Sorry guys i tried to search but nothing came up!!

ANYWAYS, so my car is infact over heating.

First week i noticed this- K!!! so about a week ago my temp gauge started acting up....it would rise..then when i turn my heater on it would drop. Couple days later my heater would no longer work, so i checked my coolant and barley had anything left so i topped it up. Everything seemed fine for a bit, then a day or two after my temp gauge reach above 'H' and i pulled over and it sounded like my head was boiling a nice pot of soup. I waited a bit and quickly released the rad cap. It steemed for a bit (obviously) and i toped it off with coolant and it ran fine for a day or two. So today on my way to work i ended on heading back home on a flat bed. My temp gauge stayed at above 'H', no warm air....i topped it of with coolant, and i donno where it goes :| its hard for me to tell if theres a leak...and i hope its not my head gasket?

Is your radiator fan working alrigt? what about the radiator itself? Check radiator fan fuse. Is coolant actually getting low that's why you keep adding up? Then you might have a leak somewhere.

thats what i thought hmmmm i'll go check right now...derick come over and help me :'(!!!!!!!!

check for leaks. hoses, Rad and water pump. those are the most likly things to be broke. check those first.

Not tonight and tomorrow coz its my turn to babysit... if you were'nt able to fix that up before saturday morning then I might be able to help you out if they don't call me at work.

You've definately got a leak somewhere.. You should not have to continue refilling it. Also check and make sure your water pump it flipping open that is a huge reason you would have boiling coolant. changing a water pump valve is fun and easy try and check that. When at idle you should hear something click and open your fans will get faster and your idle will drop a wee bit. Check that.

- Matt

haha thank i was just kidding though, its late and cold....its been running for the past 3 minutes now and the fan isn't coming on

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hmmm but can't there be a possibily that the coolant is burning off?? but yeah i'll check harder for leaks

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Isn't the fan supposed to turn on automatically when it heats the proper temp? Check your temp guage again and make sure it doesn't go to H or you might damage your engine. If the fan doesn't turn on check the fuse... That happened to me once... i checked everything and replaced a lot thinking those were the faults and when I checked the fuse its busted. Too late, after spending around 40$ on other parts rather than just 2$ on fuses.

first, you killed the thermostat, that needs to be replaced. Next, there might be a leak or it might be even worse - change your oil - see if there is any coolant in there, it would look like coffee pouring out. If so, headgasket.

Lets hope you didnt blow your head gasket but yeah definately thermostat is gone... and no your coolant wont burn off unless it escapes its closed system. if you see steam that means your coolant escaped to a hot componant and is venting its steam..

- Matt

you should replace your radiator, or thier a little cap under the raditor its on the left bottom side of the radiator mayb its lose.

Is the radiator leaking..... Go to your local autoparts store and buy a leak detector. It will be a can of something to put in the radiator and a light pen. Have you ever seen the CSI shows where they shine the purple light and see all the semens and the hidden bloods..... thats exactly what this is. Its a uv visible liquid and a UV light pen put it in and run the car and see your leaks. Check the thermostat if you dont hear a click at idle and rpms dont drop your therm housing didnt open.

- Matt

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hmmm you my friend might be right, but my rad was replaced a couple of monthes ago but it looks kinda wet around where the drain plug for the rad might be i'll check!!!!


***Update*** noticed when i came back from toyota that they didn't put the rad cap on properly.....so i put it on and let it idle since the time i started this topic.....cars temp stayed at level for the first five minutes and then rose slightly higher....fan has not come on since so i need to check that big fuse.... i switched the car off cause the temp rose up higher

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sorry for the double post but i was posting right after you put that, hmmmm that sounds wicked i wanna give that a try but my partssource is closed!!! do you know how much those go for??

About 20-45$ depending. Its pretty sweet. It works wonders. Even if the plug was loose or the cap was not on properly, that isnt your main problem. By the way... Rinse your engine and radiator off before you do the UV stuff so you dont see stuff with the light that might be old. When I did mine I saw blood from the times I racked my knuckles on stuff haha. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

- Matt

Another way to test the radiator fan - unplug the temp switch / sensor on the bottom of the radiator (for GT, GT-S, and GT4 cars). This will cause the fan to kick on instantly, as long as its got power and relays are working. You can do this test with the car on, but not running - so no worries about overheating while troubleshooting.

>>Shanon?
You need to take a step back here, there's a lot of confusion in this thread.

If you want to sort out what is wrong, do this, it's the most practical way to find out what is wrong. You start with the easy, common stuff and work your way up. It might save you a whole bunch of trouble and some money. >>

First off, try what Scot said. If the fan doesn't turn on, the fan motor is bad or you have a problem in the circuit that supplies power to the fan. Make sure the key is in the on position.

If the fan runs, plug the switch [sensor] back in. The next thing you need to do is top off your coolant and put the cap back on.
Remove the overflow cap and point it in a safe direction, you don't want to get hot coolant shot at you.
Then, run the car. Keep an eye on the temp gauge; the fans should kick on once it reaches [or just before, factory gauges aren't super accurate] a bit past half way.

See if the fans come on, if not, you have a problem in the fan control circuit [controls when the fan turns on and off; switch, relay, wiring, ect].

