My car is running hot while idle?
The "squil" could be a belt, or it could be the fan motor. You have either a bad cooling fan motor, or a bad relay for the cooling fan motor. When it begins to heat up, look and see if the fan is running. You can go to a parts store and buy the relay, they will show you where to put it in. If that doesn't fix it, then you need to have the fan motor tested. It could also be a circuoit in the computer gone bad. This happens quite frequently to Chryslers. The reason it heats while at idle but not while moving is, when you are moving, air flows through the radiator. When stopped, the fan has to push the air. If you have AC, all fans should run when the AC is on.
Car running hot while at idle?
The fault is most likely with your fan belt /water pump pulley. when you are at cruising speed the momentum makes the pulley connected to the water pump run well enough to circulate coolant in sufficient volume which does not happen when you are idling the solution for you is to tighten the fan belt connected with the water pump & also check the water pump pulley bearing for any bearing failure. act fast my friend as hi temps for long time is INJURIOUS to your car engine. all the best
Car overheating at standstill but not when driving?
In all cooling systems the temperatures vary according to outside ambient temperatures as well as driving conditions. The circulation within the cooling system is controlled to a great degree by the thermostat opening and closing when its supposed to but what you describe is not an indication of a bad thermostat. If it were, the engine would overheat even while moving because that's what happens when a thermostat doesn't open, the coolant in the engine overheats but can't pass into the radiator to be cooled causing the overheated condition. i suspect your problem is partially related to the temperatures its operating under. Virtually all engines will register a higher temperature when the outside air is that high, but that's normal. Your temperature gauge has an operating range usually shown by a green area on the gauge face versus the red area which indicates an overheated condition. Sitting in a line with your engine idling at Starbuck's on a day when the air temp is above 90 is a recipe for overheating to begin with but as long as the needle doesn't go into the red area its probably okay. First thing I'd check is the fan, on most cars today they're powered electrically and controlled by sensors. They cycle on and off while at low speeds or sitting still but at higher speeds aren't hardly used at all since there's sufficient airflow through the radiator from the forward motion of the car so they're not needed. In cooling systems today 180 degrees isn't necessarily as bad as it might sound. That's because with modern coolants the boiling point of the coolant is well above 212. Part of the function of anti-freeze today is to raise the boiling point of the coolant so an engine can run at a higher temperature to increase its efficiency. You said the fan runs normally but how did you make that determination? Remember they are supposed to cycle on and off depending on engine temperature and load. Sitting in a line, engine idling, A/C on, at 90 degree temps is a heavy load on any cooling system.
My car is overheating at idle speed?
I own a 2000 pontiac sunfire with 121k on the car. The car has been flawless for me up until I noticed something wierd on it today. I was driving around my city today, and I realized that my car was getting alot hotter than usual. Usually it sits perfectly at 195 on the temp gauge in the dash/ It would got very hot at idle, but while I was driving it would go back to normal and not over heat. I check my radiator hose, and there is no coolant leak, but when I got into my engine bay, i did smell coolant. what could be causing this problem?
What would cause my car to overheat while driving but not while idling?
Your Right Foot.Thats the short answer.The longer answer is a clogged raditor fins with too many bugs stuck between the fins.Something, is preventing the heat from the engine from dissipating through the radiator.The rad consumes 10x the volume of the engine intake system to cool the engine down to 205F or 90C.Next simplest fix is to check the level of coolant when cold, and the strength of the glycol water mix.The glycol aids in the reduction of the internal pressure, within the cooling system, and it is possible in closed loop systems to have an ‘air bubble’ inside the upper radiator hose, when a low amount is in the block.The ‘THermostat’ is a special motor, that speins around as the temperture of the fluid increases. If the Thermostat is stuck closed, it never will open up to release the heat through the radiator , as the hot fluid gets sucked from the water pump back into the block.If you have a high level of calcium or minerals in your local tap water, a simple coffee maker test, with vinnegar and water can flush out the accumulated calcium out of the tubes.So, after performing a cleaning, then re-filling with the proper mix of the correct for your vehicle, anti-freeze coolnt, should give you a point of reference to begin with a clean radiator,The replcement of the fluid, is not that expensive, and the flush with an acid flush (vinegar is an acid).It does not involve tearing apart the radiator or the engine to get at a water pump or a thermostat.You have not spoken on how old the whole system is, and the last place you took it for an oil change.the oil-change quick lube people sometimes put the wrong fluid into a car as a top up, then you wind up with jello in the rdiator and the coolant galleys inside the block.Gently drive the vehicle to a trusted independant shop, and let them diagnose what is wrong. Tell them the last time you had the coolant checked for the strength, and make sure you get an estimate before any parts are replaced.
