Hey guys, the other day when i got home from work i noticed that my Zed had the needle just before H. I quickly put the heater on and popped the bonnet to cool it down, which only took like 10 seconds, the weird thing was that when i put the car into park I heard the fans kick in, was kinda confused at the time and wondering if my fans died while driving . I checked the coolent level and had a quick look at my oil and they both checked out ok. I did a bit of research and thought that I may have blown a head gasket but nothing has turned into chocolate milk yet so I don't think thats the issue (at least i hope it isn't). Took it for a drive today and everything worked fine, turbos spooled properly, no boost issues and it ran just as fast as ever and no overheating. Does anyone have any ideas to what might have happend? Or is it just one of those stupid things that cars like to do (i can hope ) I wasn't flogging the car on the way home either......infact i was babying it that day.
Gday When was the last time the cooling system was serviced? Like flushing the block and radiator? How old is the coolant? Mabey it could have been old coolant not doing its job, an old blocked radiator or hose. I dont know about the fan issue though that doesnt sound right. You could always just get a new radiator, hoses and coolant to stay on the safe side.
Cars arent like women, they dont randomly blow their stack for no reason. Get your cooling system inspected and serviced as mentioned above or dont at your own peril.
Temp gauge does not move from half way to hot unless it has gone beyond 103 degrees. The electric sub fan turns on shortly after this. Placing the shifter in park and the fan coming on would have been coincidence. Did you have the A/C on at the time and driving slowly? Having the radiator cores rodded out makes a big difference as over time, aluminium deposits in the cores and reduces the flow through them, especially the lower ones. If you remove the radiator yourself and take it in to a radiator repair place, the cost is around $80 to have an end tank removed and the cores cleaned. Will make a big difference to cooling if that is the problem. Only other 2 potential problems is a stuck thermostat or the viscous clutch on the cooling fan is slipping constantly.
Hey thanks for the replys guys. I'm not to sure when it was last serviced as I have only had the car for about a month but that seems like the best idea. I'll call some places today to see how much they can do it for. OH yeah, and air con wasn't on and was driving at 80-100k most of the way home (around 15 mins). I never use the aircon, dunno why I just perfer to have the window down .
Living in Cairns without A/C would suck No A/C and driving at that speed indicates a problem or a faulty temp gauge/sender.
Temperature Sensor Hi Zagar, I have had my zx for a little over 6months now and am slowy working out the kinks. Im not sure but this might help... There is a temperature sensor in the very front of the engine sticking out of the intake/outake water pipes that can get a little corroded after a while. All you need is a small sharp tool and some terminal cleaner (or WD40 if you like) to clean it up. Just pull the clip off the terminal, have a look to see if both male and female termianls have a little bit of green corrosion, this can cause a bad connection and muck with what the engine is telling the computer. Hope this helps, Also if you head to the 'Tech' link next to 'home' and typr in the search bar 'Coolant Temperature Sensor' there is some really helpful tips about it.
one more thing to check The radiator hoses get soft as they age and can actually compress/ narrow at times so if they are soft and you can easily compress them with your fingers change them. It can constrict and decrease coolant flow and so over heat. Metal lower radiator pipe fixes it permanently
yeah one the hoses has gone quite soft. The thing is now I put a whole load of coolent back into the car and all it's doing is pouring straight back out after about 20 seconds, but a small amount of coolent is left to register about 4 bars over L on the dip stick, so i'm thinking one of the pipes has split as well. Hopefully thats all it is as I can get the hoses for like $30, but as the car hasn't been serviced for about 3 years (timing belt was replaced at 105,500 in 2005 (according to a plate in the engine bay) and the car has 108,500 on it currently, and I brought it at 107,000) I think a full service and radiator flush is in order (dam previous owners ><).
He's obviously measuring coolant in the overflow tank(which has 2/5ths of SFA to do with coolant in the engine/radiator).:zlove:
if coolant is coming out of over flow, could be one of a few things, could be you have an air leak in the system, i had one where there was a crack in the heater core and did not notice coolant leaking or anything, but would disapear or suck in air and over pressurize and push out past the cap and bottle next option is a bad cap, not holding enough pressure or not sealing properly, i suggest a nismo cap from just jap 1.3bar, very good quality, worth the $60 and other possibilities as others mentioned are, blocked radiator, or hoses/lines and worst case scenario is you may have a leak in the head gasket on the exhaust side or a crack in the head in the exhaust side which would push exhaust gases into the coolant system and over pressurise the system pushing out all the coolant, you can tell this buy starting car with radiator cap and watch is you get constant little bubbles and a darkish film in the coolant kind of like when you see oil or mirk in water but on a smaller scale of course
Zagar - from personal experience in Cairns, I would ensure that you have your radiator taken apart and throughly cleaned before the next wet season when it gets hot. Like to catch up with you one day and see your Zed. Tony
hey, yeah thats the plan, but i'm gunna get a new radiator and intercooler before i start to mod the car now, i'm gunna be so paraniod about oveerheating after this ><.
Water Pump I had a same issue and 3 weeks after I found the problem, I notice under my engine few drops of the coolant leaking said to my self it is only few drops and I will get it checked with in 2-3 weeks as temperature was back to normal after I top up some cooliant.Only few days later on the traffic light my temperature jump up with few seconds pull car over and all my water from the radiator is gone as water from water pump burst hell.... I hope you may not have same problem but be aware!!!!
, if forgot about this thread. The problem has been easily fixed, because the radiator is so old and worn the radiator cap (and the new one i brought) wouldn't fit properly so it had to be clamped on. Solves the problem for now but i can't take off the cap anymore (which is a good thing because it gives me a good excuse to buy a new, proper radiator ). It was all pressure tested and everything came back good so it only cost a few $$ .
