Yet another overheating car

itsa914 · 01-29-2008, 07:03 PM

I drive my 88 944 NA with 71K miles everyday, rain, shine, or snow. I have to drive once a week to the office in Arlington Hts IL (approx 80 miles one way) and today was the day. For those that know Chicagoland I made it to mile marker 38.5 near Ohare Airport on North I294 when, while stuck in stop and go traffic, I smelled that antifreeze smell and thought someone is running hot. Checked my temp guage and #!@#$@#$! its me :headbang: made it to the shoulder and shut it off. I didn't really get to check out the problem, but could see antifreeze leaking towards the front of the engine. I think the thermal switch for the cooling fans may have went bad which caused the car to overheat and blow a hose (I hope). Only reason I think it is the thermal switch is the cooling fans were not runnnig when I shut the car off.

Anyway *999 works real well. State Police sent a flatbed and my 944 is now in a tow yard in franklin park. I took a cab to O'hare, got a rental car and continued to the main office. I went back to O'hare and return the rental (Kia Spectra :sick: ) and caught the regional bus back home. I will go up either tomorrow (depends on this winter storm) or thursday with the truck and trailer and bring her home. I had to laugh, my little adventure today made me think of that movie with Steve Martin & John Candy Planes, trains & automobiles

speedracing944 · speedracing944's Garage

test the thermo switch. You can also pull the leads off the switch and jump it to activate the fans. Make sure you fingers are clear of the fans when you do this

Speedy

hpservertech · 01-29-2008, 08:00 PM

Hopefully it's just the switch. If it's the fans though (highly doubt that) let me know i've got a spare here.

Razorback1980 · Razorback1980's Garage

I'm with Speedy, replace broken hose, jump the fan wires to start them running and drive it home.

itsa914 · 01-30-2008, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razorback1980

I'm with Speedy, replace broken hose, jump the fan wires to start them running and drive it home.

I would but it is almost 60 miles from my house. I am making the road trip this afternoon to go get it.

speedracing944 · speedracing944's Garage

The smell is most likely caused by the pressure cap on the expansion taking letting some very hot and highly pressurized anitfreeze out of the system by the way of the nipple on the top of your expansion tank. I would bet this is where the leak and smell is coming from. That is the whole purpose of the pressure relief valve on the system.

Good luck,
Speedy

Lizard944 · 11:32 PM

That describes a situation I had to a tee. Just substitute the words "Arlington Hts, IL," with "Hancock, Maryland, " and this scenario would be identical. When I got my flatbed tow, we pulled up to the "foreign car specialist" who asked; "Is that one of dem der Porshee cars?" Yikes! I knew it was the thermostat, but we couldn't get the snap ring off with any of his tools. He even bent a pair of needle-nosed pliers with a torch... still no go... Then was towed to another specialist in Hagerstown, MD. Rental car, hotel, and left vehicle there for a week. Never met the guy since we arrived on a Saturday night, and they were closed. Agreed over the phone to return the following Saturday, only to be greeted by the mechanics mother who said he went fishing. She handed me the bill for $250.00. All-in-all, it was around a $600.00 adventure for an $18.00 thermostat. This happened around 13 years ago when $600.00 meant something. In hindsight, I should've just broke the t-stat with a screwdriver and replaced it when I got home, but I wasn't very 944 savvy back then.

PS., the fan switch won't activate the fans if coolant isn't reaching the switch, ie., from a broken T-stat.

Luis de Prat · 02-01-2008, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lizard944

I knew it was the thermostat, but we couldn't get the snap ring off with any of his tools. PS., the fan switch won't activate the fans if coolant isn't reaching the switch, ie., from a broken T-stat.

True, dat!

itsa914 · 02-02-2008, 02:50 PM

Spent some time down at my shop today. I learned a valuable lesson today. Check the simple things first. Both fuses for the cooling fans were blown. Replaced them and everything is working fine. Now the question is why did the blow to start with? The more I think about it I don't believe the the low level (high temp) fan was working when I got the car. It always seemed to me the fan(s) would kick on way when the temp got higher than I thought it should. Anyway I filled up the rad, bled the air out and everything is working as normal. I will keep an eye on the temps and fan fuses.

hermesbooking · 02-02-2008, 03:47 PM

PM Sent