Cooling system is jacked up

[snwbrder169]

Hey guys, this is my first post on here and i really need your help.

I was driving home the other night and got stuck in traffic, after sitting for a little while i began to watch the temperature in the engine begin to increase. i pulled over and cooled her off (luckily it was 19 degrees outside). after that i had to get back home so i started her up and she was running cold for a bit so i kept my eye on the temp gauge the hole time. Now this is where is get screwy. When i am actually driving i have heat and the engine temp stays under the halfway mark as it normally did, however when i am sitting i lose my heat and the car begins to over heat. i have flushed the cooling system and changed the thermostat. i did a boiling water test with the old one and it opened as it was supposed to so i now know it wasnt bad. good thing its cheap. the top rad hose is warm after the engine is running but the bottom hose remains cold, so i know nothing is flowing correctly through there. i am so lost with what else to do. is it possible air is in there? i have been trying to burp the system but how do you know for sure if there is still air in there, i even jacked up the front end to help. thanks for your help in advance.

[bobbyjimmy]

Are your thermo fans working/getting power?

[snwbrder169]

Yea everything is working correctly as far as i can see. the fans cycle properly.

[snwbrder169]

so after reading forum after forum i finally fixed the problem. it was air in the system. i may have a small leak but for now my main focus was solving the over heating issue. if you want to try and fix this in the future here is what i did.

1. Fill the radiator when the engine is cold. Then place the cap back on.

2. Check the reserve tank and make sure it is at least half way full. leave the cap off and turn on the car. watch the reserve tank to see if fluid level drops. fill as needed. finally after it begins to rise or no longer drops in level place cap back on and let your car run while watching the temp gauge. ... i know too easy but it fixed my problem.

[wrxyo]

i had the same problem and the rubber gasket on my rad cap was broken and letting air in the system idk if u looked closely but it had me stumpped for a while before i noticed it good luck on finding your leak man

[JudgeWrx]

Thanks for the valuable information, thank you, thank you. The guy above described the exact symptoms I experienced last night on the way home with the overheating and the interior heater coming and going, etc. This afternoon, I checked and saw the coolant overflow bottle was almost empty. This must have led to the radiator sucking air in from the overflow at some point. I simply topped off the coolant in the radiator and overflow bottle, started the engine with the overflow cap open, and watched lots of bubbles coming up in the bottle once it started to warm up. I let this go on for about 15 minutes, after which I had to go on a short errand. Overheating no more! Thanks again.

[snwbrder169]

glad it worked judge fyi check your rad cap as well, i ended up replacing mine. it is too funny that some of the dumbest stuff cause such big problems.