Is it truly bad to let your car run idle with the air conditioning on in the summer?
It was for me!I was on the highway a few weeks ago, literally 5 miles from my exit when the traffic ground to a halt, all 3 lanes stopped. It was about 95 degrees and it took over 3 hours to move those 5 miles, so we had the engine idling, the a/c running, fan on maximum, stereo on. After a long while sitting there, maybe 2 hours after we stopped, the a/c turned off by itself. I noticed the tachometer needle was also acting oddly, fluctuating randomly. So, I decided (stupidly as it happens) to ‘reboot’ and switched the ignition off…Big mistake.Car would not start again - dead. Then I noticed that the handy little volt meter on the multi-way power splitter that the GPS and phones were plugged into was reading 8.0 volts and not the 12 volts it should.Sitting in traffic for a LONG time with the a/c on, fan on full, car running lights on, stereo on, and GPS on, had exceeded the alternator’s capacity. The car was using all the power the alternator could produce at idle, and also it was draining the battery at the same time. The battery had run down to the point where it could not start the car.I pushed the car to the side of the road, and a short while later (thankfully) someone gave us a jump and we were on our way. I had only recently installed the alternator, and the battery was good - I charged the battery when we got home and have not had any problems since.The real problem is that at idle, the alternator does not produce a lot of power.
My car overheats at idle but cool's down while driving... my fan's are coming on... where do i start?
Your radiator needs to be rodded out because its starting to plug up this is very common as soon as the warm weather hits. Very easy to check, all you need to do is after you shut the car off and you make sure your car isn't one of those that the fan kicks on even with the ignition off is reach inside the fan shrourd and feel how hot the radiator is all over. You will be amazed how maybe in the center it's hot but 2 inches away from there it's cold. The radiator should be the same temperature everywhere you touch it. The fact you say when you start driving it cools down tells me this is what your problem is.
Is it bad mechanically to idle your car in the mornings before you drive it?
No, not any more.In the days of carburetors the engine often needed a lot of choke and inevitably people gave it too much so the engine was forced to rev while too much fuel was flowing into it. Excess fuel would cause issues.Today, fuel injection engines meter the fuel much better.While it is true 75–90 percent of wear occurs from cold, this is due to the cold, thick oil not flowing fast enough to carry heat away from pistons and other parts directly in the combustion chain. The hotter the piston and combustion chamber, the more heat needs to be carried away.That heat is directly proportional to the amount of work the engine is doing so pulling hard up a hill with a full load will get everything very hot.At idle, the engine is doing almost no work so the heat build up is gentle and slow, and the thick cold oil is able to manage the heat generated without becoming burned and allowing metal to metal wear.The fastest cold wear occurs when a cold engine is asked to give a high percentage of its maximum power before the oil is warm enough to flow at the engine manufacturers expected rate.It might warm the engine up faster, but that heat is NOT friction, it is coming from the combustion process and because the engine is designed to cool correctly with fully hot oil, the work load needs to be limited until it is hot.The ONLY reason engines get smoky and worn is because oils are forced to flow faster than they are able to before they have thinned down by people using high amounts of throttle before the oil is hot.If you think of all the contributing factors…..engines get hotter under load, take longer to warm when idling etc etc, it all points to combustion heat.NO metal to metal wear occurs unless the oil film breaks down and that only happens when the oil is overheated until it fails.Cold engines still have enough residual oil on the bores to easily manage the couple of revolutions before the oil pump has got things flowing. An engine with NO oil in it which has previously had oil in will start and idle for tens of seconds before any damage occurs simply because the oil left on the internals will keep things moving. Touch the throttle however and the additional heat generated by the combustion process will instantly kill that thin residual oil film and catastrophic damage will occur.
Why does my car overheat only while driving?
The answer lies somewhere in the coolant system. More than likely, your thermostat is stuck. there are a few other things to check.1. Make sure your coolant levels are correct.2. Make sure the system is purged of any air that might be trapped (this would more than likely make the temps appear too cold though).3. Your water pump could be getting worn out and not pumping the coolant fast enough any more.In my experience, the thermostat has always stuck open making my vehicles run too cold, but I suppose it could also get stuck closed or partially open in which case it would cause the engine to get too hot during heavy engine use.Changing the thermostat is relatively easy for most cars and the part itself is very cheap (less than $10). It's worth changing first before paying hundreds to change the water pump.If you do have to change the water pump, it may be a good time to get your timing belt changed along with the timing belt tensioner pulleys and any oil seals that are behind the timing belt since they will have to be taken off to change the pump anyways.