It all started last week. The serpentine belt cut through my lower radiator hose. After replacing the hose, I put a gallon of coolant and what seemed like about two gallons of water into the radiator. Since then my temp has been all over the place and I keep losing coolant. Two days later, I added coolant. Then I didn’t drive it over the weekend and on Monday it wouldn’t start when I got home from work (I suspect it was heat soak), however it started later that evening and has started every time since. I added coolant and let the car run with the cap off. Some coolant came out and I added a lot more. The next day the temps were up and down again. So I bought a flex fan. I couldn’t get the flex fan installed, because of interference issues with the fan shroud. The next day was the same thing, temps all over the place. I drove home without the A/C and the temperatures were stable, but when I turned on the A/C, it got hot in a few minutes. When I got home, I installed the flex fan and beat up on the car a little for testing purposes. It mostly stayed cool, but went up a little bit at one point. I also found that the oil was a quart low, as I seem to have a valve cover gasket leak. I added the necessary quart of oil. Today it is all over the place again. So I picked up a thermostat and more coolant. I don’t see any coolant coming from the heads. When I got back from lunch, the temp gauge read about 210 or so, but when I opened the hood and touched the cap it was warm, not hot. So I flipped the lever on the radiator cap and nothing vented. I then removed the cap and the fluid looked about a half gallon low in the radiator.
When I say “all over the place”, I mean the temp starts off pretty stable at around 195 and then when accelerating, the temp will sometimes go up to about 210 and then slowly drop down as I maintain cruising speed. Sometimes it will start to climb while sitting at a traffic light. Sometimes it will go down at a traffic light. It will usually go up when the A/C is on. Usually it will level off or go down very slowly at cruising speeds.
I plan on replacing the thermostat with a 180 degree unit, not before I drill a small hole, so that it can burp itself.
Any thoughts, suggestions or help would be appreciated.
When I say “all over the place”, I mean the temp starts off pretty stable at around 195 and then when accelerating, the temp will sometimes go up to about 210 and then slowly drop down as I maintain cruising speed. Sometimes it will start to climb while sitting at a traffic light. Sometimes it will go down at a traffic light. It will usually go up when the A/C is on. Usually it will level off or go down very slowly at cruising speeds.
I plan on replacing the thermostat with a 180 degree unit, not before I drill a small hole, so that it can burp itself.
Any thoughts, suggestions or help would be appreciated.
