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Hello everyone.
this is my first post so please bare with me because i'm still trying to figure out this how this forum works...on to the car!
ok a little back story. its an 89 NA beauty! I bought her in Texas two years ago, and it was going to be a project car...I'll mention as well that I'm still learning about cars. At the time I rarely drove her because I didn't have the funds to start working on her. The car ran fine, but needed work such as A/C and some suspension work. she had 90k when I bought her. FAST FORWARD a year and now I only have the 944 as my means of transport...now residing in North Carolina.. My father takes pity on me and decides to pay for the car to be checked over and fixed so its reliable (this is important to mention, that prior to going to this shop, IT NEVER OVERHEATED!!)...well almost 14 thousand dollars later, the car is still over heating...i'm sure the shop screwed my dad because everytime something happened, he said just get it fixed and i'll pay for it...so this is what has been done to it cooling wise
new...radiator, water pump, hoses, belts, timing belt, thermostate, and new coolant...like I said before...prior to this shop getting the car to do other work, it never over heated...I get it back from them, overheating...so sent it back and did all this work...just for it to over heat again...when I say overheat, that means the temp gauge is right below the red, and one time the oil pressure dropped, lights came on the cluster. I look up Overheating issues on the net, and the bleed coolant job comes up...so I did that myself. my procedure was this..drive car up ramps, drill out 8mm grease fitting to make bleed valve, and run clear hose to the reservoir...LOTS AND LOTS of bubbles for almost an hour...take fitting off, reinstall bolt, close reservoir...did I do something wrong? I took the car out for like 10 miles and it ran just fine...stayed a little above the first temp mark...an hour later I drive it a block away and it begins to over heat again..I've checked the oil..seems clean...coolant seems clean... what should I do next?
P.S....I may have posted on the wrong part here since every other post has like a few thousand responses and views...sorry if I did, but if someone could take a second to tell me where to post questions?
Well almost 14 thousand dollars later, the car is still over heating.
Thanks for the brief intro. You've come to the right place to ask questions. As a new member, a few photos of your car would be welcome.
Please tell us you misplaced the decimal point and your father did not spend $14k, at a shop, trying to sort this car out.
From the description, you've replaced a good number of parts in the engine compartment. Before you continue...you may not actually have a [serious] problem.
Cars with bad electrical grounds [corroded connectors/wiring] or faulty gauges will read false high coolant temperatures. First things first...put an IR gun on the head, coolant neck, and top of radiator when the gauge reads "right below red" to determine actual coolant temp. For reference, the upper part of the lower section on your gauge is 60*C, first hash is 80*C, second hash is 100*C, and red line is 115*C [239*F]. And 239*F is really, really, hot.
hey thanks for the reply and i'm sorry for taking so long for an reply of my own. I bought the IR gun like you said did the testings. i'm not sure what you mean by coolant neck? is that where the thermostate and bleed valve is located? If so that was the highest reading I got of around 180 F, where other readings such as, upper and lower hoses were lower (150s). the thing that worries me though Is that sometimes when the temp needle hits the red, then the oil guage drops, the oil light comes on. would this also be faulty wiring?
Re: coolant neck...yes, there, which connects the upper radiator hose to the radiator. But the thermostat is not in that location...it is mounted in the water pump, downstream of the lower radiator hose.
As suspected, with temps ranging from 150*F-180*F, it does not appear you have an actual over-heating issue. That sounds more like a ground/resistance issue, to me.
The gauges deflect/lights come on based on resistance values. Over three decades, the wires/connectors in your harness have built up unwanted corrosion/resistance. Check/clean all of your ground points, especially IX:
02-05-2016, 01:23 AM
my 944 is driving me nuts! (overheating)
