I was driving to work this morning, and other than my 91 stalling on me the only other problem is that I drove to work with almost no heat. I hit a short jaunt on the highway and when I got off the temperature was looking to be about 220 or 225 on my gauge, and I'm not really a fan of it going over 210. It stayed up there almost the whole ride. Normally I see it slide down when the thermostat opens. It did go down twice or so on my 25 minute drive, but never below 210. And the other oddity that is involved was that only about 20 or so minutes into my drive did I get lukewarm air from the vents.

Ideas?

 

I see a possibility of engine fan, thermostat, or heater core problems. Is your fan clutch working correctly? Do you hear a gurgling noise from under the dash? Does your temp gauge normally read ~210F? A little more info would help out.

 

Thanks for the reply. Normally my gauge reads in the 210 and under range. Lately it's been creeping up to this ~220 or so range. I haven't heard any gurgling. My heater core is in the engine bay so I doubt I'd hear anything under the dash.

How would I tell if my fan clutch is working properly? I can tell that from a cold start in the morning I hear the fan kick up really high for about 5 seconds as I accelerate and then the noise goes away.

Also, I have an intermittant leak from the radiator area. I used to have one from the t-stat housing. Because of this I have just water in it, and no anti-freeze. Today has been a bit cooler than normal. I'd guess it's about 55-60 out today.

 

Welllll, I think I just found the answer to the problem. Put in a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water. You're going to need to get thatleak fixed, also.

 

I can understand the temps, but frankly not using antifreeze (while not a good idea) had not caused this issue before. And it also doesn't explain why I don't get heat anymore. I felt the hoses running to the heater core and they were just as warm as the engine bay. The upper radiator hose was much warmer. I would expect them to be around the same temperature.

I will check my fluid levels and see if I am low. That may be a contributing factor.

 

I had assumed (yeah, I know) that you had already checked the coolant level. If you've got straight water in the radiator there's nothing to keep it from boiling if it gets hot enough. When that happens the pressure in the radiator will increase and the water is going to try to find the path of least resistance out. This could explain the periodic leak and if no coolant, no heater. Have you replaced the radiator cap or pressure tested the system?

 

Good points. In answer to your questions, no and no. I can change the cap. Is there a way to pressure test without taking it in to a shop?

 

You can find coolant pressure test kits online from about $70-$250. I would think a shop would charge less.

 

I found out what the issue was. I bought some tune-up items at the parts store. When I got home I decided to top off the coolant. After about a minute of pouring I was thinking that something wasn't right, it shouldn't be that low. Come to find out a few moments later it starts pouring out of my water pump as fast as I can pour it back in. Somehow, someway the water pump up and died over the weekend. It must've been going out for a while but that thing was toast. I worked from 7:30pm - 2:00am getting that thing installed, plus my plugs and wires.

I get heat now! Thanks for the replies, it got me on the path to what was actually wrong.

 

Glad you found the problem and got it repaired!!