So yesterday as I was driving to work, i noticed that my temp gauge was between halfway point and H. I was going 65 on the freeway with the ac on when this happened after a steady incline for about a mile or two. I let it cool down for a bit and drove off and when i accelerated pass 65 it started to climb a couple notches above the halfway point again. I slowed down to 50 and the temp dropped to normal. Today i started the car and ran the ac for 5 min while parked and the car did not overheat, both fans were working, no leaks that i was aware of, and there was enough coolant. I drove up the same highway again and it started to overheat again near the same spot (after the hill).

What do you guys suggest i do? I was gonna take it to the dealer since im due for an oil change and have them fix the problem but dont want to empty my wallet. I have school next week and if i dont figure this out im screwed!

Any help would be appreciated!

 

bad water pump?

 

hows ur radiator cap? how many miles does ur car have?

 

Is the AC working ok? There have been a few people lately with overheating and poor AC performance, which is usually caused by the AC condensor (in front of the radiator), clogged up with bugs/leaves/dirt.

 

Could also be your thermostat starting to fail. My engine has done that twice in almost 3 years of owning the car but hasn't repeated it in almost 30K miles so I'm not stressing about it.

 

Radiator cap is fine, ac works fine, about 87,000 miles on car. I was also thinking the thermostat. I guess the smart thing would be to replace it first and then go from there. Anyone know how hard of a job it is?

 

Do you have heat in the cabin?

 

How isn the coolant?

It could be time for a coolant flush? Could also be cap or radiator fins are damaged and airflow is being restricted? Could be build-up of gunk inside the radiator as well

 

I had overheating this summer due to a clogged radiator. But mine showed up when idling in hot weather. When driving highway speeds, it went back to normal.

 

cool thanks for the replies guys. You know I just realized that the last time I took my car to the dealer for an oil change, they did say something about needing a coolant flush. Maybe I should take care of this before changing the thermostat? What do you guys think? I also owned the car from 48,000 miles up until now (84,000 miles) and have not flushed the coolant.

 

yes try to flush the coolant first. Take a look and see if its dirty. If the flush doesnt work then it could very well be the thermostat.

 

I just changed my thermostat a few months ago cus I was overheating bad. The swap was easy! Hardest part was keeping the gasket on the new unit while trying to screw it in.

I also bought a spill free funnel from Amazon to make sure no air got in the system after I replaced the coolant.

 

Old Coolant isn't likely to be the cause of overheating, however if the coolant is very old, it could allow corrosion to form, and that could be the cause of overheating.
With the information you provided, my first guess would be a clogged radiator, with the thermostat second.

 

It sounds like your car is having trouble the more you tax the engine, which makes me think thermostat - if your thermostat isn't recognizing your engine heating up, it won't pull coolant from the radiator to cycle it through your engine (and everything else). So the coolant sits in the radiator and looks like it's full, because it's never leaving the radiator to begin with.

That being said, I'm just now learning about how these systems work, so take my opinion for what it's worth. Relatively new to this stuff (taking an after-work auto class to learn).

EDIT: DO NOT DO COOLANT FLUSH FIRST!!! Changing your thermostat means you're getting a defacto coolant flush, it should all drain out. Just saw other replies on that front. I'll try to get under my hood tomorrow night in class and let you know what goes into checking your thermostat. In general though, these cars are a pain in the a** to work on.

 

Thanks for the input, that made a lot of sense and I hope that it is the thermostat. I guess I will find a diy and order the new thermostat.