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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / February 20051994 Plymouth Acclaim overheating 4 cyl Auto
I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I needed a thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it in the correct way. I put it in the same way the other was in. Anyway, since then it has had a couple of intermittent periods of overheating. The following day we took it out and it got really hot so I pulled over and opened the hood. The engine was really hot but the radiator and upper hose felt cold. I opened the radiator cap and some coolant shot out. It wasn't hot but it apparently was under pressure. I let it set for a few and then we headed back home. On the way back, it started to go all the way to the hot side again. I pulled over and just put it in neutral while I thought about what to do and the gauge went back to the center within a minute or less. I drove it home and it was normal the whole way back. The next day I was going to replace the thermostat again in case it was defective or I had put it in wrong. A guy at Advance Auto told me that sometimes an air bubble would get stuck at the thermostat and that would throw it off and it wouldn't open until the air bubble reached the proper temp but that it would clear up on it's own. I drove it for an hour or so after I left the parts store and it didn't have any problems, so I didn't bother changing it out. Today we took it for a 20 mile trip and it was fine all the way to our destination. On the way back it went all the way to the hot side again. I slipped the gear shift into neutral and it went back to normal immediately. Weird huh? So, does anyone have any idea why it is doing this? Is there a clog running around in there somewhere? Is the thermostat defective? Since the car would warm to some degree prior to this, was the thermostat defective in the first place? Why does it cool down when I put it in neutral? Just coincidence? I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks in advance! > I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I > needed a thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > pulled over and opened the hood. The engine was really hot but the radiator > and upper hose felt cold. Sounds as if you failed to bleed the air out of the cooling system after replacing the thermostat. That's what the screw-in fitting atop the water box (where the thermostat goes) is for. > I opened the radiator cap and some coolant shot out. NEVER do this; you can be very badly burned. It's good to drill a 1/8" hole in the thermostat flange *just* outboard of the valve poppet, and when you install the thermostat put this hole at the 12:00 (top) position; this helps move air forward and evacuate it. But for now, you need to bleed the system. The screw plug is often frozen in place, so a decent alternative procedure is to put the car with the nose on as sharp an upward angle as possible, loosen the radiator cap and run the engine at a fast idle until it reaches full operating temperature and for about 10 minutes thereafter. The other possibility is that your engine requires a head gasket. These engines aren't as prone to head gasket failures as the early 2.0/2.4, but they do tend to need a gasket if they begin heating up like this. > ...a decent alternative procedure is to put the car with the nose > on as sharp an upward angle as possible, loosen the radiator cap and run > the engine at a fast idle until it reaches full operating temperature and > for about 10 minutes thereafter. Just curious: What angle would be too much in risking oil starvation (answer may depend on oil level)? Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x') > > ...a decent alternative procedure is to put the car with the nose > > on as sharp an upward angle as possible, loosen the radiator cap and run [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Just curious: What angle would be too much in risking oil starvation > (answer may depend on oil level)? Depends on the engine, I guess. All the cars I have have rear-sump oil pans, so I'm guessing the answer in that case would be something over 45 degrees :) Now if you've got a F*rd with a front sump pan, that might be a different story. nate > > ...a decent alternative procedure is to put the car with the nose on > > as sharp an upward angle as possible, loosen the radiator cap and run [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Just curious: What angle would be too much in risking oil starvation > (answer may depend on oil level)? Gracious. I'm not suggesting winching the nose of the car up in the air! Just a floor jack plus a suburban angled driveway would be plenty. Or a street parking space in San Francisco (Ha ha...no such thing). Any angular answer I would give you would be purely academic, and I don't know it. >>I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I >>needed a thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > the engine at a fast idle until it reaches full operating temperature and > for about 10 minutes thereafter. Isn't that whats a Jiggle valve is for? Bob > > It's good to drill a 1/8" hole in the thermostat flange *just* > > outboard of the valve poppet, and when you install the thermostat put [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > the radiator cap and run the engine at a fast idle until it reaches > > full operating temperature and for about 10 minutes thereafter. > Isn't that whats a Jiggle valve is for? Certainly. Often they are not present or are not sufficiently large. > > I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I > > needed a thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > the engine at a fast idle until it reaches full operating temperature and > for about 10 minutes thereafter. Hmmm.... loosen the coolant temp sensor at the thermostat housing while filling the radiator, the air will get pushed out to the thermostat level and the thermostat will open without all that incline crap. This is not an any shop manual therefore you would have to work on these cars to be able to see what is going on!! > The other