Overheating, bought only 2-3 months ago
07-08-21, 01:04 AM
#16
Driver School Candidate
Buy a Tesla
2011 LS 460L @ ~100k miles. Just bought it 2-3 months ago.
Issues I've found so far:
- One headlight points lower than the other
- Nav buttons are all dark except "Climate" that occasionally flickers on and off
- Volume **** doesn't work
- Recent sandstorm sandblasted my headlights so they are almost completely useless now. I should have expected that driving 90-100mph 40mi a day through a sandstorm for a week.
- High pitched whine from radio while something is plugged into any of the cigarette lighters. I assume bad ground somewhere.
Otherwise, it's been good...until yesterday. Backing out at a store, someone flying through the parking lot is irritated he had to stop and started honking. He tries to cut around me and I floor it like a child, passing him, and let off the throttle at the exact moment it was shifting resulting in a hard shift (maybe related, maybe not). A km or two down the road, I hear the pleasant beep, look at the dash, and see the warning that the engine has overheated and I should shut the engine off, look at the maxed out gauge, pull over and shut the car off.
I wait 10-15 minutes, turn the car back on, and it's only a little below the max. Drive a hundred feet and it's overheated again. Turn it back off. It's been 110-120F for the past week or two so no surprise it didn't cool down much. I checked under the hood and didn't see any liquid anywhere so don't believe there's a leak. Checked the radiator and it's not obstructed. Radiator fans work. Couldn't tell if the overflow tank was full or not. Someone showed up that only spoke Arabic and I pointed out what was going on, he started to open the cap. It vented maybe a bottle of water (yes, water) on the ground. We opened it all the way. Poured about 3 bottles of water in it. About 30-40 minutes had passed, I started the car, it was only slightly above operating temp, I limped it home.
Symptoms
- Car overheated QUICKLY after I drove it like a fool briefly. Maxed out temp within 2-5 minutes.
- After it half-cooled down and we added 3 bottles of water, I was able to drive another 5-6km home before it maxed the temp gauge again. Odd thing was it seemed to cool down slightly the RPMs increased (pump/belt?) and warm up as I was coasting
- No noticeable leaks or steam
- Didn't smell burning coolant, but it looks like some dumbass replaced the coolant with water. This is common at shops here...
- Radiator and fans appear fine
Tomorrow morning I'll do some further diagnostics:
- Check level in coolant tank
- Check level in radiator (once I figure out how to get to it)
- Check radiator cap
- Check the oil to see if it's milky
- Check that the belt going to the water pump is OK, although I never heard any squealing
- Watch radiator level as the car warms up to see if thermostat appears to be working
- Inhale some exhaust fumes to see if I catch a whiff of that sweet, sweet coolant
- Pray it's not a head gasket failure
Any other tips?
Issues I've found so far:
- One headlight points lower than the other
- Nav buttons are all dark except "Climate" that occasionally flickers on and off
- Volume **** doesn't work
- Recent sandstorm sandblasted my headlights so they are almost completely useless now. I should have expected that driving 90-100mph 40mi a day through a sandstorm for a week.
- High pitched whine from radio while something is plugged into any of the cigarette lighters. I assume bad ground somewhere.
Otherwise, it's been good...until yesterday. Backing out at a store, someone flying through the parking lot is irritated he had to stop and started honking. He tries to cut around me and I floor it like a child, passing him, and let off the throttle at the exact moment it was shifting resulting in a hard shift (maybe related, maybe not). A km or two down the road, I hear the pleasant beep, look at the dash, and see the warning that the engine has overheated and I should shut the engine off, look at the maxed out gauge, pull over and shut the car off.
I wait 10-15 minutes, turn the car back on, and it's only a little below the max. Drive a hundred feet and it's overheated again. Turn it back off. It's been 110-120F for the past week or two so no surprise it didn't cool down much. I checked under the hood and didn't see any liquid anywhere so don't believe there's a leak. Checked the radiator and it's not obstructed. Radiator fans work. Couldn't tell if the overflow tank was full or not. Someone showed up that only spoke Arabic and I pointed out what was going on, he started to open the cap. It vented maybe a bottle of water (yes, water) on the ground. We opened it all the way. Poured about 3 bottles of water in it. About 30-40 minutes had passed, I started the car, it was only slightly above operating temp, I limped it home.
