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reason why my car runs a little warm whwn idling.

G

Gohan77

New member
My concern is when my car is running and driving it stays at a normal temp below the half way hash mark on the gauge but when idling for a few minutes it slowly creeps up and hovers a few hashes below the red zone. Is something wrong with my cooling fans?
 


Well if its really low flow through the rad, then yes soon it will plug up all together and you might overheat and lead to bigger problems.


And air in the system isnt really good either as it too can cause the temps to rise quickly.

I would try bleeding the cooling system first aswell as making sure the coolant is full.
 
at idle your not getting airflow into the engine causing the heat to be trapped underhood, IMO sitting in traffic makes your heat spike cuz it cant escape as fastly as it can when the car is going 50+ and is pushing cooler air into the engine bay lowering overall temps . just my .2 but id start with what they have said
 
It still shouldn't go to 240 just from idling a little. Even on a 90° day it should be around 205 ish, and idling for a little while should bring it to 212 where the fans come on, and it should go back down a little. That's on a system properly maintained, coolant no older than a few years, flushed when last changed(filled completely), properly bled, a properly operating t-stat, and no things blocking air flow in front of the radiator.
 


This seems to be my issue also. I have never heard the fans run, but i've only had the car a week. I am going to start messing with the fans in the morning and see if I can find a problem.

I put a brand new 180* thermostat in it when I did the LMI gaskets. The temp stays under the half way mark as well. When sitting it has creeped up but I have never let it get it to 210* I made sure to bleed the air out of the system but I will check it the next time I drive it.

I hope it isn't a head gasket. I am not going to tear this thing apart again. I'll pay someone to do it I guess.
 
its what these cars do, run warm moving, heat up when they sit in traffic.

your fans dont turn on till 212 deg's. and thats over the 1/2 way mark on a GP. closer to the 3/4 mark.
 
Alright. Seems kinda weird but not totally uncommon. I have a duramax and it fluctuates but differently. When you drive, the temp goes up because of EGT's. When you stop it goes back down. Unless it's above 70* outside it stays at 205*.


I guess before I get crazy and start diving into it more I will see if I can get it warm enough for the fans to come on.
 
if its a few lines from the red your ok, most seem to get that hot, its not really that hot, the gauge sucks.


my regal runs at 1 line over the 1/4 mark moving. stopped it will hit the 1/2 way mark, no further. my fans wont turn on till its at the 1/2 way mark for a while. so i also see a 1/4 of temp swing.

that 180 t stat is not doing much for ya, not even keeping it cooler. it just opens sooner and the engine will still climb in temp till the fans come on to cool it off because they are tuned for a 195 t stat. not a 180. to make that t stat work you need your fans tuned to turn on at a lower temp.

gm sets most of their engines to run at 210 deg's too. the GP is no exception to this.
 
I gotcha. I tested the fans this morning by turning on the a/c and the fans kicked on. So, I let the car idle and warm up till the fans kicked on and they did. So I guess I'm chasing a problem that doesn't exist. Thanks for the help. It still seems weird though lol. My Denali gets to around 200* and stays there. I have EFI live, can I tune my car with it? Is there a tuner out there that uses EFI Live?
 


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