Thread: Car gets too hot while in traffic

Now that the summer months are here and it's up near 100* here in Dallas, my car is starting to have issues with running too hot.

I have about a 45 minute drive from work to home. The car runs at a normal temp (the 180*-ish tick on the gauge) all the way until I get about a mile from my destination and get stopped up in traffic. Once I'm in it for about 5 minutes or so, the needle on the temp gauge goes up to the 210* mark on the gauge and you can tell the computer clicks over into safe mode or something... starts to idle down, the ac clicks off, will barely accelerate at all once you start trying to drive again, feels like the trans keeps shifting all around... All until I get rolling again and the temp drops below 210* and it drives like normal again until I have to stop again.

The car has had a 160* thermostat in it for probably 10 years now, mostly water with the coolant and 2 bottles of Water Wetter. It's never had a problem until recently.

Also I have a DHP reprogrammed computer I bought from the grandprixstore a couple years ago. I was wondering if the tune wasn't set up for the 160* thermostat if it would cause the car not to cool properly?

my car hit 220 according to my aeroforce before the fans kicked in and pulled it down to 195.

Now its basically stuck between 180 and 190 due to stricter fan settings.

Originally Posted by Lawngoose

Check your fluid levels ...and change your thermostat first. To me, that is the cheapest thing to do. Mine rises like that in this hot weather too. But the highest I have seen so far is like 205*. I checked the fluids, and burped the coolant system (screw ontop of thermostat housing).. so far so good.

I topped off the fluid levels a couple weeks ago, but didn't bleed the system out. Didn't know it was needed on these cars.

I do have a new 180* thermostat I'm going to install this weekend and flush the coolant system out.

Anyone got a link to how to bleed the air out of the system?

Originally Posted by Jakegday

do your cooling fans come on at all? if the pcm was not set up "properly" it would be set up to correspond with a 195 degree thermostat. even then it should never get up to 210. check the coolant, and check and make sure the fans are coming on. also, your aftermarket thermostat is 10 years old, theres a good chance it could be failing

I never pull over on the shoulder to check the fans coming on, but I know once I get to wherever I'm going and turn the car off, the fans are still on for a few minutes after I turn the car off, so I'd assume they're blowing while the car is running.

I did drive around yesterday until I got into traffic and the temp gauge started creeping up, so I clicked off the a/c and rolled the windows down and the temp came back down to a normal level, though I was sweating my ass off...LOL

Originally Posted by Lawngoose

Just fill it up, let it run to operating temp... then unscrew it (I think its a 7mm) just enough to let some fluid/air come out of it then tighten .

If you want to be anal about it.. do it a few times.

Sounds easy enough. My old 96 Cobra used to be a ***** about getting air in the cooling system and overheating and it had to be filled and bled out a certain way to get all the air bubbles out. Guess it's the same with this, though it's only been a problem recently.

Also, the inside of the overflow tank looks like it's got a bunch of dirt or sand coated on the inside of it. Maybe a cooling system flush is in order...

Originally Posted by Bio248

FYI, 210* is not even close to being too hot for a car. at 210* for the coolant i bet you are running more efficiently than at 195*.

Once the temp on the gauge reads < 210* then the car switched into what I was told "safe mode" so it won't overheat and tear something up by trying to keep driving it too hard until it cools off.

Makes it difficult to drive while it's in safe mode but once i'm driving again and air is moving through the radiator it starts to cool back down and clicks back out of safe mode and drives with full power again.

Originally Posted by Bio248

i have no clue what youre talking about and ive seen the ECU file..are we talking tranny temp? cause coolant gets to 210* all the time.

You have no clue about what part?

Originally Posted by TorqueAutoMotiv

seriously coolent is safe up til around 230-50 due to boilout basically depends what your antifreeze water mix is

Last time I filled the system, I used one gallon of antifreeze, two bottles of Water Wetter, then topped the rest off with water. I've only ever added water to the system when it needed it.

The coolant might be safe up to 250* but the car starts to shut down once the needle on the water temp gauge goes much higher than the 210* mark. So either the water temp gauge reads a lot lower than the actual water temp, or the computer has it programmed to cut power above 210*

Originally Posted by Viperkill97

really sound like your fans are going bad.

Checked the fans yesterday, both fans are on at idle and after shutting the car off. I can only assume they are both on while I'm driving too.

Originally Posted by TorqueAutoMotiv

could also be a clog in the rad or bent fins but doesnt sound that bad

Thinking a clogged radiator might be the culprit. Really need to do a flush out of the system and get my new thermostat installed.

Originally Posted by Pepino

I'd replace thermostat and flush/clean/flush/etc. I had a similar prob, but not near as hot. Drained dex out, flushed 2 times, ran a cleaner, flushed 2 more times and filled with prestone. Now my car never even gets to 195ish anymore, stays around 180 or below no matter what I do.

That's the plan soon as I get time hopefully next week. Til then I'll just cut the a/c off when sitting so it doesn't run too hot.

My car (2000GTP) got one tick away from the red zone on the gauge sittinf through MCdonalds one day, the car ran no different than normal, but the gauge did go down as soon as I got out and back on the road, all it turned out to be was low on coolant. You computer must be programmed to do somthing when it get to that temo your saying, and really hot for a car engine is 230 and above, as long as you don't loose coolant, and have good antifreeze, all should be ok.
Either your low on coolant and there is air in the system, or maybe there is a problem with you sensor.
The thing about being low on coolant is that when the temp gauge go's up, it's reading the open air space around the sensor and not the actual water temp witch may be still just perfectly normal temp.
Have you checked for any coolant leaks?

DEan

Originally Posted by QUICKSILVER462

My car (2000GTP) got one tick away from the red zone on the gauge sittinf through MCdonalds one day, the car ran no different than normal, but the gauge did go down as soon as I got out and back on the road, all it turned out to be was low on coolant. You computer must be programmed to do somthing when it get to that temo your saying, and really hot for a car engine is 230 and above, as long as you don't loose coolant, and have good antifreeze, all should be ok.
Either your low on coolant and there is air in the system, or maybe there is a problem with you sensor.
The thing about being low on coolant is that when the temp gauge go's up, it's reading the open air space around the sensor and not the actual water temp witch may be still just perfectly normal temp.
Have you checked for any coolant leaks?

DEan

Not sure about the programming. That's just what I was told over on clubgp when asking about it having issues running last year while it was hot outside.

And there's no leaks under the car or in the engine compartment that I can see. Unless it's leaking internally somehow, but the oil is still clean.