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About a month ago I responded to a post (can't remember who it was that started the thread) about a fellow's GTO overheating and boiling out the water. Mine did the same thing but didn't lose any coolant. Well about a week ago, the wife was driving and mentioned that the car did it again but quickly cooled itself off after she started moving. Tonight I take the car to the service station for a tank of gas and it did it to me. The temp gauge went all the way to the last red mark. I shut it down for about five minutes and restarted. It had dropped back a bit and I expected it to return to normal but it instead started climbing up the hot mark again. This time I shut it down and waited about 15 minutes and restarted it. I had about a mile drive back to the house and while going down the road, I noticed the temp gauge started making some rapid excursions up and then down but never getting to the hot mark. After I got home, I checked the coolant level and saw that it was down a small bit. I added about a gallon of water, which actually overfilled it a bit.
When this happened the first time to the wife, I assumed that the fans weren't kicking it on time. After tonight I find that is not the case as the fans start kicking in very soon after the temp gauge passes the middle mark on the scale. I also noticed a bit of "hot" coolant smell when this happened to me tonight so without a doubt the temp is actually getting up there.
Now my diagonsis is that the thermostat is sticking and if anyone has any other ideas I would be most appreciative to hear them. Tomorrow the Goat goes off to the dealer for a thermostat replacement at my demand unless someone else on the forum has another theory.
Thank goodness no appreciable coolant loss was experienced so I'm not concerned about any engine damage. This problem has the potential of destroying an engine if not attended to.
Thanks for any replies. -Jim
When this happened the first time to the wife, I assumed that the fans weren't kicking it on time. After tonight I find that is not the case as the fans start kicking in very soon after the temp gauge passes the middle mark on the scale. I also noticed a bit of "hot" coolant smell when this happened to me tonight so without a doubt the temp is actually getting up there.
Now my diagonsis is that the thermostat is sticking and if anyone has any other ideas I would be most appreciative to hear them. Tomorrow the Goat goes off to the dealer for a thermostat replacement at my demand unless someone else on the forum has another theory.
Thank goodness no appreciable coolant loss was experienced so I'm not concerned about any engine damage. This problem has the potential of destroying an engine if not attended to.
Thanks for any replies. -Jim