Thread: HELP! Overheats at idle

So i get home friday and i noticed the car was really hot, around 230 degrees...i was low on coolant, so i filled it. Then we started it and nothing, so i replaced the t-stat, which was broken btw. So now the car runs ok but when it idles it starts to heat up rapidly. As soon as i start driving it cools down rapidly...im confused. Also that same day i noticed i cant put the shifter into d or anything. Its stuck in park so i have to push down the shift lock...also, it doesnt show on my gauge cluster that im in d or p or anything else. (ya know the little red dot that shows up, ya its not there..) any ideas??

The first thing I would check is if the radiator fans are running. If they aren’t, turn on your AC that will force one on. If the temp goes down, there is your problem.

I dont think they are and thanks ill try that

check to see if you have air in your system that was my problem

Sounds like you are probably losing coolant somewhere. If you never replaced the LIM gaskets, I would consider doing that.

But the coolant that you are losing (if has to be going somewhere if it was low) got low enough to make the car heat up. When you added fluid, did you add it to the radiator? You should be adding it directly to the radiator, not the overflow tank. The overflow tank is just to catch the overflow. Remove the radiator cap and make sure the radiator is full to the very top.

After everything is full, make sure you have the system bled properly. Any air in the system can cause it to overheat.

Also, if you have not replaced the radiator cap recently, make sure you do that as well, as a bad cap can cause these issues.

We correctly bled the system, but today I found out a ground wire was messed up :/ easy fix tho now she runs normal!

So was that causing the fans not to run?

Ya the wire was the one controling the fans

Sweet, I totally called that one These GP fans are sneaky

Ya haha I'm happy