If the fans do come on, let it run. See where the coolant is leaking from.
Most likely it will spit out of the coolant overflow. This is the pressure release for the system, instead of blowing a huge hole in something it vents into the overflow tank, and if enough coolant is in there, overflows the tank and you lose the coolant.
If this is the case, you either have a bad [clogged] radiator or thermostat [or possibly another problem].
If it leaks out of somewhere else, get that leak fixed [the leak itself could be what is causing the overheating, if you lose too much coolant to a leak it will overheat regardless how well the rest of the system is working].




I'm sorry man, there's no easy way to say this.
I'm really not trying to be an ass, but if you want to post and help people you need to learn quite a bit first, this isn't even CLOSE to accurate....

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Your thermostat doesn't make ANY noise when it opens, and doesn't effect engine speed at all.
The water pump is always moving coolant [it doesn't "flip" open], that's what the coolant bypass lines are for, they bypass the radiator.
There is no water pump valve, though I'm guessing you're referring to the thermostat.


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And overheating does nothing to a thermostat [a bad one can cause overheating, but overheating isn't going to make it go bad]
If you see steam it means your coolant is leaking, it will "steam" whether it vents onto the exhaust manifold or if it vents out the radiator overflow.

Hey Shanon, were you able to get your car fixed? What was the problem?

well i removed the old thermostat and tested it....it was faulty...so i bought a new one replaced it, ran it and its not over heating but had it running for 30 minutes and the fan hasn't come on :| so i'm gonna take it to a shop and check and see.....theres no fuse for the fans....i tried to look, only relays and they cost 40$ :|

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thats for the tip man, i unplugged the sensor and the fans did come on instantly!!!

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hhhhmmmm thermostat sounds kinda something like something I said... interesting. I might not know everything but I'm not an idiot.

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Congratulations, you got the right answer with a totally incorrect method.
What do you think would have happened if she used your way and it wasn't the therm?
And what about next time, when it's not the therm?
There's going to be a lot of wasted money on thermostats....

And for the record I neither said nor insinuated that you were an idiot, so please don't put words in my mouth.

Not knowing something doesn't make you an idiot. No one knows everything, and there's always more to learn.
Instead of getting worked up because I pointed out that you gave the incorrect advice, learn from it.
I've been wrong before, and had it pointed out. Instead of being mad, I took the time to understand WHY I was wrong, and didn't make that mistake again.

Shanon, glad to see you got it solved.

This post has been edited by alltracman78: Mar 1, 2008 - 1:13 PM

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Meh, $9 aint bad though.

thermostats here, with empyolee discount go for 30$ with gasket.....problems not solved though...after plugin back the sensor and topping off the coolant, engine temp stayed at level, heater worked, but no sign of fan turning on (car ran for a good 30 minutes).....at least i can see its something electrical but there's no shops i know open at this time for me to take my car in....

This post has been edited by Theshanon: Mar 1, 2008 - 5:20 PM

If the fan runs with the fan switch disconnected but won't run with it connected the switch is bad.

Did you run it long enough for the temp gauge to get a good bit past the middle?

it enever got past the middle, i took it out for a drive last night and emptied quarter tank, the temp. stat didn't move....mind you that its very cold in canada right now (well its kinda getting to the plus numbers) i'm thinking to disconnect the temp. sensor so this was i have the fans running constantly?

btw thanks so much for your help so far and being there to check the up dates hahaah and thanks to everyone else who took there time! but still gotta deal with the fan issue.

If it's real cold the fan won't necessarily come on.
The lower portion of the rad needs to get a certain temp for the switch to turn off [turning off turns the fan on].

Unplugging the switch was to confirm the fan motor and power circuit were working correctly. If you had unplugged it and the fan hadn't ran, that would indicate a problem in the power side of the circuit.
Leaving it unplugged will cause the fan to run constantly.
More wear on the fan and longer for your engine to heat up to operating temp.
Good for an emergency fix, but not long term IMO.

If you're staying in the middle and you're not loosing coolant you're probably ok.
But keep an eye on the temp and the fans until you can confirm the switch is working fine.



And you're welcome

With the temps below 40F in Michigan, I dont think my radiator fans are coming on either - especially while driving. The cold air is enough to keep the water temperature in the radiator low. You would need to block air flow to the radiator (put some cardboard in front of it), or maybe let the car idle at higher rpm for a long time in order to get the radiator temp high enough to trigger the fans.

To test the switch according to the service manual, you would do the following:
Drain the radiator, unscrew the sensor, heat up some water (simmering), partially submerge the sensor while checking continuity with a multi-meter. But considering the same sensor was used on nearly every Toyota car in the 90's, it would be easier to just get another one from the junk yard.

Or, just dont worry about the fans until spring!

this is still weird man, my gauge hits the red H zone like i'm hitting red line with my rpms....as soon as it hits red zone it stays there for 3-4 seconds and quickly jumps back to normal temp =S

still does that even after you replaced the therm??
mine did the same thing, but it WAS leaking coolant from a freeze plug.

Are you still losing coolant?

i loose coolant but i don't see it going anywhere? i leave my car running for like 30-45 minutes in my garage and i see nothing :| but i'm not loosing much now. freeze plug?? what happen?