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Cooling System issues please help


hlindersmith1

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I will do my best to list the issues in order and try and make this flow well it is a rather odd situation.

 

Im new here i am not someone to usually post as the search function usually can get me what I need. my situation i am in is very odd and nothing i search for seems to come back with any help so here we go:

 

Bought the car a week ago and it had absolutely no problems drove great heat worked temp gauge stayed slightly before the middle.

 

1) Last night 12/29/17 i noticed while parked the heat seemed to be not as hot as normal it was warm. i shrugged it off because it was such a short drive, less than a mile, i assumed it had not warmed up.

 

2) Today 12/30/17 i go to get lunch car warms up everything works as it should. I pull back into my apartment complex and notice that the heat has gone away. The cars temperature is still normal no boiling no steam nothing that would indicate that it is overheating.

  • i drove it around the parking lot real quick to see if it would come back after checking for boiling and such.
    • this is when the gauge went from normal to slightly past halfway back to normal then i shut the car off and coasted to a parking spot

 

3) I let the car cool down thinking maybe there is an air bubble i will bleed the system out from what i gathered online i did the following.

  • temp gauge was completely cool
  • no pressure in system removed coolant tank cap, turned car on let it idle and revved the car up to around 3000 for a few seconds let it idle then repeat.
  • once it was warm (at this point i have my OBD2 reader plugged in) 186 degrees i went and looked again and the coolant was up to the very top it obviously expanded as coolant does.
  • i put the cap on it let it sit turned off, then started it back up and the car sucked the full tank down to below the cold mark about half an inch to an inch somewhere between that.
  • drove the car around the parking lot watching the temperature with my reader. the car at this point had moderate luke warm heat at idle and when i was driving it would blow very very hot. (at idle it would hold 190-207)
  • then i noticed that the heat started dissipating and the temperature went from moving around between 190-207 to 217 then to 225 then 235 where i instantly turned it off and coasted it into my parking spot. (this is all being done in a parking lot when it got to 235 the cars temp gauge did not move and there was no boiling and no steam smoke or anything)
  • let it cool down again then got back in it and at idle it would get up to 217 and if you gave it some revs at idle it would bring the temperature back down to around 186-190 and the heat would come back. as the temperature would creep back up in the 200s the heat would slowly dissipate to cold air.

The car is not smoking, is not leaking i can leave it overnight and there is nothing on the ground, no coolant in the oil and vice versa, not blowing coolant out the overflow, and the cooling fans seem to be working properly.

 

 

4) being slightly confused by all this after it cooled down again i drove it around the parking lot at around 117 degrees starting drove it around it creeped up around 230 again and i shut it off and coasted instantly (temperature gauge still has never moved) when i parked it i started feeling the hoses. the upper hose is warm not hot my any means, the radiator is cool, and the lower hose is cold.

 

5) what im left with is either a water pump is weak or the thermostat is getting stuck between open and close.

 

 

to recap

 

  • no smoke
  • no leaks (that i visually can see)
  • have tried to bleed but may have done incorrectly but believe i was correct
  • lower hose is cold top hose is warm
  • coolant tank appears to be functioning properly
  • heat fluctuates
  • THE CARS TEMP GAUGE ONLY MOVED SLIGHTLY ONCE.
    • It during one round through the parking lot went slightly past halfway and then went right back to halfway before i quickly shut it off ( this was the first time i was driving around has not happened sense)

 

 

Is this a bad thermostat, or is it a water pump thats all i can think that it could be i will not drive the car till i can fix it so i need to get this done so please help!!

 

 

Motor: 2.3

Transmission: manual

Year: 2006

Model: base fusion

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Sounds like air in the system. Those have a bleeder next to valve cover drivers side back of the engine. Basically loosen up bleeder screw. Its a black plug at end of a tube. Has a straight slot in it. Loosen. And fill coolant until you see no air. Then start it up and loosen again until a steady stream of coolant and no air. Thats the first thing I would try. Thermostats on the 2.3 is common but Ive only seen them cause a check engine light and a low temp gage. They stick open.

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i opened the bleeder screw. nothing came out i tried adding coolant while the car is off nothing came out. squeezed the upper hose and the bleeder squirted out nice green coolant no air. adding coolant just added more to the bottle it didnt suck any down or cough any up. i just out of curiousity drove it around my parking lot. it never lost heat and temp stayed constant 199 degrees. i felt comfortable to put it on the road 12 miles no issues no loss of heat stayed a perfect 207 the whole drive got it up to 50+ went through every gear coasting etc. strangest thing ive ever dealt with.

 

From factory are they failsafe thermostats, or is it just not common for them to fail closed?

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i noticed there is a belt squeak in the first start. Could the belt be slipping and causing it to skip a beat on the water pump. I say this because something i forgot about was that in the morning of the 30th that the steering was alot harder than normal as if the pump wasnt pumping properly but as the car was warmer the chirp went away and it was fine.

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Its probably needs a belt and maybe tensioner for the noise cold. However, I highly doubt its slipping so bad the water pump isnt turning.

 

As it sits now do you have heat at idle? Also, with your scan tool you should be able to watch the temperature as it warms up and you can tell when the thermostat opens. The temp will get to something like 175-185 the thermostat will open, the temp will drop then start coming back up. You can do that just idling. It will take some time but a good indicator if the thermostat is opening or stuck open.

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ok so i let it idle with the coolant cap off and the bleeder screw open for an hour until it was at 196 degrees. lots of small bubbles came out of the bleeder screw, the screw on the small tube next to the head on the drivers side. after a while it stopped burping out the hose but a steady stream didn't ever come out but there is plenty of coolant on the ground to show it was doing its job and i of course had to top off the coolant after.

 

after doing that i put both caps back on and i continued to idle and it never lost heat, drove it now for 12 miles of stop go/parking lot/interstate the car never got past 207 and stayed around 199. came back parked it got out looked everything over with it running i pulled in at 207 heat stayed on while i was looking around and when i got back in to shut it down the temp was at 190 even.

 

ambient temp outside is 14 degrees so i assume everything should be cooling off much faster.

 

Either my whole situation with loosing heat was a fluke or there is something else behind this. i had to maybe in total add half a cup of water to the tank before i drove off.

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just drove another bit and once again no issues bottle is slightly over cold line after driving. the real question is how did the air get in there.

 

 

something i forgot to add was that a few days prior to this when i would turn the car on i could hear a rush off coolant going through the dash and i have no longer heard that since i started working on the car.

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Air is from low coolant thats the noise you heard running through heater core. A couple things. Either it was worked on before you bought it or you have a small leak. What I recommend is when its dead cold. Fill the bottle and put a sharpie line. Then check it a few mornings before driving it and see if the level moves. If it drops over time then coolant is going somewhere. If not then dont worry about it.

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What I recommend is when its dead cold. Fill the bottle and put a sharpie line. Then check it a few mornings before driving it and see if the level moves. If it drops over time then coolant is going somewhere. If not then don't worry about it.

Concur that air in the system was what started this problem.

 

The tip on checking the coolant level is EXCELLENT !

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