My son has a 1998 Taurus I am looking at. It has not been running hot, but after driving it to school he had steam under the hood and coolant on the ground. He called me and I towed it home. I pressure tested the system and did not find any leaks and the pressure remained steady for 20 or 30 minutes. I drove it and then looked for a leak. After heat soaking for a few minutes coolant started coming out from under the reservoir cap and there was a bubbling sound to the coolant.
The fans are working, the gauge is working and the temp needle stayed center the whole time, not indicating any overheating. Any suggestion would be apprecaited.
Four possibilities: the coolant was over filled, the water pump is no longer pushing water, the cap spring has weakened or the thermostat doesn't want to play. Improper water flow may throw off the sensor since you're not throwing fluid past it. If it seems to come up to temperature and stabilize, and the level is ok, replace the cap.
Thanks guys for the response. I should have mentioned the pump is only about 2 years old. I am going to try the cap, seems a cheap way to start.. Now I did pressure test the cap today and it seems to release at 16 lbs which is what it is rated for. But when I put it on, if I tighten it over a certain point it spins loose again.. That did seem suspect, but wasn't sure it would cause what I was experiencing. Will try that tomorrow and let you know how it goes.
OK.. put a new cap on and definitely fits better. Drove it until it warmed up all the way, no spewing of coolant from the reservoir. I did notice there is no heat. It was warm in the 70's yesterday, 40's today... That would suggest a thermostat, but stuck open.. The upper hose does get hot, so now I am concerned about the heater core.
With loss of coolant, you may have air caught in the system as well. If it spilled out when hot, it's going to want to suck something back in when cool.
Everyone has been very helpful. This is what I know so far.
The reservoir cap was bad causing the coolant to boil during heat soak.. Fixed..
The blend actuator was not moving effecting the heat.. Replaced.
I went ahead and put a new thermostat in for fun.
Everything looks good, no more leaks, no overheating, no boiling over.. But the heat is not getting very warm.... I guess I'm looking at a core..:BW:
Yep, the intake line is hot, but the out line is cold... Tried clamping the bypass hose to force it into the core but no change... Guess I will try and flush it first and hope that works.
In case anyone is interested.. I disconnected the Heater Core lines and back flushed it... The crap that came out of that thing was horrid.. I felt like I was working for a septic tank company... It did clean out really well though and so I flushed the entire system afterwards and refilled. Heat works great !! You could bake chicken on the front seat !
Thanks again for everyone's input you did direct me into checking more things and finding my problems.
Those old 3.0 OHV motors are bad about rust in the cooling system. Replace heater cores all they way till they quit production somewhere around 07.
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