Hello,
My parents just traveled 400 miles today and their car engine was trying to run hot after 3 hours of traveling in about 85 degree F weather. They had a lot of stop and go traffic. The car's temperature gauge normally stays in the center but was running near the overheat section of the gauge. Some coolant even overflowed past the recovery tank pressure cap. The radiator is cooled by 2 fans which still could not bring the temperature down for the gauge to move to center. My dad said he noticed the temperature starting rising after he had to gun the engine to merge into traffic on the interstate. Was this a coincidence or did this cause the problem? Did this loosen something in radiator and causing the thermostat to stick?
The water pump was replaced within the last year or so and the radiator was removed and cleaned out ~5 years ago. At idle one radiator hose (outlet of water pump) has a lot of pressure on it and gets hot for a few minutes. The other return hose to pump is not hot initially and no pressure. I think the thermostat is working because both hoses get hot but not as hot as the pump outlet hose. The recovery reservoir filled up fairly quickly.
Any ideas why this engine is running hotter than normal in ~80F weather conditions? Any other items that we can check? The coolant level is okay.
thanks,
Jim
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