[FL_Gal]

Hi all.

I have an issue where my temp needle goes up after cranking up the car. After driving, I'd cut off, then maybe 5 minutes later i turn the key, and the needle goes up......then comes back down. sometimes it just stays in the middle when I crank it up. after cranking up, the fan kicks in within 10 seconds and the needle will gradually come down (sometimes slower than others). When I tried to ask a guy at autozone he mentioned something about open and closed loop. was he talking about the tstat? could this be the issue? I noticed this about a week ago, and when i checked the water level, it was pretty much empty. this morning the level was normal.

 

[bull geek]

Could be time for a water pump. But otherwise, you are at the mileage where you could be very well due for a thermostat as well as a complete coolant flush/backflush. IIRC, you posted you were around 125K in miles?

 

[FL_Gal]

no, i'm around 98k on the clock.

where I assume I'm looking at the water pump, I dont see any leakage there, but I'm gonna pop a cork if I need to have that fixed. this car is becoming a money pit :angry: any diagram as to where i should be looking?

when I had my first overheating issue I was losing fluid around the cap, replaced it and all was well. before filling at that time, there was like a brown sludge in teh resovoir instead of water. it's probably well overdue for a flush.

 

[machausta]

Its way way way overdue for a flush. Good news for ya, its easy and cheap!

 

[FL_Gal]

but is this anything to do with my current issue?

 

[danhasenauer]

Vulcans are well known for generating tons of rusty sludge in their cooling systems. If not changed every other year at most, this brown nasty coolant can slowly dissolve away the fins on the water pump, thereby slowing down coolant flow through the whole system. I always flushed and changed my coolant once a year on my Vulcans.

 

[FL_Gal]

i just left and came back and i saw two wet spots in the driveway, one for the a/c and another one which might be a slow water pump leak? it's wet like water (doesnt look/smell like oil or tranny juice). it's dark out now, so I wont be able to check the level but will first thing in the morning. the water pump itself is affordable, but labor on that? :mellow:

 

[danhasenauer]

Wet spot from pump will be on passenger side, should smell like antifreeze. Labor? Couple of hours if you've never done one before. DIY!

 

[FL_Gal]

yea it's on the passenger side (close to the center) I wont be doing it, i was mentioning from a $$$ point of view.

i can just drive this thing in the river

 

[FL_Gal]

i have a quick update.

first thing I did this morning was check my water level. it was the same, so in the last few days I didn't lose anything it seems. It was not at the fill line so I topped it off with antifreeze. within an hour of my driving it was rising. about an hour ago when I made a stop and got back in, i saw the antifreeze leaking from the DRIVER SIDE underneath?

if it makes any difference, the a/c is blowing a little warm until the temp comes down. looking under the hood and the only wetness I see is where the a/c stuff is (and its cold) right in front of the antifreeze resovoir.

another thing I noticed is when I pulled out of my driveway this morning I saw a puddle of something, maybe a dark brown or dark red, and it was on the passenger side. I saw it at a glimpse cause I was running late. I'm resting right now to cool off, but I got another hour left

 

[danhasenauer]

Sounds like your coolant system needs a good going over, possibly multiple leaks. Lack of preventative maintenance, i.e. regular flushes.

 

[FL_Gal]

Sounds like your coolant system needs a good going over, possibly multiple leaks. Lack of preventative maintenance, i.e. regular flushes.

yea, i dont know the previous history of the car. One can assume it wasn't too well cared for. after the break i took earlier, it didnt "get warm" or nothing leaked anymore.

with this brutal heat we are having, a flush is imminent.

 

[FL_Gal]

I took my bull to the hospital today. I loss some fluid after a few hours, lost more today than I did yesterday. water was very green. I got concerned because the needle was rising when sitting at a light. I dropped her off so I can know what's really happening. the leak was coming from under the driver side, after I was parked for about 20 minutes.

 

[achanler]

I have the same car: 2002 Taurus with Vulcan engine. I got the car with 20k miles. I did a radiator flush around 60K and 100K. Then the water pump died at 115k. So waiting 40k miles was probably a mistake on my part.

 

[lcplpunk]

Did you personally look for any leaks? Before I take it anywhere I try to figure out what is going on myself. I had a similar coolant leak and it turned out to be a deteriorated hose had a hole in it. I then knew exactly what needed to be fixed and showed the guys at the shop where the problem was.

 

[FL_Gal]

I've got a radiator leak. I got a radiator from Autozone for $125 and someone to do it for me. Gonna replace the hoses too since the rad is coming out. should i check/change the tstat just to be safe?