possibility is that your engine requires a head gasket. These > engines aren't as prone to head gasket failures as the early 2.0/2.4, but > they do tend to need a gasket if they begin heating up like this. I was waiting to reply because it seemed like it had resolved itself and I wasn't going to have to do anything but..... The car has been driven daily since my first post and didn't heat up again until last night. It did almost the same thing as before. It finally got to a point when it was really hot and the thermostat decided to open and the engine temp dropped to normal in a matter of seconds. I already have a spare thermostat and gasket so I am going to change it out and then I'll bleed the system as Daniel suggested. Though I don't want to drill a hole in the flange for fear of really messing something up ;o) When I installed the first thermostat I did leave the cap off and let it warm up like Lawrence had suggested. It did start to spill out so I thought I was ok but maybe I didn't let it go long enough. In the Hanes book it says to drain the entire system and reuse the coolant if it is fairly new but doesn't mention anything about bleeding it. There is a hex head plug at the top of the water box like Daniel said there would be but the book didn't mention it at all. A friend is bringing me some larger hex wrenches later today since I don't have any big enough. Hopefully this will fix it for good. Thanks for all of the suggestions guys. I'll be posting another question about my truck so stay tuned! >> I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I >> needed a thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > engines aren't as prone to head gasket failures as the early 2.0/2.4, but > they do tend to need a gasket if they begin heating up like this. > In the Hanes book it says to drain the entire system and reuse the coolant > if it is fairly new but doesn't mention anything about bleeding it. There > is a hex head plug at the top of the water box like Daniel said there would > be but the book didn't mention it at all. This is just one more example of why you should not rely on Haynes' crappy books. Full instructions for using a Haynes manual are at: http://u225.torque.net/haynes_instructions.html You should really, REALLY get the factory manual if you plan on working on your own car. DS > In the Hanes book it says to drain the entire system My Hanes book says to wash my underwear regularly.  SignatureTeGGeR? "TeGGer®" <tegger@istop.c0m> writes: > > In the Hanes book it says to drain the entire system > > My Hanes book says to wash my underwear regularly. Fortunately, you got the FSM andnot the Haynes book... SignatureJoseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605 Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer > I was waiting to reply because it seemed like it had resolved itself and I > wasn't going to have to do anything but..... [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > > engines aren't as prone to head gasket failures as the early 2.0/2.4, but > > they do tend to need a gasket if they begin heating up like this. Loosen the coolant temp sensor at the thermostat housing as you are filling the system up it will push almost all air out, Start the engine and let the rest burp out, you dont need to point the car up a hill or anything. Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech >I have a 94 Acclaim that wouldn't hardly warm up. A friend said I needed a >thermostat, so I replaced it. I am pretty sure that I put it in the correct [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >pulled over and opened the hood. The engine was really hot but the radiator >and upper hose felt cold. That's a thermostat problem right there. The top radiator hose runs from the thermostat to the radiator, and the thermostat is the valve that allows this to happen. So if your engine is hot but your upper hose and radiator are cold, the valve *thermostat* is _closed_. Why is it closed? It is a mechanical device. There is wax in there that melts and gels, back and forth, and this is what opens and closes the valve. A simple arrangement, almost foolproof, but it could be sticking closed because it was inserted incorrectly or because it is defective from the factory *came that way*. > I opened the radiator cap and some coolant shot >out. It wasn't hot but it apparently was under pressure. Your spinning water pump would build up back-pressure against the thermostat if the engine is running. I don't know why you would have a pressurized radiator if the thermostat is -closed-. > I let it set for >a few and then we headed back home. On the way back, it started to go all >the way to the hot side again. I pulled over and just put it in neutral >while I thought about what to do and the gauge went back to the center >within a minute or less. I drove it home and it was normal the whole way >back. Sounds like your tstat is intermittently sticking closed. sometimes it works correctly, sometimes it doesn't. idea about trapped air bubble is also logical possibility. you should run engine with radiator cap off until is up to temperature to purge air from the system, then let it cool off, top up any fluid lost to overflow. >The next day I was going to replace the thermostat again in case it was >defective or I had put it in wrong. A guy at Advance Auto told me that [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >first place? Why does it cool down when I put it in neutral? Just >coincidence? I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks in advance! I would first purge the system of any entrapped air. just take the radiator cap off and idle it until it comes up to full temperature. feel top radiator hose to see if it is getting hot. if it isn't, buy and install new thermostat. Lg Dumb question. Could the water pump be shot? > Dumb question. Could the water pump be shot? *Could* be. We had a car in a few weeks ago that had only one impeller left on it. (If I remember right, it should've had six!!) In this case, though, it's probably the thermostat. There are a lot of CHEAP thermostats on the market. |
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