checked as well as the radiator cap. It could be a bad radiator cap, as when the seal goes bad, the pressure in the radiator and cooling system is reduced, lowering the boiling point of the coolant, causing the coolant temp to rise.

 

[SHOmethewayhome]

when you hammered on it, it probably moved the air past the radiator and hopefully somehow burped it into the reservoir.

look for leaks, check the cap as recommended. my SHO used to do that when I replaced the radiator because i was a jack ass and in a hurry.

 

[Bob Gervais]

It'll give me an excuse to make sure I give her a good spanking every now and then.

The car has cooling system issues. "Spanking" on it won't solve that.

 

[haggarSHO]

The car has cooling system issues. "Spanking" on it won't solve that.

The system will be pressure checked this weekend so hopefully in a day or two I'll know if it's a leak or the cap.

 

[Toolman]

The fans are not even set to come on until 216F, and turn off at 192, so you are good.

 

[haggarSHO]

The fans are not even set to come on until 216F, and turn off at 192, so you are good.

Interesting.

I was concerned because yesterday was the first time it ran that warm.
Water temp had always sat at around a consistent 190F.

From using the search button I read that the normal temp range for these cars are 195-220F - Is that true? If so I wont worry about much, as the fan does kick on and it never got hotter than 220. It was just concerning considering how consistent the temperature had been.

 

[rubydist]

one other possibility: when my ccrm was starting to go out, on occasion the low speed fan would not kick on. this resulted in the occasional time when the temp gauge would read up to the upper part of the range rather than the lower part of the range where it was most of the time. it turned out that by the upper part of the range the high speed fan would kick on, and that relay in the ccrm was fine. once I deduced that the ccrm was suspect and changed it, the temp stays in the lower part of the range.