Why is my engine overheating
CF Beginner
Joined: Aug 2022
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CF Beginner
Joined: Mar 2024
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you need to purge the heater hoses to fill the engine lines with coolant, not just the radiator side, otherwise your car is running with coolant only before the thermostat and it wont open,.. if you model has a bleed on the heater hoses look for it, some cavaliers dont and they need to be purged by disconnecting the heater hose that goes to the thermo housing and quickly conecting back again,, you run the car till the thermo opens and fill more coolant into the reservoir..
CF Beginner
Joined: Mar 2024
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Everything is good. When the gauge says cold, there's no heat, when it says it's too hot it's boiling over and heat works. Flushed everything, replaced hoses, radiator, temp sensor and 3 thermostats. It just seems new thermostats are pure junk. I took one apart and put in a couple brass washers so it can't close all the way and now it at least warms up a little. Doesn't quite get to operating temp ALL the time, but pretty darn close. I actually started test with a brass nut and that held it open too much and now down to 2 washers. If it annoys me, I'll go down to one washer. Fortunately, I don't have to drive the car too much, but man, this is an odd cooling system Nothing really seems to be wrong except the thermostats stick and don't allow coolant to flow to the radiator.
you need to purge the heater hoses circuit,, manually disconnecting the hoses and filling them or with a purge in the heater core line; depending on your model,, otherwise the thermostat will never open.
CF Beginner
Joined: Mar 2024
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1999 Chevy Cavalier (4 door, 4 cyl)
Over the past few weeks I've been having an overheating problem with my Chevy Cavalier.
At low speeds (on the city streets) it tends to start overheating. You can imagine the anxiety when I come to a stoplight or traffic jam. I've been forced to turn it off when I come to a stop on city streets. If I don't, the heat gauge will jump up (but not into the red) and the car will die. If that happens, I usually have to wait a good fifteen twenty minutes before I can get it going again.
This does not happen on the highways. I get on the highways (I-35 here in Austin) and start going 40+ - it'll cool down to what I'm used to (slightly below the mid-way mark on the heat gauge).
I thought it might be the relays, and I found another website saying to switch with the heat blower and if the heat blower works - it's not the relays. So I did that, the heat blower worked - so I guess it's not that?
It was suggested I start and idle the car in my driveway, checking the fan. The fan never turned on. But, it does turn on when I go around 40+ mph (or so I attribute to the fan the cool down when I hit that speed).
Liquids are all topped off (was done when I got an oil change a month ago) - and checked just a few minutes ago, no fluids needed.
Any help on this problem would be appreciated.
Over the past few weeks I've been having an overheating problem with my Chevy Cavalier.
At low speeds (on the city streets) it tends to start overheating. You can imagine the anxiety when I come to a stoplight or traffic jam. I've been forced to turn it off when I come to a stop on city streets. If I don't, the heat gauge will jump up (but not into the red) and the car will die. If that happens, I usually have to wait a good fifteen twenty minutes before I can get it going again.
This does not happen on the highways. I get on the highways (I-35 here in Austin) and start going 40+ - it'll cool down to what I'm used to (slightly below the mid-way mark on the heat gauge).
I thought it might be the relays, and I found another website saying to switch with the heat blower and if the heat blower works - it's not the relays. So I did that, the heat blower worked - so I guess it's not that?
It was suggested I start and idle the car in my driveway, checking the fan. The fan never turned on. But, it does turn on when I go around 40+ mph (or so I attribute to the fan the cool down when I hit that speed).
Liquids are all topped off (was done when I got an oil change a month ago) - and checked just a few minutes ago, no fluids needed.
Any help on this problem would be appreciated.
CF Active Member
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 116
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Mine overheats in traffic when the reservoir cap is not properly installed. That's happened twice recently.
Re. the fan, just hot-wire it to a toggle switch on the dash, (with a fuse in the line, of course) and switch it ON only when needed.
Re. the fan, just hot-wire it to a toggle switch on the dash, (with a fuse in the line, of course) and switch it ON only when needed.
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