Sudden overheat

Hey guys, a few weeks ago I replaced my opti, and thus removed and reinstalled the water pump and radiator, and installed a new thermostat as well. Yesterday, pulled out of my driveway and drove down the street and my temp gauge shoots nearly all the way up. Its never gone up that quickly. I pulled over and noticed coolant all over my battery, and dripping down onto the street. I knew the car couldn't really have overheated that quickly, and when I pulled the radiator cap there was no steam. I haven't had a chance to look at anything yet, as I was running late headed to a Slayer concert \m/

My guesses are:
1: Low coolant, and there is an air bubble stuck near the temp sensor that heated up and gave the high reading
2: Stuck thermostat
3: Water pump isn't pushing any water

The car has been put together and running fine since the opti install, I'm curious what would have given out just now. I just got back home so I'm about to go out and start checking it out. I'm wondering if anyone has other theories as to what this might be. Thanks in advance

If there's coolant all over your battery, you probably pushed it out the reservoir neck. I think you may want to check the thermostat first. If it's stuck closed, and the water pump pushed everything to the front side of the system, then it'll look like you're not pushing any coolant because there's nothing behind the water pump to be pushed.

That's what I was thinking, I pulled the t stat out and put it in some boiling water and it opened up at 180 degrees. I went back and swapped it with a new one anyways since its under warranty and added coolant, same issue. The heater core isn't getting coolant either, heater blows cold. The fluid level in the radiator barely went down as I ran it, and I cut it off after the gauge exceeded 220 degrees. I'm thinking fluid isnt even reaching the thermostat. The temp gauge still went up a little faster than it normally does as it warms up so I think the pump might be bad, no coolant circulation. It's been pulled on and off 4 times in the last month, maybe the splines got messed up? That, or there is a massive air bubble or clog somehow preventing coolant from getting to the pump. Any ideas?

Did your fans come on at all? Sounds like the pump isn't pumping or you have some major blockage.

A scan would be nice to see if the gauge and PCM are reading about the same since the gauge sensor jumping up quickly is in the head and the one in the pump would be telling the PCM to kick on.

It would be nice to know, but my fans are hotwired at the moment. I have not been able to get them to kick on correctly with the PCM. New relays and temp sensors and still nothing, so the secondary fan is always running. I'm going to try to flush it and see if anything comes out, otherwise she'll get a new pump I suppose.

Solved- Picked up a new water pump today and installed it, the only difference I could tell between the two pumps was the new one was much more difficult to spin by hand, suggesting that the seals/bearings in mine had worn out and caused it to not pump efficiently enough. But after filling it back up and bleeding the system, she warms up normally and the heater works again. Thanks for the input guys.

Awesome man! Glad to hear she is back in action.

darnit! I was gonna say water pump lol. We get them in the shop all the time and the symtoms are identical to yours...

great news!

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Originally Posted by OBD1 Kenobi

Hey guys, a few weeks ago I replaced my opti, and thus removed and reinstalled the water pump and radiator, and installed a new thermostat as well. Yesterday, pulled out of my driveway and drove down the street and my temp gauge shoots nearly all the way up. Its never gone up that quickly. I pulled over and noticed coolant all over my battery, and dripping down onto the street. I knew the car couldn't really have overheated that quickly, and when I pulled the radiator cap there was no steam. I haven't had a chance to look at anything yet, as I was running late headed to a Slayer concert \m/

My guesses are:
1: Low coolant, and there is an air bubble stuck near the temp sensor that heated up and gave the high reading
2: Stuck thermostat
3: Water pump isn't pushing any water

The car has been put together and running fine since the opti install, I'm curious what would have given out just now. I just got back home so I'm about to go out and start checking it out. I'm wondering if anyone has other theories as to what this might be. Thanks in advance

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i know you already fixed it, but mine did that when i first put a 160 stat in. i didnt have it seated all the way, or something but started it up, and with in a minute or less it was all the way up. pulled it back apart and put it together and it was fine.