I Need To Help My Mom Out, Overheating Trouble, Need Experts Advice

[pete rock]

hi everyone i know this isnt a gm site but i need to help my mom out here.i have a 93 es300 and i love her.wish my mom had one too. but right now she has a 1993 oldsmobile cutlass supreme coupe.3.1 liter v6 automatic.the car has around 102,000 miles on it.it always ran fairly cool the thermostat never really reached half.recently after the car warms up after driving about 15 minutes.its been going higher at half and even going all the way to hot.and then check gauges light comes on.then goes back down now i told my mom bring the car in immediately and have it checked first.first time the guy changed her radiator cap and said her cap wasnt holding any pressure so he changed it and it didnt help anything.then the water pump was changed as well as the thermostat just for the heck of it.and its still doing the same thing.the car doesnt smoke or steam come out of anywhere.can it possibly be the darn thermstat gauge on the cluster is busted??can it be that simple.if any of you experts can help and give your advice id love to hear it and i would appreciate it greatly.

i know this isnt a forum for oldsmobile and im sorry but i know you guys are really intelligent with cars.once i get some advice i will delete this post.thank you

[kingjack133]

...is the coolant level going down? If so there is a leak otherwise if the thermostat is good and the cap is good and the water pump is good, is the fan, which i asume is electric,and the blades not missing pieces, working properly? It(fan and fan motor) should be checked out...it might not be kicking in due to a faulty relay? and check for a blockage in the rad. A rad shop can pressure test the system and check out all these factors and give you an estimate and options. Hope this helps....

[pete rock]

i believe he checked the fan and all the pressure when he replaced the radiator cap to see if it was holding pressure.i dont know if he checked anything with the radiator.

[Lexusfreak]

If it's the original rad.....I would definately have that checked out. When was the last time she had a coolant flush?

[pete rock]

i believe when he changed the radiator cap he flushed the coolant.but he said the water pump was the original so im sure the radiator isthe original

[Lexucan]

It's possible that after the w/p and thermostat were changed, an airlock developed in the system when the coolant was put in. What is the level in the coolant reservoir when the engine is cold? There should be a "Full" mark on the reservoir so you can tell if the coolant level is low. If so, top it up and keep checking it regularly. Did the mechanic put the heat on high in the car when he topped up the coolant after the w/p change? If he didn't, maybe there is an airlock in the heater core.

I would start the car when it's cold and remove the rad cap and let the engine warm up. Watch for coolant flowing through the radiator once it's warmed up. If you see coolant flowing, then get your mom to slowly press on the gas pedal (just a little bit) while you watch for air bubbles escaping from the open rad.

[pete rock]

ok the mechanic met my up with mother and brought some type of cool laser pointer that when pointed at a part can tell you the temparture its running at.he pointed it at the thermostat and the water pump and to a hose or 2 and nothing was running hot or abnormally.could this be a head gasket problem??i really hope not.this car has never been abused could that possibly be the problem??

[ArmyofOne]

ok the mechanic met my up with mother and brought some type of cool laser pointer that when pointed at a part can tell you the temparture its running at.he pointed it at the thermostat and the water pump and to a hose or 2 and nothing was running hot or abnormally.could this be a head gasket problem??i really hope not.this car has never been abused could that possibly be the problem??

the 3100 series V6 you have is damned near bullet proof. it isnt a headgasket. There is an airlock somewhere as Lexucan mentioned. If it was a BHG you would know it. the car would just straight run like !Removed!, or you would be loosing coolant. If its simply overheating, check the thermostat again. It is HIGHLY possible it is defective, if they are dropped or bumped to hard (during shipping etc) they wont function properly. I went through 3 on my cavalier before I finally gave up and put the original back in.

[pete rock]

hi guys just wanted to let you know its still doing the same thing.i tried the trick with the air pokcet that i was told with taking the radiator cap off and letting the air pocket come out.im thinking the gauge may be busted cause the car will run all the way to the red hot for about 30-45 seconds and then go right back down to normal(middle) rather quickly.and my mother states shes adds antifreeze pretty frequently.i drove the car recently to witness this overheating and the car drove fine no abnormal condition that i noticed.still feels like it has power.if anyone has any other suggestions please help with any info id really appreciate it thank you

[SRA]

Hi,

I just came across this post, though it is old, thought I may be able to help.

Were you able to fix this overheating problem. If not let me know, I had a similar issue and was able to resolve it. I will have to dig up the details.

[pete rock]

yes sra thank you for responding it was fixed it was a head gasket problem cost about $1000 to fix for a new head which i told her not to do ,but she loves her car and did it anyway

[SRA]

OK Thanks for your reply. I too have a 93 ES 300 and since I have started to care for it myself, it runs wonderfully well. This website has been immensely helpful, thanks to all the wonderful people here.

[Bk4293]

Details on how you fixed your please. My 92 ES300 is having issues, especially when running the air....

[pete rock]

sorry guys she has a 92 cutlass supreme i was just asking for general help in that area,and what work have you done sra??id like to try to do some work on my 93 es300 to keep her rinning in tip top shape.

[SRA]

Here is a brief summary.

I had trouble with the car (1993 ES 300) overheating and the coolant disappearing from the radiator reservoir. It also seemed to affect the emissions because this is the first time in the life of the car that it failed the emissions test. This went on for several months. I was unable to figure out what may be causing the problem. The radiator was tested and showed no leaks at all. Several mechanics in the area had no clue. Finally one mechanic decided to check the codes using a scanner that was right for the pre OBD2 cars and it showed a code 22. It meant that there is an open circuit in the hydraulic cooling unit connected to the cooling fan for the radiator. (I can look up the exact details if you want to try this). It turned out that a certain mechanic had unplugged this connector and put it back wrongly. I dont know how that is possible, but I had checked this connector before and it seemed connected. Anyway once that was fixed, everything went back to normal. Let me know if you need any more info. This exact problem has been posted on this site by several others. Seems like a Lexus specific issue.

Hope this helps.