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Ok, I'll call this really strange. Sitting idle on the street (~85 degrees F outside temp), I noticed steam coming out from under the hood. By the time I pulled into a parking spot (less than a minute later) there was a full on eruption of steam/coolant coming out of the expansion tank. The upper heater hose was swolen and looked like a sausage ready to burst. I didn't have time to try and turn on the heater to see if that helped.
I also didn't notice if the temp gauge had gone into the red, but I definitely didn't get any warning dings from the dash. I did note that the fan was running, though.
It seemed to me like a classic case of the thermostat being stuck closed, only I had just replaced the thermostat last month with a brand-spankin' new one. After I removed the suspect thermostat, I dropped it in a pot of boiling water, and sure enough it opened right up.
What's more, the car had a brand new radiator (old one was cracked) and new hoses installed last summer. The year before that, I installed new coolant temp sensor and NTC sensor.
So, I'm confused. If the fan is running, the radiator probably isn't clogged (being brand new), and the thermostat works, why would it overheat like that on a relatively mild day? Unless the t-stat only sticks intermittently? Is that possible? I thought they pretty much worked or didn't, and none of this sometimes it does, sometimes it don't. I didn't get a good look at the temp gauge, but I'm thinking I would've noticed it reading hot.
Anyone had something like this happen?
posted by 71.36.88...
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