Dear Geoff, Thank you so much for this detailed analysis and explanition. I have done most of what you have advised. The only thing balance is to check the Temp. Sensor and I will do that tomorrow.
I will keep you posted on this matter. ----- Original Message ----- From: Geoff To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 4:09 PM Subject: Re: [dodge_intrepid] Re: heating up On 7/4/06, gahamid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:This problem of heating even if the car is idle and engine is running. I had changed the outside radiator only. The "outside" radiator? Huh? Okay, headed inward from the grille the devices are named as follows: transmission oil cooler (small unit with aluminum lines leading to it, connects to small rubber hoses leading to transmission under the hood), A/C Condensor (larger unit, has aluminum high-pressure lines leading to it), then the radiator (larger unit, has large rubber hoses connected to it). Does the radiator cooling fan operate BY ITSELF, in other words, WITHOUT THE A/C RUNNING while sitting at idle? You must verify that it does. Start the car, leave the heater/air conditioner OFF, raise the hood, and let it run for 15-30 minutes. In normal summertime ambient temps (figure 70F) the radiator cooling fan should kick on by itself during that period of time. If it doesn't, you've found the problem! When the A/C runs, the cooling fan automatically kicks on -- the engine controller runs it regardless of the engine temperature in order to make the A/C operate at peak efficiency. But when the A/C is off, the engine controller won't command the fan "on" unless a temperature threshold is met, which is detected by a sensor. Being that you're saying the engine seems to cool off when you run the A/C, my guess is that the sensor could be bad, and the engine controller just never runs the fan unless the A/C is on. So you have to carefully observe what's going on to see if this is, in fact, what's happening. Now if the engine is overheating while you're driving the car down the road, then you have a different issue. The airflow through the radiator should be sufficient when the car is moving to keep the engine cooled. My first thing to check in this case would be whether or not you purged the air pocket(s) from the system when you refilled it after replacing the radiator. There is a procedure you MUST follow when filling the cooling system on these vehicles: you must open the air bleed valve (like a brake bleeder valve) on the top of the intake (next to the connection point for the top radiator hose) and drain some of the new coolant through a 1/4" I.D. hose into a bucket on the floor to get all of the air bubbles out. Trapped air in the cooling system will often lead to an overheating condition at idle. If you aren't sure you got all of the trapped air out, or if you didn't follow this procedure, this is the first thing to do even before condemning the coolant temperature sensor -- which happens to be placed right where the air bubbles tend to collect. (If the sensor is in an air pocket, it won't work properly.) If the radiator cooling fan doesn't kick on, and you're sure you don't have any air pockets in the system, remove the sensor and test it. Use the procedure on the web page I sent to you previously: place the sensor in a pan of water on the stove, and measure the resistance across the sensor as the water is heated. If the resistance doesn't change, the sensor is bad. You also said that you changed the thermostat. Were you sure you installed the thermostat correctly? If it's upside-down, it won't work properly! > -- --Geoff MML Moderator/Admin/Website Admin/Map Keeper '92 Acclaim; '98 Intrepid; '03 Grand Caravan http://www.moparmailinglist.com Skype: ggariepy68 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Web: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid> Subscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unsubscribe: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Moderator: <mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dodge_intrepid/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
