Still Heating Up

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.

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??

 

**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.

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.

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---

 

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.

 

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

 

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?

 

It could be a simple heater core! Not as bad as a head gasket. Check for
hose leaks and the simple things also.

 

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.