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Overheating Grand Prix

M

mhartwig

New member
I have a 2002 se 3100.

Here is the story. I was driving and got a low coolant light. Made it to where I could park and was going to get some coolant but didnt even get that far. The car started chugging and the temp gauge peaked. I pulled off and shut it off. Looked and found the upper hose was cut.

Drove to the 24hr autozone and replaced the upper hose and put in some more dexcool. Thought that would fix my problem but it overheated again down the road. Had to have it towed home.

So far I have replaced the upper hose, the lower hose, the bypass hose, the reservior hose, the thermostat, and the water pump. I can drive around the block about 4 or 5 times before it overheats. Once it gets to about half, the gauge just constantly rises from there.

I just bought the coolant temp sensor and two new fan relays but havent tried those yet. Any ideas as to what else it could be?
 
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mhartwig said:
I have a 2002 se 3100.

Here is the story. I was driving and got a low coolant light. Made it to where I could park and was going to get some coolant but didnt even get that far. The car started chugging and the temp gauge peaked. I pulled off and shut it off. Looked and found the upper hose was cut.

Drove to the 24hr autozone and replaced the upper hose and put in some more dexcool. Thought that would fix my problem but it overheated again down the road. Had to have it towed home.

So far I have replaced the upper hose, the lower hose, the bypass hose, the reservior hose, and the water pump. I can drive around the block about 4 or 5 times before it overheats. Once it gets to about half, the gauge just constantly rises from there.

I just bought the coolant temp sensor and two new fan relays but havent tried those yet. Any ideas as to what else it could be?[/QUOTE




Did you check to see if the Thermostat is opening properly if not one of your radiator hoses will get extremly hard normally the top one. If it does get hard and the lower one stays soft your Thermostat is bad.
Click to expand...
 
Oh yeah, forgot to add I swapped out the thermostat as well. Does dex sludge mean bad lim or head gasket cuz I have some in the reservoir tank. But it has been that way for a while.
 


Your car will continue to overheat because the water/coolant is'nt moving due to the Thermostat not opening to allow the water/coolant to flow through the cooling system.
 
Did you bleed the cooling system? Also a bad head gasket will over pressurize the cooling system and can blow a hose.
 
Try again did the t stat you put in have a bleed hole in it? if not take it out and put a small hole in it to let air flow so coolant can reach the tstat.
 
Alright couple of questions.

1) Think I found the problem. This is in the little cavity under the bypass hose. Does it mean a bad LIM gasket?

photoqsf.jpg


2) Im following D-tips to do the lim? I took out the three bolts holding in the power sterring pump and removed the fuel pressure cap. It states it should pull up and out now but I dont see how it does do I need to remove other things to get the power steering pump out?

3) While cleaning things I found some rubber material in pieces below the pully that is just below the tensioner. It is really oily and in a bunch of pieces. What the heck is this? I know kinda looks like a turd. Here is what it looks like:

rubbermat.jpg


This stuff is right below this pulley indicated by the red arrow:

pulley.jpg
 


Well I just did the lim gasket and it was in pretty bad shape. Still have to put most of the parts back together. I replaced it with the felpro aluminum version. While I had access I put in the coolant temp sensor. Only time will tell if it works.
 
Well, I was able to get it done. I started with zero car fixing experience a few years ago and now Im doing my lims. I ran into one snag. I got the plenum back on and all the parts back together, and my car puked fuel. Apparently when disconnecting one of the fuel lines, I broke the o-ring. Had to pull the plenum back off and fix that. After that it wouldnt start until I pressed the screader valve on the fuel pressure test port.

Now it works fine, but still didnt fix my overheating issue.
 


man that's annoying, I would suggest pressure checking the cooling system. if the system holds pressure you can look for other causes, but if you lose pressure, especially if you lose pressure very slowly, it may be an indication of a leak, possibly an internal leak, maybe even a cracked block (I hope not though!) I think you can rent the kit to do a pressure test at autozone , etc or you can check with Harbor freight. they usually have that kind of stuff
 
Doing the gaskets on a 3100 is an accomplishment. At this point we know you can swear like the best of them and WTF!!!! was your most used saying.

Likely you are having a head gasket issue. These motors are known for heads/gaskets being an issue. Especially if it's been overheated.
 
Well after another thermostat and a new radiator, I decided to take it into the shop as i'm completely stumped. The upper hose and the radiator is cold while the lower hose, and water pump area are warmed up.

There is no way I would have 2 bad t-stats. So I had it towed to a shop to figure out. Some people were saying I might not have a bad head gasket but maybe a block in the head somewhere.

Well, we'll see how it goes and how much the repair bill is going to cost.
 
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