Alright, I have an '86 4 dr sedan and I'm having a lil problem with my coolant. I'm filling the rad with coolant and then when I drive the car, it still heats up like no coolant is entering the engine! When I stop the car, the coolant is overflowing the overflow chamber! Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ali baba

 

Could be a number of things. Thermostast, water pump, or radiator. Being an 86' model, the radiator may need to be boiled out. You can take it to a radiator shop and have it cleaned out. First thing I would do is repalce the thermostat because it's cheap. I had an 86' Fore Runner that stayed cool in the city but not on the highway. First I replaced the water pump. No change. Then the thermostat. No change. Finally after wasting alot of coolant, I had the radiator boiled out and that fixed it. Good luck.

 

There is a possibilitie that your "thermo plug" that screws on the block of your engine could be out. The plug it self works like a thermastat that triggers the radiator fan when the motor gets too hot.

 

Does your car run fairly cool on the highway, or is it overheating while both highway and city driving?

 

It's overheating in the city and on the highway. I'm try boiling out the rad and replacing the thermostat....


Ali baba

 

by rodding the radiatior it will get rid of all that gunk and such. on my first car my 1977 toyota corona i had to do that and it was nasty!!!

 

When you fill the radiator, you need to fill it up cold, close the cap, start it, warm the engine up until the thermostat opens, which will open the remaining coolant passages. Then you shut it off and finish filling it. Unless you already did all that...

 

You're better off to change the thermostat (they're only a few bucks) while you have everything cleaned out.

 

Well,

Here's the end of the story... I went to have my oil changed and I spoke to guys about the problem... they tried getting rid of any air bubbles that were in the system by adding coolant and reving the engine... the coolant kept on bubbling and it seemed as though there was A LOT of air in the system.... the guy thought this was odd and then tried bleeding it with the bleeder screw (he didn't know there was one) and noticed that nothing came out and that the screw was bone dry... he concluded, of course, that I need a new thermostat. I just bought the thermostat, drained the system and installed it... it works great! I took the car on the highway for the big test and no problems there either. Thanks for your help guys,

Ali baba

 

That's what we're here for.