Symptoms
- Car overheated QUICKLY after I drove it like a fool briefly. Maxed out temp within 2-5 minutes.
- After it half-cooled down and we added 3 bottles of water, I was able to drive another 5-6km home before it maxed the temp gauge again. Odd thing was it seemed to cool down slightly the RPMs increased (pump/belt?) and warm up as I was coasting
- No noticeable leaks or steam
- Didn't smell burning coolant, but it looks like some dumbass replaced the coolant with water. This is common at shops here...
- Radiator and fans appear fine
Tomorrow morning I'll do some further diagnostics:
- Check level in coolant tank
- Check level in radiator (once I figure out how to get to it)
- Check radiator cap
- Check the oil to see if it's milky
- Check that the belt going to the water pump is OK, although I never heard any squealing
- Watch radiator level as the car warms up to see if thermostat appears to be working
- Inhale some exhaust fumes to see if I catch a whiff of that sweet, sweet coolant
- Pray it's not a head gasket failure
Any other tips?
07-08-21, 04:17 AM
#17
Coolant even lower today than yesterday, which was lower than the day before that. Fill it a little above "max" each morning.
Looking around for where it may be leaking, I noticed the thermostat was a little wet and I forgot to move a hose clamp back. It was also a little wet above the plate that crosses over the radiator, and outside of the bumper where there are the plastic "plugs" there seems to be some liquid that comes out. This has been going on for a couple weeks. Hmm...maybe the radiator has some small holes? When it's cool in the morning I will fill it up again and try to look. Probably a week or so before dye gets here...
Looking around for where it may be leaking, I noticed the thermostat was a little wet and I forgot to move a hose clamp back. It was also a little wet above the plate that crosses over the radiator, and outside of the bumper where there are the plastic "plugs" there seems to be some liquid that comes out. This has been going on for a couple weeks. Hmm...maybe the radiator has some small holes? When it's cool in the morning I will fill it up again and try to look. Probably a week or so before dye gets here...
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460LQ8 (07-08-21)
07-08-21, 12:23 PM
#18
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
I put the clamp back where it belongs today. The reservoir was more or less empty and the fluid only just reached the hose that goes into the radiator. Poured a liter or so in, air was coming in from the radiator side so I guess it was pretty low, started the car, added another liter or so. Drove to work. For the first time I checked the level before leaving work and it was a little below the min line, but at least not empty. Added another liter. After work was a little lower than max.
Tomorrow I'll fill back to max and bleed the hoses some, and see how low it is by the end of the day. I don't mind occasionally refilling, but I'd like to find the source and fix it just so I can relax... Dye is on the way, but Amazon takes 10 days to get here.
07-09-21, 02:14 AM
#19
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Doublebase (07-09-21)
07-09-21, 05:37 AM
#20
Pole Position
I know this is a little late on this thread, but I wouldn’t bother ordering a dye...Toyota coolant is pink and it’s very easy to see where it’s leaking because it leaves a very easily distinguishable pink crust. A pressure tester would be better.
And I suppose you could have a valley plate leak, and you’d never visually see it without removing the intake. And what a terrible design, to put something like that buried under the intake manifold. That’s a decent sized job to replace.
And I suppose you could have a valley plate leak, and you’d never visually see it without removing the intake. And what a terrible design, to put something like that buried under the intake manifold. That’s a decent sized job to replace.
07-09-21, 06:36 AM
#21
Pole Position
I know this is a little late on this thread, but I wouldn’t bother ordering a dye...Toyota coolant is pink and it’s very easy to see where it’s leaking because it leaves a very easily distinguishable pink crust. A pressure tester would be better.
And I suppose you could have a valley plate leak, and you’d never visually see it without removing the intake. And what a terrible design, to put something like that buried under the intake manifold. That’s a decent sized job to replace.
And I suppose you could have a valley plate leak, and you’d never visually see it without removing the intake. And what a terrible design, to put something like that buried under the intake manifold. That’s a decent sized job to replace.
The following users liked this post:
Doublebase (07-09-21)
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