I was driving with my friend earlier tonight and i hit a pretty decent size dip leaving his house. my car bounced on stock suspension (its a 2006 G35X). A little bit later i notice my radiator being louder than normal.

I looked to my oil temp thermostat and it was hitting H!!!!! I was worried so i pulled over and checked out the radiator. It was leaking into my splash guard so i figured it was a leak somewhere. I drove it home about 2 miles away. My brother came and helped me out since he knows his stuff. We pinpointed the problem to maybe a lose hose that was sucking in hot air causing the thermostat to read the air instead of the coolant.

i topped it off with water and started the car for about ten minutes. the thermostat ran at a normal temp and did not rise. i revved the engine at a constant rpm for a bit and again it did not rise. i clamped the hose we thought was lose with a zip tie and i am waiting for tomorrow to drive it and see if it gets back to normal.

Could there be any other issues? Keep in mind i didnt see it leaking from anywhere else.

 

I would at least attach the loose hose the way it was OEM or better instead of using a zip tie. Watch your temp gauge like a hawk though if there is more to the problem you can cause serious damage running your car down the highway without coolant flowing through the engine.

 

It happened again today actually. I figured it was either air in my cooling system or my thermostat is stuck opened.

Ive been looking and found a Stant thermostat with housing, think I should pick this up and swap it in to see if it fixes this problem? I figured I should flush the coolant system and refill it again, but should burping it be a better idea?

 

I would take it to a mechanic and find out 100% what the cause is before I spent any money on parts. you could save yourself alot of time and money and the headache of doing unnecessary work.

 

^^ what he said!! You don't want to mess around with a cooling system fault unless you know what you are doing.. an overheated engine can result in big $$$$ repairs..

 

thanks for the advice guys! but i went ahead and bout a new thermostat and more coolant. i have two friends who are certified mechanics helping me on this so with that proper help i think i should be ok.

we pulled the old thermostat out - looked like poop considering its 86000+ miles. and put the new one in, Stant brand. As oem as I can get. and im waiting on the radiator bleeder tool from my friend tomorrow so we can flush the radiator and burp the coolant. hopefully it settles the overheating.

 

i finished installation of the new thermostat and i did a bleed session on the radiator to get the air out of my system. i used the lisle funnel which made a mess but seemed to do its job.

after one burping session i took the car for a drive. i didnt expect this to clear all the air out of my system all at. i wanted to see if, at temp, would my new thermostat work or bust. it did work and kept my car's temp at normal. fans kicked in when they needed too and shut off when they did their job.

so that was culprit number one, although its too early to tell with only driving it once. now the air in the system. i know i should have done this multiple times. but so far the heater core heats up the heat to its max when im at highway speeds and cools off when im on the inroads, as expected.

i know i should bleed it a few more times but my friend is going to take it to his work at Ford and bleed it for me on friday. so hopefully by then she will be back to normal.

 

Good stuff I'm glad it wasn't a super expensive fix for you.

 

I lied. Engine still overheating. Saw a little but of oil ob the manifold, didnt look like the milky stuff associated with a leaking/blown head gasket (how I pray its not this). Having my friend take it to a local shop I trust tomorrow morning to get it diagnosed. Hopefully its the water pump that went.

This thing is giving me so much hassle

 

If it overheated in the short distance you had to drive it you could have caused so many more problems that you'll never see. Overheating with modern plastic/rubber composite gaskets can be catastrophic,dont care what any mechanic/manufacturer tells you.

 

whelps took it to my mechanic. had him look at the head gasket and water pumps. he told me it could be just air in my coolant system - which i knew could be still there.

he left me a vm saying they took care of it and he drove it around saying it hasnt over heated. i told him to keep my car as his personal until tuesday when ill pick it up and lmk if any other problems arise. so i will see then.

 

Hoping for the best for you man!

 

I don't quite understand why you have found it so hard to bleed the system.. I replaced the coolant in mine a few weeks back, just opened the bleed screw toward the back of the engine, refilled until coolant came out of the bleed screw, tightened it down, topped off the radiator, and it has been fine, no leaks, no overheating.

 

well it wouldnt have been a problem if it wasnt also my thermostat that hit the pooper. replaced that and then had to rebleed the system because i have opened the cooling circuit. but my mechanic said that he took care of it - and now it doesnt overheat. will see on tues when i pick it up.

 

got her back and it seemed like it wasnt the water pump or leaky head gasket. he said it stopped overheating but again i have no heat unless when driven.

i believe now i need to rebleed the system. i see people post on leaving the bleeder screw off, leaving rad cover off and on in some case. revving to 3k rpms holding steady for 10 seconds or so and repeat.

i have the lisle funnel which bleed straight from the radiator so i think i will do this again. i have only did it once before i took it to the shop. air's probably still in the damn system. im going to see if she will overheat this week. 90+ here in MA.