Well its been a while since I had the overheating problem. It's been cool or cold here in Canada so I haven't had the problem all winter long. (Makes sense.)
Well as sping has arrived, so has the warmer weather and the problem is back.
A brief history:
- car ran fine until driving up a long steep hill.
- the temperature guage slowly rose and boiled when I got to the top of the hill.
- first I changed the thermostat
- the condition did not change.
- changed the aux fan switch
- the condition improved but the weather had also cooled by then
- Brian on this thread wanted me to clean the rad. As you would have read, the rad was changed a few years back so I hesitated.
- this spring the problem returned with the warmer weather.
- I finally bit the bullet and brought it in the shop.
Well, at the shop they replaced the thermostat again. Finally, they looked at the radiator. When the car was hot, 3/4 of the radiator was "ice cold". It looked like there was a coolant flow problem. They pulled the radiator opened it up and tried to fix the flow. Ended up changing the rad.
All's fine now. Temp. barely goes above 80 now. Even under stress in the warmer weather, the aux fan doesn't have to kick in and the temp remains constant.
Brian was right...I needed to check the rad.
I hope this helps others. Thanks to everyone on the forums for their assistance.
Brad,.