Car Rumbles 20miles After Radiator Flush, Needle up & down ~50 RPM Options

[tomazws]

As titled.

So what I did this morning:

Opened radiator cap, unscrewed bottom radiator plastic nob. Drained my Red Toyota 50/50 from radiator. Screwed plastic nob back into radiator and applied Prestone Radiator Flush, then fill radiator up with water (as shown by Prestone manual). Radiator cap on, started engine, heater up, ran for 10 minutes. Engine off. Radiator cap off, bottom plastic nob off, drained radiator. Scrwed plastic nob back on. Mixed 50% Prestone green poop with 50% water. Poured into radiator. Started engine. Air bubbles shown at radiator opening, poured in 50/50 till no bubbles shown. Put on radiator cap. Parked my car in street. Everything fine.

7 hours later, drove my car from San Gabriel to Rowland Heights (about 15~20 Miles), when car exited freeway and slowed down and eventually stopped at a light, I could feel my car rumbling, needles bouncing up and down 850 ~ 900 RPM, very not stable. After a short distance on local street, check engine light on. Stopped car, ran in house, turned on computer, Safari and 6gc.net, and here I am right now. Please help.

[94GT]

Was the temperature guage maxed out? Drive it home slowly and watch the temp gauge. If it goes past the middle point at all, you probably had a bubble in your radiator/lines and it didn't get filled up all the way. That's why you burp the radiator when you refill it. After you think it's all the way full, start it up cold with the cap off so air can escape and then add coolant/water mix slowly. After it's full, top off the reservoir to the proper height and it should be good. (that's really the only thing you didn't mention doing...) Good luck!

This post has been edited by 94GT: Feb 20, 2006 - 9:19 AM

[tomazws]

Hmmm, I've just filled up the reservor and everything, but the engine's still very non-stable. I'm not quite sure what's going on. Let's say in general, what would cause the engine to go up and down like that?