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Little history on the car.( this might help? who knows) The car is a 02 Oldsmobile Intrege auto 3.5. I got it from a friend of mine who owns a salvage yard. The original problem with the car was that the trans cooling lines went bad and trans fluid got in the radiator. So he sold it to me for 500 plus 100 for the new radiator. ( which he figured out was the problem.,and he also fixed the cooling lines, he was a ASE master mechanic for 20 some years so I trust that he did everything right.) So he got the car running and cooling just fine. Drove it for about a year before the next overheating issue. The next problem ended up that I needed to replace most of the cooling hoses. ( covered in some kind of goo and some where just old and crappy) that worked for a month or so. Then it started over heating aging. At this point I had some money and didn’t have time. Took it to a mechanic and he said it was the thermostat. So he replaced that then the worked for a while. But it sat for a while and did not get driven for a while because I got a new car. I am now trying to get it running so I can give it to my sister. I have done a crap ton of work on this car and it run great! But I am still having a issue with it overheating. I have flushed it a few times. I have made sure there is not air in the system and that as far as I can tell all of the key cooling parts are working well. The really weird part about it is that it only over heats after its been driven around 15 miles ( give or take a few). It does this every time around the same mile length. For the first 4 or 5 it is just a hair under the middle line nothing major. Then for the next five its its right on the middle then once it closes in on 15 miles it slowly over heats. Sometime’s it will go to the third line then drop back down to the middle line ( when it does this it will do it a few times) then it starts to near the fourth and final mark. ( I do always shut it down then for fear of giving it a head gasket issue.) I do not think that it has a head gasket issue. There is no smoke from the tail pipe and so far I have not had to replace the water when I drive it. It stays at pretty much the same level. Also another note. this car does have the expansion tank. So it does not have the regular radiator cap, it only has the one on the over flow. The only thing I can think of that I have not tried is getting a new cap for the over flow. I know this can solve some over heats but as far as I can see its keeping pressure pretty well. Two more odd facts that I don’t understand. One That sometimes hours even into the next morning after driving it. The system will still have pressure. As in when I take the cap off it trys to ” blow”. Two that after the car has been running whether for a long drive or just short time the cooling fans stay on after I turn off the car. They do go off after a while.
As just another side note. I have watched all of Eric’s videos! And this is how I check most things. Also I don’t think that the thermostat could be bad because it has less than 50 miles on it. I have thought about the idea that the mechanic could have not replaced it but I think the car would overheat much faster. I have also taken the hose off to make sure that there is flow. Also I have checked to see if the heather core is clogged and its not. I have done a ton of work and research, I am now hopping that someone here will have some idea of what to do next?
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I would also be checking for coolant circulation.
You can easily do a block test if you suspect a head gasket issue also.
It does come out a little dirty. I have flushed it a few times so I figured that was just how it was. I do think that some of it comes from having a dirty over flow tank. The tank is the only thing that I have not changed. I was going to buy a new one but I was told that as long as water flows threw it not to worry about it. Also the sensor on it still works so I figure it can’t be to bad. Am I wrong?
Given that you had ATF in the antifreeze for who knows how long and had to replace coolant hoses as a result I think it’s very possible that there is a restriction somewhere in the system. Petrolium products eat away at the rubber hoses in the cooling system because they have a similar chemical make up so when the 2 are exposed to one another it breaks down the rubber. That said by the sound of it you have a flow issue in the system, where the restriction is is anybodyies guess but I would start with the radiator since it has the smallest orifices that can trap debris like that. I’ve seen this before and there are times where no amount of flushing will do any good so if you know you don’t have air in the system and you know the water pump is working as it should then it’s likely to be a restriction somewhere.
Is there a good way to go about finding this? Like a product I should put in there to better clean it? Or do I just start taking things apart? For the water pump I have checked for leaks and the orange dust but it has nether of them. Is there anything else I should look for to see if the pump isn’t doing its job right?
The only think you could do to be sure is to replace all the rubber parts, I would just inspect the hoses for weak spots and replace the ones that you find problems with. As for finding the source of a restriction you might be able to use an inferred thermometer to find any abnormalities in the heat exchange but that might prove difficult due to the fans and the condenser being in the way, I would focus my search however on the radiator and the heater core because they have the smallest passages that can trap debris, as for the water pump that would be the last thing to check because in order to definitively diagnose it you would need to remove it from the engine and inspect it.
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