Trax overheated today..

Joined
Nov 23, 2009
Messages
3,053
Location
Suffolk County, NY
It's exactly 100 degrees in NY. I was on the highway going to work and was in stand-still to 5 mph traffic for 15 minutes. Temp sensor goes off. Car is overheating. I pull onto the grass and pop the hood and look under the car. No leaks or steam (replaced plastic water neck with aluminum last year). Fan was still running with car off. I waited 20 minutes, opened the coolant cap, released some pressure, and saw it was somewhat low, and topped off with 50/50 dexcool. Continued to work another half hour with faster traffic and no overheating.

What are we thinking? Low coolant and high temps caused it with no other broken parts? Fan runs, no leaks... thermostat? Thanks.
 
What I'm thinking is was it really overheating? The PCM only knows what the sensor tells it.

Beyond that you said no probs at higher speeds. Any chance the rad is blocked or buildup between condenser and rad?
Ac was off. Not sure if that matters.
 
Do what D60 says and check the Condenser and Radiator, there are a lot of bugs in your State.
Bugs, pollen, tree seeds and dust can really build up, and if between the rad and condenser you never see it. OTOH it might be totally clean in there. Not a silver bullet but worth checking since it does not require a shot from the parts cannon
 
As unpleasant as it can be, in the past I have turned on the heat when stuck in rush-hour traffic in hot weather. If the Scangauge showed the coolant temperature going up much past 105°C (221°F), I would set the heat to maximum and the fan to its highest speed. The heater core served, in this application, as a 2nd radiator. The temperature tended to drop quickly.

I replaced the radiator last year, and a couple of months later finally replaced the leaky intake-manifold gaskets. That seems to have largely addressed the borderline overheating episodes.
 
Had pressure but low on coolant. Add coolant and see what happens.

The good thing about car problems that they come back unless they're fixed. Your Trax is nearly 10 years old at this point, anything could happen. Radiator thermostat could be bad or plugged.
 
See if you can duplicate the problem but with a scan tool or OBD dongle attached. Look at the coolant temperature PID. Get an infrared temperature gun (or borrow one) and point it at the base of the coolant temperature sensor if it’s accessible. See if your car’s readings coincide with the actual temperature.
 
I'd guess its a partially blocked radiator reaching its limit in high temp stop and go driving with limited airflow.
Its hard to clean well because of location and the fins are fragile.
if it keeps doing it a parts cannon new radiator might be a good first step.

Farther diag would be worthwhile.

short term putting the heat on floor only high fan should enable maximum heat dissipation from the coolant
if you are overheating.
(many other vent settings run the AC)
 
As unpleasant as it can be, in the past I have turned on the heat when stuck in rush-hour traffic in hot weather. If the Scangauge showed the coolant temperature going up much past 105°C (221°F), I would set the heat to maximum and the fan to its highest speed. The heater core served, in this application, as a 2nd radiator. The temperature tended to drop quickly.

I replaced the radiator last year, and a couple of months later finally replaced the leaky intake-manifold gaskets. That seems to have largely addressed the borderline overheating episodes.

If you have to run the heat in the summer to keep the engine from heating up, something is wrong. 118 here in stop and go traffic with the sun beating down and I've never had an issue even running the A/C full blast.
 
It's exactly 100 degrees in NY. I was on the highway going to work and was in stand-still to 5 mph traffic for 15 minutes. Temp sensor goes off. Car is overheating. I pull onto the grass and pop the hood and look under the car. No leaks or steam (replaced plastic water neck with aluminum last year). Fan was still running with car off. I waited 20 minutes, opened the coolant cap, released some pressure, and saw it was somewhat low, and topped off with 50/50 dexcool. Continued to work another half hour with faster traffic and no overheating.

What are we thinking? Low coolant and high temps caused it with no other broken parts? Fan runs, no leaks... thermostat? Thanks.
Emergency cooling help in this situation is turn heat full on and fan too. You will be miserable but it is like adding extra rad capacity and it can save a head from warping till you can investigate like you did.
 
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