Tired of my car and I just got it... (long)

jmuva44

jmuva44

Founding Member
Nov 25, 2000
1,338
0
36
Richmond, VA
#1
When I got this car, it ran great. It already had a 180 tstat in it but I did not know so I decided to remove the tstat and replace it with what happened to be another 180 tstat. Ever since then I've had problems.

Last night I did the following:

Installed new 180 tstat with one 1/8" hole drilled into it (made sure the hole was not covered)
Installed new ECT sensor
Installed new temp guage switch
Installed new water pump (old one was leaking out of the weap hole)
Filled with 70% water
Added a bottle of water wetter
lightly flushed out the radiator

Now when I run it to burp the system:

The upper hose gets warm (thermostat opens)
The heat inside the car gets nice and hot
There are no leaks

I have run it about 5 times. Each time a little bit of air bubbles to the top of the radiator but not much. The temp guage stays steady on the "O" to the "R". This isnt horrible but my '95 stayed on the low side of the "O" and so did this car when I first bought it so I feel that it is running too hot right now.

The fan never seems to come on unless you turn on the defroster or the A/C but I'm not sure if its getting quite hot enuf for it to turn on. When you turn on the defroster or A/C, the temp guage doesnt really improve much. This makes me think that its not an issue of getting air over the radiator but actually something with the coolant flow itself.

As soon as I take it out on the street, the needle moves up some more and fairly quickly.

What am I doing wrong? I dont want to hear that its the temp guage cuz I dont believe that as an excuse. I may not put my life on the fact that any stock guage is completely accurate but I do know that they are accurate enough to at least show a trend in the temperature of the engine.

Any thoughts? :bang:

Thanks!
Chris
 

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#2
There does not sound like anything is wrong with the car. The stock gauges are crap. They are more like idiot lights. My car always ran with the needle on the R to the M when in traffic, which turns out to be around 210 on my Autometer gauge now. I would not worry about it as long as the needle stays in the normal range. A good aftermarket gauge is always a super good idea though.
 
#3
Thanks for your response. I would tend to agree with you. The guages may not be accurate but I do think that they are consistent. A temp guage is not an incredibly complex piece of equipment so I am unwilling at this point to believe it is that. I dont believe that 100% of automakers would include this if it was not functional to some degree. Although it is not accurate, the information that it does provide should be consistent. And right now, it is not consistent with what it was reading. It may not mean that its running hot, but it does mean that it is running hotter. To what degree, I cant tell. I'd need a more accurate guage. But hotter to me is too hot and I need to get this resolved.

Other points I'd like to mention:

The radiator cap is new (type with red pressure lever)
Hoses are in great shape.

Anyone else?
 
#5
are you checking the overflow bottle??? when the system wants water, it takes it from there...let it cool down and check the level..top it off it needed, road test it again...i had a mother of a time getting mine burped...

when its cool...check the level in the radiator..if it appears low...crack the intake sensor...fill the radiator til it leaks out the sensor hole...she should be full...fill the o/flow bottle midway...go for a ride...maybe it'll help??
 
#7
I know it sux but it shouldnt be N - O 24/7 and then R - M 24/7 after you mess with the cooling system.

But yeah, its getting up to the M and the fan does not turn on. Not that that matters cuz the temp doesnt decrease any while cruising or with the defroster on.

RIO 5.0....What intake sensor are you referring to? The ECT sensor?
 
#9
The upper hose is getting completely hot. Its not hard persay. I can squeeze it while its hot and running and get the coolant to overflow from the top of the radiator. I've also tried blaming the thermostat but I've tried putting the stock tstat back in (it worked fine when I bought the car two weeks ago) and even bought a new one. I've tried different combinations of the two to make sure that it wasnt the tstat and to make sure that I was getting it in there aligned properly. The tstat that is in there now opened up fine when I put it in a pot of almost boiling water.
 
#10
With the radiator open, I wouldn't expect it to be hard. But with the cap on it should be pressurized. Sounds to me like maybe the best thing is to get someone to hook up a meter for you to see what the temperature actually is. Maybe your gauge sender decided to get funky. :shrug:

For what it's worth, I wouldn't really expect turning the A/C on to cause the temperature to drop much, if at all -- it puts the engine under an additional load and will usually cause it to run hotter if anything, even with the fan running full blast. I have my fan settings tweaked so I can't tell ya when the fan *should* come on relative to the stock gauge. (mine comes on when I hit the N... :D).

Dave
 
#11
jmuva44 said:
I know it sux but it shouldnt be N - O 24/7 and then R - M 24/7 after you mess with the cooling system.

But yeah, its getting up to the M and the fan does not turn on. Not that that matters cuz the temp doesnt decrease any while cruising or with the defroster on.

RIO 5.0....What intake sensor are you referring to? The ECT sensor?
Click to expand...

Yup...the one kinda behind the dizzy in the upper....
 
#12
I dont expect the A/C being on to make the car cooler in general. But the fan doesnt seem to be coming on unless I turn it on. I would expect for the car to cool slightly when the AC is first turned on. On my '95 I had an ECT problem. Before I realized that it was the ECT, I found that the fan was not turning one when it should....similar to my current situation. When the car began to overheat at a light or whatnot, I could turn on the A/C for a second or two (long enuf to get the fan to turn on) and the car would cool down. Then I replaced the ECT and the car forever ran cool. Almost too cool. It would stay at the N, sometimes the O.
 
#13
Its probably just the weather of something. Just this week my car is doing the same thing and I havent touched the cooling system. The whole way to the track it was straight up whereas last week, the needle was on the N.
 
#14
RIO5.0...The dizzy? Are you trying to confuse me?? :)

Numbles...I dont see how it is the weather. Its been cold here and not all that humid. I'm thinking its air trapped in there somewhere. Still not sure why the fan isnt coming on unless the air is trapped right behind the thermostat so the ECT sensor isnt getting a proper reading.
 
#20
The "M" is just past the middle and the fan still does not kick on. I'm having a hard time accepting the idea that the "M" is normal. In the past four years of having a '94-'95 its never gotten that high. And when I first got this one it wasnt that high. Thanks for the reassurance tho. :)
 
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