car over-heated!!!!! Options

[pure_dx]

help! here is the story, this morning i went and started my car, 15 mins later i came back and the car was not at operating temperature, it was lower, below the normal temperature, I drove around and the temperature needle slide very quick up and down, it would stay HOT at the very top when going uphill and go below the normal when going downhill?? When i was at the highway after 15 minutes driving around, the needle stayed way at the top HOT!! as I slow down, the check engine light came on, the battery light, and the oil light (all 3, everything!) the car was having a hard time going in 1st gear and by the time i climbed another hill, the car died on me! i tried to restart but the car wouldn't restart! i pushed the car in a parking lot and after 1 hour I came back and started the car, it started out fine. The coolant in the reservior tank is BROWN and milky chocolate shake and was BOILING!! really bad i could hear it boil, after a while I poured some coolant in the radiator cap which has NO coolant in it.

Is my head gasket gone? was that what produced the brown coolant? will i need to replace it?? hopefully tomorrow morning i'll bring it to a shop and they can replace my water pump, but is it worth it??($400+) my water pump is bad and was leaking from the gasket, please please please!! give me any advices on what to do!! *sigh* thank you much

This post has been edited by pure_dx: Feb 26, 2006 - 1:10 PM

[TrdKing]

do you have any visible coolant leaks

[pure_dx]

do you have any visible coolant leaks

yes, my waterpump gasket was leaking on me couple months ago, will replacing the waterpump tomorrow solve my problem? *sigh*

[TrdKing]

im not sure if there will be any damage due to overheating depends how bad it was

you should see if anyone else overheated before

if you replace the waterpump it will solve your coolant leak and then you can see if anything else is broken or not when you run it again

[presure2]

if your coolant is a brownish milky consistancy, thats a dead giveaway for water and oil mixing (blown headgasket)

[pure_dx]

if your coolant is a brownish milky consistancy, thats a dead giveaway for water and oil mixing (blown headgasket)

*sigh* how long do you think i could continue driving with this blown headgasket? this is my only car....i need it for work and school...

[blu94gt]

if your coolant is a brownish milky consistancy, thats a dead giveaway for water and oil mixing (blown headgasket)

*sigh* how long do you think i could continue driving with this blown headgasket? this is my only car....i need it for work and school...

lol I would guess drive it as long as it takes to get it in your garage or to a shop. DO NOT drive it anymore the way it is unless you want to start ruining more things.

[TrdKing]

if your car does completely overheat it can seize up on you

[pure_dx]

if your car does completely overheat it can seize up on you

yeah i think thats what it did to me thats why the car died on me while i was going uphill, but after an hour or so i came back to start it up and it started out fine....so i dunno...i'm confuse

[trd94]

your car stopped on you because of the coolant temp sensor ,it is a safty feature when it heat up to a higher than normal temp for a long time it tells your ecu to cut spark, when it cools down it will reset untill your car runs hot again

This post has been edited by trd94: Feb 28, 2006 - 1:32 AM

[Dunners]

Is there any black or white smoke coming out the exhaust? if you're head gasket's really bad you should see some exhaust smoke. but it could be only partially gone and the coolant and oil are mixing. Do you think it was hot long enough for the head to warp?

[hitcachi]

Sorry man but this sounds like a case of lack of car care. If you need your car that bad then you shouldnt even be hesitating to pay that 400 dollars to have someone replace the water pump. Or could just do it yourself and learn a little bit about your car that you need so much. But i know, you dont have time to do it yourself right. Thats ok it will just crap out on you when you need it the most more often i guess. Also why did you even drive it that long with it overheating. I would have pulled over right away and assessed the situation. Also you said that the water pump had been leaking from the gasket before this happened? Why wasnt it taken care of right when this was noticed. And another thing, yes you probably did warp something with it running that hot for that long. Please dont get mad at me for stating the obvious. Im trying to give you some constructive critisim. My advice. Get it to a shop now. -Jim

[madmods]

if your coolant is a brownish milky consistancy, thats a dead giveaway for water and oil mixing (blown headgasket)

if your coolant is a brownish milky consistancy, thats a dead giveaway for water and oil mixing (blown headgasket)

*sigh* how long do you think i could continue driving with this blown headgasket? this is my only car....i need it for work and school...

Stop driving the car immediately! You blew the head gasket and hopefully you didn't crack/warp your head. You might as well get the timing belt changed, because the water pump is right there. Its not a cheap job, yet its not too hard to do. I don't know what your skills are. So one, get a new head gasket, 2 water pump 3
timing belt. The labor is not going to be cheap

[celicast3sgte]

hey ok so heres some of what your looking at

1-check head for warping & cracks
2-check block surface for warping & cracks (yes it can happen)
3-new headgasket (a must)
4-new timing belt (maintainance)
5-new water pump & gasket
6-oil change w/ filter change
7-new thermostat

now for the lecture... WHAT were you THINKING?! your car goes way into the hot zone you dont keep driving let alone freeway and uphill! MAJOR car foul on that one! penalty.... 1000$+ in repair work. anyways goodluck with the repairs your car should be down for 3-5 days depending on the shop.

[pure_dx]

thank you everyone, at least i will learn from my mistake, i continued driving the car because it stayed at normal operating temp for a while, and then the temp gauge would go way up and way down, so i was confuse and thought the thermostat was just acting funny and i should be fine, it probably stayed hot for at least 10 minutes on the highway which i was going about 70-75 mph, then when I release the gas pedal to go off the ramp, the rpms droped and check engine lights came on, then died, i can feel that the car was going to die if I come to a completely stop, is my car still fine because the ecu just cut the spark??

the car was leaking coolant from the water pump gasket, but the waterpump is working fine, i would just continue adding coolant and it would be fine, but i forgot about adding coolant to the radiator, i only add it to the reservior/overflow tank, my mistake on the radiator, i will get it to a shop for a diagnos test to make sure what it is today, btw the car is 7afe

This post has been edited by pure_dx: Feb 28, 2006 - 11:47 AM

[blu94gt]

makes me sad that a Celica is neglected like this...

[frosty]

makes me sad that a Celica is neglected like this...

i know

[DJWashington]

Ive seen a couple cars with brown milkshake water in reservior and didnt have a blown head gasket. Not saying thats not it, just a thought. Probablly just 20yr old water? Also, if i just had a coolant leak, I sure as hell would hesitate to pay $400 for a new waterpump. If I could just top it off every once in a while. But maybe im just not rich? I would put the coolant in the radiator though. Sorry, I had too.

[lagos]

hate to say this, but your motor is gone. you cant have a water pump leak, your car over heat, while you keep driving it and expect it not to cause major damage to the motor.

it would probably be cheper to find another used 7afe and find a local shop that is willing to swap it out of a cheap price... but even then, you are looking at a few grand for everything

[TrdKing]

best bet would be take it to a shop and see what they say

get a real mechanics opinion