Thread: Engine Overheating While Idle

I own a 2002 Grand Prix SE and when my car is parked, the temperature gauge goes up to 260 and 210 when I stop at red lights. Then the minute I drive it goes down until I stop at a red light or when I park. I have checked the fans while parked and they are both on (not sure if they should both be on or one. I heard only one should be on while parked), changed the radiator tubes because they were soft, flushed out the radiator and put all new 50/50 in it. My low coolant light is still on and prior to the flush there would be gooks of rust by the radiator cap. After the flush it still appears but not as severely as before I flushed it. I'm at a complete loss and I think it's the radiator. Also, after the flush the car was good and did not overheat but it constantly said low coolant. I'd say up until the end of Sept. the car started hitting 210 (parked and at red lights) and now it's hitting 260 (parked) starting like a week or 2 ago. I'm not sure if this matters or not but my a/c compressor doesn't work either, it doesn't click on at all. The piece looks like a plate on the outside of the a/c compressor and sounds like it's scrapping sometimes. Could that play a role in the car overheating? I'm just lost.

This is what was always gooked up by the radiator cap before flushing the radiator:
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Originally Posted by dsmuts

ac compressor doesn't matter. Have you swapped thermostats yet? Made sure all the air is out of the system? Could have a head gasket going out. Looks like someone put a bunch of bars leak or something in there. I'd flush it a few more times.

I've bled the system of air. I flushed it to where clear water would come out. I haven't swapped thermostats but I don't know if the previous owner has or not. I see a lot of people with the 3100 having this problem and no one knows what it could be.

Originally Posted by Swigglet

What did you do to flush it, just use a hose? If you cascade powder and mix it with water, use enough cascade to make the water cloudy. Add the whole gallon to the radiator, bring the car up to temp with out the tstat in and let it run for a minute. Drain the radiator while its still hotish, let cool down a bit or use hot water and flush with straight water a few times until the water comes out pretty clear.

I used some radiator flush from autozone. The liquid came out looking drinkable, lol.

My guess is the radiator fans aren't kicking on...