Driving home from looking at this car and noticed the temp gauge was past the red and smoke was pouring out of the deck lid vents so I pulled over and checked it out and it looks like all my coolant spewed out of the reservoir cap. After it cooled down I filled the system up with water and started it up, it ran fine and the fan was on and it wasn't leaking anywhere. So I went to taco bell and got a #6 then I was driving home when it happened again and all my coolant/water was in a pool under the front and when i popped the hood it was spewing out the reservoir cap again.. so the next 10 miles took me about an hour and a lot of waiting, as long as i made sure it didn't get too hot it didn't come out of the cap. The water pump was replaced about 1000 miles ago and it has run fine until now. The inside of the radiator looks shiny like new so i don't think its gunk clogging it, but the coolant in the front was warm while in the back it was just steam pouring out of the fill cap when i loosened it. It might be something really obvious but I have no idea. What could it be? If theres any more helpful info i could add let me know
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08:29 PM
PFF
System Bot
86soon3.4 Member
Posts: 1537 From: Sobieski,WI,USA Registered: Dec 2005
Its a 4 cylinder. We ran it without the thermostat and it did the same thing, when we looked at it after it happened the second time it was open. The proper fill procedure was followed
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08:50 PM
katatak Member
Posts: 7136 From: Omaha, NE USA Registered: Apr 2008
Yeah thats exactly what my dad said. If someone came in the middle of the night and crushed them then that would make sense but ill double check tomorrow haha. What else could cause a lack of circulation? Why would it all spray out the reservoir cap anyway?
Yes, See cave, rad cap in cooling section. Wrong/dead cap will cause problems. See heater and other articles too.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
If it had the wrong cap installed wouldn't it of been doing this before now? It was about 84 out yesterday, the hottest its been driven in yet. The air deflector is still in place, Im going to try a new thermostat and radiator cap tonight. Is the reservoir cap supposed to be vented? I'm not sure why it all sprayed out of that? Would it just be from the pressure or what?
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03:03 PM
sd_iconoclast Member
Posts: 258 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Jun 2003
All three of my V6 fieros have had a similar cooling problem. Some nice guy on this forum gave me the answer years ago, but I guess this lore has been lost. Here are the symptoms: You start up your fiero. It runs fine. It will idle all day long without overheating. You can take it for a leisurely drive to the store and it shows no cooling problems. The first time you stomp on the gas, the temperature takes off! Within just a few minutes, the temperature gauge is soaring and coolant is spewing everywhere. You pull over to the side of the road, let the car cool down, refill the coolant and you can drive it home just as long as you take it easy on the throttle. Here is the problem: The stock water pumps had plastic impellers. When they get old, they lose their ability to grip the shaft of the water pump. As long as you do not rev the engine to much, it grips the shaft and works properly. The first time you rev the engine, the impeller loses its grip on the shaft and starts spinning, thus drastically reducing coolant flow. The impeller does not regain its grip until you let the car cool down. If this sounds like your problem, pull your water and see if it has a plastic impeller. If so, that is your problem.
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03:30 PM
sd_iconoclast Member
Posts: 258 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Jun 2003
I guess I should have read your post more closely, as I see that you have a 4 cylinder, and that you already replaced the water pump (hopefully with a metal impeller type). I think your symptoms sound like a blown head gasket. Is there some kind of brownish powdery stuff building up in the overflow tank? That is the sign of combustion gasses in the coolant system. A shop can also run a test to detect these gasses. Also, I have had very good luck fixing blown head gaskets by just retorquing the head.
Yeah I'm pretty sure it was the metal impeller type. I thought I could of blown the head gasket when it overheated but the oil isn't milky and no really thick exhaust. The overflow tank is nice and clean so that should rule that out. Could my alternator belt just be slipping on the water pump pulley? The belt started squealing again and my belt got stretched out somehow, hmm. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, its all very helpful
Blowing head gasket or broken head bolt, early years of 4 cyl is famous for breaking weak bolts, will not alway trash the oil. check compression. Maybe 2 and/or 3 cyl is low....
Yeah I just put on a new radiator cap, thermostat, and thermostat cap, and new belt. When I started it tho the alt was screeching like none other no matter how loose or tight the belt.. so I'm guessing the bearings in it are shot? The noise was accompanied by a lot of smoke from the belt. Oh man one thing after another haha
Well I purchased a new alternator, bolted it up, topped off the oil that I lost removing the oil filter, cranked up the headlights by hand (didn't fix that yet) and started it up. I get about a mile down the road and my throttle cable broke (gas pedal went limp, popped it in neutral and it just idled), so I had to abandon my car at the church down the road and take a nice jog home. So once I figure out how to retrieve it, fix the cable, then I will be able to find out if it still overheats
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11:25 PM
May 24th, 2011
2.5 Member
Posts: 43235 From: Southern MN Registered: May 2007
Haha I might just have to try the #5 next time. Well I must of bumped the cable while I was messing with the alternator, the eye hole on the end of the wire was off the other thing so I pull tied it back on and drove it home, took it down the road for a few miles and no overheating at all, crazy to think an air bubble could do that but who knows maybe the new caps fixed it
