Good evening, so like clock work on the coldest day of the year negative 15f tonight, the Buicks heat stopped working. The upper rad hose is rock hard and hot when I have no heat, and coolant is spilling out the holding tank. Sometimes after 30-40 mins you can kinda hear water sound in the dash and then heat starts, when I have heat the upper rad hose is then soft. The heat is more of a warm then hot. I had to go 30 mins with frost on the inside of the windshield this morning.. Lol. car never over heats as of yet, but I got to fix this. Looking on line, seems I have to remove the TB to gain access to the t-stat housing. :-( jeeze. A 8$ part hrs of labor. Sound like a bad tstat? I replaced the water pump about 35k miles ago, and changed the coolant twice. Thanks all.
Oh no! Stuck t-stat??
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Not a stuck stat. With the stat stuck you will still have hot water flowing through the heater. Infact really hot water, hotter than normal.
Sounds like the water pump impeller came off.
Sounds like the water pump impeller came off.
Coolant out the overflow doesn't sound like a stat either stuck open or stuck closed. Something else may very well be the problem.
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
I thought of that to but he said it hasn't overheated yet. So I ruled that out. My guess is bad radiator cap not holding pressure and releasing it to the overflow tank.
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
I thought of that to but he said it hasn't overheated yet. So I ruled that out. My guess is bad radiator cap not holding pressure and releasing it to the overflow tank.
I thought the it was over heating from the overflow. Well it still sounds like there could be ice blockage in the radiator from the description of hot swollen upper hose and no heat and then sometimes top hose soft nd some heat. I would check the cap and the antifreeze concentration.
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
+1
You could have had localized overheating that wasn't getting to the temp sensor.
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
+1
You could have had localized overheating that wasn't getting to the temp sensor.
His upper hose gets hard so that says that the radiator cap is holding pressure. Plus even w/o pressure it would still have heat.
I don't live where it gets cold enough to actully freeze a cooling system so I'm out of my element a little.
But with a stat thats stuck closed you will have heat from the heater. The stat controls the flow of coolant to the radiator, not to the heater.
I don't live where it gets cold enough to actully freeze a cooling system so I'm out of my element a little.
But with a stat thats stuck closed you will have heat from the heater. The stat controls the flow of coolant to the radiator, not to the heater.
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
+1
You could have had localized overheating that wasn't getting to the temp sensor.
+2
Frozen coolant can make a cooling system do all kinds of strange things- including but not limited to overheating.
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
You mentioned the overheating but no heater happening on a -15 day. That sounds like your coolant froze up in the radiator. Maybe you just need more antifreeze concentration.
+1
You could have had localized overheating that wasn't getting to the temp sensor.
+2
Frozen coolant can make a cooling system do all kinds of strange things- including but not limited to overheating.
I have heat if I let the car idle. But start moving and it goes away. When I Start to have heat it sounds like running water behind the dash. Is it possible something is clogged? But how? The heat worked great one day and now I'm having these issues. The coolant it a mix of 100% coolant and distilled water to give a 50/50. Just idling the coolant leaks out from someplace. I got to really look in to in tomorrow. Thanks.
Sounds like you got a 50/50 mix and then added 50% water to it. Could have been mislabeled from the factory.
Have it checked.
Have it checked.
