Did the car overheat?
Here's the story, I got stuck in traffic behind an accident today. I sat in the car for awhile waiting and decided to put it in park, a few min. later coolant level displayed on the dash. I pulled over til the accident was cleared and restarted the car (I live about a mile from the spot), the coolant level displayed again but stopped when i put it in drive. I got home and turned off the car and the display showed coolant again. My question is this, what happened and did I do any damage?
thanks
Jim
Did the car overheat?
Ralph Mendoza Jr. - Long Beach, CA
no, it got about a 32nd past the 1/2 mark when I shut it down. My biggest question is "what happened?" and will it happen again.
Jim
well open the hood and look!! is the coolant level reasonable? is coolant sprayed onto anything? If the car didn't overheat then you didn't do any harm, but the check control display won't tell you anything important. The coolant level sensor is also a POS and randomly gets stuck and lies to you about the coolant level. about once a week it tells me i'm low, so i look and the coolant will be full past the max line... make sure yours isn't just frtizing out/
it's low and I saw some coolant around the plug next to the overflow tank. I'm gonna just fill it tommorrow and see what happens.
See if you can track the leak down some more. Idle the car in the driveway and see if it drips down to the floor. I'm not familar with the m20 so i can't really help you specifically, but if by plug you mean the cap, bleed screws, or coolant level sensor, then take it off and tighten it back on. Your expansion tank is connected to the radiator correct? The seam between the two can leak, pay attention to that as well. Hopfully your hoses are just shot after 16~ years and need to be replaced.
The plastic tanks can also crack in random places...
True.Originally Posted by Dan in NZ
The strange part is that it's a new radiator, the leak I saw was on the top left hand side (facing forward) next to the expansion tank. It looks like a brass plug, if it continues to leak I guess I could try putting a crush washer in?
does it have wires comming off it? its probably the aux water temp sensor to activatve the aux fan except for the coolant that will pour out, putting a crush washer in there might be a good idea. just don't over tighten it or your liable to crack the radiator.