posted 01-30-2014 12:30 PM                  

I got a thermostat and I'm gonna take it down the street to a shop and have them put that on for me (too dirty of a job to do at the house I live in)

I'll let y'all know if that is the problem.

Here's a weird thing...when I did the "burping" or "bleeding" of the coolant system...my engine light came on and hasn't went off since.

That sucks. lol

I'm hoping it's just the thermostat. As I said earlier...I can drive the thing. Hell, I can crank it and let it sit and idle and it doesn't overheat.

I'll drive it about 5 or 6 minutes and it will creep up to the 3/4 mark. That's when I shut it down so I don't overheat all the way.

Kinda weird.

I'm diagnosing that it's NOT the waterpump...else wise there wouldn't have been anything coming out when I opened that valve to "bleed" the cooling system.

So it's got to be the thermostat or the radiator.

posted 01-31-2014 12:16 AM                  

A lot of frustration later, it was finally fixed and has been perfect ever since.

The steps I took were as follows. I replaced the thermostat (didn't fix it). I had a dealer look at the car which led to a replacement of the antifreeze, burped the system, etc. (didn't work). The dealer also performed a forward flush (didn't fix it). Then the dealer removed the radiator. When out of the car (I watched it being removed) the Prowler trained mechanic and I could clearly see that the inside of the radiator had a bunch of crap in it. I decided to replace the radiator. The cost was about $800.00 for the original equipment part. Checked the hoses while the radiator was out. At that time the assumption was that old antifreeze and possibly the use of the wrong antifreeze prior to my ownership led to the clogged radiator and the problem would be fixed. Wrong!!

By that time I recall having spent about $1,300 farting around with the "expert" dealer and it still overheated. Have not been back to them since.

Told my buddy Vince about the problems and he suggested a highly regarded, local auto repair shop take a look. They double checked everything and looked at the water pump (it was fine). They performed a back flush of the system. I learned that special equipment is required for a true back flush of the system. Most shops don't invest in it. They had the equipment.

You would not believe the crap that came out of the engine. I was there to see it. It had casting sand, some kind of slime, what looked like some metal shavings, and who knows what else, in it. They did the procedure at least twice. Then they removed the reachable engine plugs and blew out some more crap. Did that a few times. Ultimately, it was determined that the block had crap in it from the factory and somehow had gotten plugged up and that was the reason the engine would get so hot. After all that was done (and the cost was very reasonable for all the work they did) they put the car back together and it has been perfect ever since. I've driven many miles since. Long trips with the A/C blasting) and many shorter trips. Absolutely no more problems.

Sooo, long story here.....my problem was in the block itself. They solved it by performing a true reverse (or back) flush and removed the reachable plugs to flush out block.

Hope my process and experience helps you to sort out your overheating.

Jim

RobbieB -

I forgot to mention that early into this process of elimination, i made sure the fan worked, checked the cap and hoses, all the easy stuff.

My guess is that the block is clogged. Somewhere along the process I was told I would have to remove the engine, tear it, down, etc. It wasn't necessary. Get the system reverse flushed. Thinking back at my experience, I could not believe what I was seeing come out of the engine block.

Jim

posted 02-01-2014 02:39 PM                  

I still don't have my car back.

They put it back together on Friday and they noticed that it has a hairline fracture in the oil pan.

I told them to at least check and see if the thing is still over heating.

Yep, it is.

And NOPE, they can do that kind of complete backflush that Jim described.

Ordered in a new radiator (crossing my fingers) and a new oil pan.

It'll be sometime next week when those parts arrive and they can continue progress.

Looks like this whole thing is gonna still end up costing me a couple of grand.

I suppose this sort of thing should be expected. It is a 12 year old car. I only have 40 something thousand miles on it, but I guess just age itself would have something to do with it.

It's weird...because to me it still feels like it's my "new" car. lol
When I bought it in Nov. of 2002 it was shipped to my local Chrysler dealer from another dealership.

And it was brought in on the weekend when they weren't open for business.

So me, my wife, and kids rode down to the dealership...and they had pulled it into the showroom. So we all stood outside looking in through the big glass window at it and "ooohing and aaahhhing" over it on a Sunday afternoon. LOL

Then I got there bright and early on Monday morning and picked it up and immediately went for a drive in the mountains.

It was cold so I had the top up...and I didn't know how to get those infernal seats to adjust correctly.

I thought I would always have my head stuck up into the top and have to crouch down to see a red light. LOL

posted 03-18-2014 05:56 PM                  

And yes, the final cause of the overheating was indeed the passageways in the engine block being clogged with "debris".

My radiator was shot too by the way. And they also found a crack in my oil pan which I had replaced.

posted 03-18-2014 07:29 PM                  

I came in around 3 grand for all of that plus the oil pan, an evap leak, the heads being machined and new head gaskets/bolts, the ports being cleaned out etc.

posted 03-18-2014 07:48 PM                  

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