So when I sent te last reply I was on my iPhone at a gas station waiting for them to open up at 5am, and I bought 50/50 mix and a gal of water and filled up the holding tank while the car running, the coolant was being sucked out of the holding tank. It took 1.5 gals to fill it up, but I finished my trip another 3hrs and had nice heat the whole time, and it never leaked out. If I let the car sit just a couple of hrs I will not have heat for 20+ mins. I think the tstat is getting weak and is not opening at the correct temp, and the pressure from the water pump vs the closed tstat makes the coolant over fill in to the holding tank, then once the t stat opens it sucks the holding tank dry , but it's still low on coolant so then I have no heat. Fill up the coolant after the tstat is opened then heat works and coolant does not over fill. The tstat is right infront of the upper rad hose, so if the tstat is stuck closed, it makes the upper hose hard from the restriction and the water pump trying to circulate antifreeze. Once the tstat opens the restriction is taken away and coolant can now circulate, thus the upper hose goes soft, so as long as it stays open the coolant will stay full once filled while hot. How does this sound? Background I forgot. With all the snow it got packed in front of the rad a couple of times and made the temp light come on,(no temp gauge) I pulled over right away turned off engine ad cleaned out all the snow. While the car was off, I could hear the coolant boiling in the holding tank. So maybe the extream temp made the tstat weak? Or maybe something is breaking down in side the rad or lines? This came with this extream cold the past couple days. Or I could be completely off track, but the way the hose gets?? The water pump must be working. Sorry for the long jumpy post I again am typing with that I-product. Thanks very much for feedback. I'm trying so hard not to have it be the tstat and maybe the water pump or something, but I don't know. It's a real pain to change on this car. The water pump on the other hand is a walk in the park.
SL2,
In an earlier post you stated that there was a leak somewhere. Have you found the leak yet?
I have the tendency to put blinders on when diagnosing stuff and miss the obvious. I replaced the T stat on my daughter's Sebring, but it turned out to be an intermittent bad water pump.
Is your leak from the weep hole? Don't rule out the water pump just because you installed a "new" one recently.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
In an earlier post you stated that there was a leak somewhere. Have you found the leak yet?
I have the tendency to put blinders on when diagnosing stuff and miss the obvious. I replaced the T stat on my daughter's Sebring, but it turned out to be an intermittent bad water pump.
Is your leak from the weep hole? Don't rule out the water pump just because you installed a "new" one recently.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
My money is on int manifold gasket or head gasket(s). With 215Kplus, you should have a combustion leak test done. I guessing it will show a bad head gasket. Your symptoms point to coolant being pushed out of the system by a blown gasket.
Sorry,just my guess.
Dave
Sorry,just my guess.
Dave
Originally Posted By: SL2
I bought 50/50 mix and a gal of water and filled up the holding tank
That's it....you added water to a 50/50 mix and it's freezing up on you. Just drain out the old and refill with a 50/50 mix and ADD NO water this time.
I bought 50/50 mix and a gal of water and filled up the holding tank
That's it....you added water to a 50/50 mix and it's freezing up on you. Just drain out the old and refill with a 50/50 mix and ADD NO water this time.
You know, to update the car has been fine. Once the heat started woking a day or 2 ago it has been fine, and no coolant over flowing or leaking. When I said I had a leak I was referring to the plastic peacock. It's very well possible something was frozen. I might have the wrong mixture in the cooling system. I now have have 3 gals of straight supertech antifreeze and 2 gals of disilled water that I have yet to put in because I'm debating if I want to change the tstat. I feel I change the coolant so often why not go cheap on that. but the last time I changed it out I might of thinned it To much. Not sure, but I'm going to get a tester. I hope that's all this issue was, user error. Thanks.
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Originally Posted By: bmod305
My money is on int manifold gasket or head gasket(s). With 215Kplus, you should have a combustion leak test done. I guessing it will show a bad head gasket. Your symptoms point to coolant being pushed out of the system by a blown gasket.
Sorry,just my guess.
Dave
My first thoughts as well. Sometimes a blown HG will send exhaust gases into the coolant and super heat the water. Other times, depending where the leak occurs, coolant will appear in the oil.
My money is on int manifold gasket or head gasket(s). With 215Kplus, you should have a combustion leak test done. I guessing it will show a bad head gasket. Your symptoms point to coolant being pushed out of the system by a blown gasket.
Sorry,just my guess.
Dave
My first thoughts as well. Sometimes a blown HG will send exhaust gases into the coolant and super heat the water. Other times, depending where the leak occurs, coolant will appear in the oil.
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