Still Heating Up

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dforant1

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2000 Elantra. Temp gauge say's cars heating up. Happens sporadically. Air conditioning runs warm during this period (aprox 5 Min) Engine cools and AC runs normal.

So far dealer put in 2 new AC parts, water thermostat, relay switches for fans, and heat sensor switch. Dealer doesn't know what else could be causing it. All fluid levels are ok including AC gas.

Any ideas??
 
2000 Elantra. Temp gauge say's cars heating up. Happens sporadically.
Air conditioning runs warm during this period (aprox 5 Min) Engine cools and AC runs normal.

So far dealer put in 2 new AC parts, water thermostat, relay switches for fans, and heat sensor switch. Dealer doesn't know what else could be causing it. All fluid levels are ok including AC gas.

Any ideas??
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I don't know why is your car heating up, but I do know that in such circumstances engine management will shut down AC to help cooling off. So I guess that you should be looking inside engine cooling system, not AC system.
 
Some old Chrysler "K Cars" (Reliant and Aries) had similar problems that were caused by a leaking head gasket.

Jim
 
I smell something like antifreeze when the car heats up and the AC turns off. How do we test for leaking head gasket??
 
I smell something like antifreeze when the car heats up and the AC turns off. How do we test for leaking head gasket??
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**If you're smelling antifreeze, you probably have a leaking head gasket. See if any is burbling out from under the car. Just before a head gasket on an ex-car of mine blew, the car was barfing antifreeze everywhere and the temp gauge was swinging all over the place. Also, check to see if you have some whitish smoke/sweet smell coming out of your tailpipe. You'll know when the gasket goes because you'll have giant plumes of white smoke billowing out of the tailpipe. <---My dad was driving my car to the garage when the gasket blew while he was in traffic. Glad it was him and not me :)

kaboomie
 
Unless you're a darn good shade tree mechanic, you don't. But if you see foam filling up your radiator and over flow tank, that's one sign. Check your oil. If it looks milky, it probably has coolant in it (another sign.) If I were you, I'd stop by an established radiator shop in town. Heating problems is all they see.

**If you're smelling antifreeze, you probably have a leaking head gasket.
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He's likely smelling the blow out from his overflow tank. A blown head gasket is only one of numerous things that causes over heating.
You'll know when the gasket goes because you'll have
giant plumes of white smoke billowing out of the tailpipe.
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If oil or coolant is getting into the combustion. But if not, it won't smoke like that.
 
While this is good advice, there are a few other things to look for with a blown head gasket--

First, check your radiator---if there is oil in the coolant, almost certainly a blown head gasket--it will appear to be like a light brown chocolate milkshake layer on top of the water--

Next, check the oil---look for water in the oil----it will appear as a grayish ooze mixed with the oil---

Lastly, do a leak down test on each cylinder---if any cyl can't hold pressure--chances are--blown head gasket---

Another thing it could be is a cracked cylinder head----if so, same symptoms as above---

Let us know what you find---
 
I smell something like antifreeze when the car heats up and the AC turns off. How do we test for leaking head gasket??
Click to expand...

The head gasket is there to prevent cross contamination of the coolant and the oil. It is between the engine block and the cylinder head(s). The gasket itself can fail or the heads can warp causing uneven spacing between them that the gasket is not designed to overcome. The second method is easily caused by a poor cooling condition and can happen very quickly, like running the car hot after a hose failure or water pump failure or low on water. Not only does the gasket need replaced but the heads and block will need work also. With the exception of the transmission, this is the most expensive repair on just about any car as it is labor intensive, the gaskets themselves cost roughly $30. From my experience, you have to play hardball to get this replaced under a warranty because it is easy for the service advisor to backout and claim the actual cause of the warping was something you initially did or did not do, normally heads will not warp unless overheated. Not that you or anyone actually did anything wrong, but it is a card I've seen dealers play more then once before.
YMMV.

To check..
A quick check would be the dipstick for milky or froathy looking oil. If that does not produce a decent indication , check the radiator for oil, the oil for water (again, milky appearance), or water dripping out of the exhaust or coolant smell from the exhaust. Another indication is a loss of power. The next step would be pulling the spark plugs and doing visuals and a compression check. I find it hard to believe someone could have done that much work on your car and not noticed a head gasket issue, you never know I guess.
 
Start simple, like your radiator cap. When the car heats up turn off your A/C. What happens next. When your car heats up, turn off your A/C, then turn on your heater full blast, what happens? Does this heating up occur while driving? if so, about how fast?

wrote:

2000 Elantra. Temp gauge say's cars heating up. Happens sporadically. Air conditioning runs warm during this period (aprox 5 Min) Engine cools and AC runs normal.

So far dealer put in 2 new AC parts, water thermostat, relay switches for fans, and heat sensor switch. Dealer doesn't know what else could be causing it. All fluid levels are ok including AC gas.

Any ideas??
Click to expand...
 
wrote:
2000 Elantra. Temp gauge say's cars heating up. Happens sporadically. Air conditioning runs warm during this period (aprox 5 Min) Engine cools and AC runs normal.

So far dealer put in 2 new AC parts, water thermostat, relay switches for fans, and heat sensor switch. Dealer doesn't know what else could be causing it. All fluid levels are ok including AC gas.

Any ideas??
Click to expand...

I would look and eliminate the simplest things first. A radiator with a bad clog-up can produce these symptoms. Have you had the radiator power flushed really thoroughly? Any good radiator shop can do this inexpensively. A radiator can look just fine and still have very bad flow. Best of luck.

Gary
 
You may have a collapsing hose. You may want to warm up the car, turn off the engine and press on all the hoses. If one feels real soft, that may be doing it. It's common on older cars (but your is not that old).
 
80000k'S

You may have a collapsing hose. You may want to warm up the car, turn off the engine and press on all the hoses. If one feels real soft, that may be doing it. It's common on older cars (but your is not that old).
Click to expand...
 
If your talking kilometers, adjust my comments...

80K miles could very well be doing that. I used to replace hose's and belts every 24K, but with the improvments to rubber in the last few years I think most cars are good to 60-75K. If it was my car, I would replace the hoses (just because it's at 80K miles, if not for anything else). By the way, you need a timing belt also (you are well over due at 60K).

XGCA

On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 12:01:51 GMT, wrote:

80000k'S

On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 18:23:08 -0700, XGCA wrote:

>You may have a collapsing hose. You may want to warm up the car, turn
>off the engine and press on all the hoses. If one feels real soft,
>that may be doing it. It's common on older cars (but your is not that
>old).
>
>On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 22:59:47 GMT, gareth wrote:
>
>> wrote:
...
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, right, a little behind with the timing belt. A new heating problem I noticed today is the rear driver side well where a passenger would place feet was quite warm along with the hump also. I noticed it reaching it for something on the floor. It was unusually warm. Is that normal?
 
Well after about 1300 bucks invested in misc parts and labor the problem was solved by a radiator shop. The radiator was caked with hardened mud and dust etc., from a dirt road I take to get into my work. Encon is cleaning the area up and has been wrecking the road with heavy equipment. Odly enough, 3 weeks ago my wife spoke of a maintenance tip in the newspaper. Clean the radiator fins occasionally. I did, but 3 weeks later and less a few more $$$. A couple tips from the threads here also mentioned the radiator.
 

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