azmirock

Hey, I recently ran into some issues with my car and I was wondering if anyone can help me out. I've been driving around with my A/C on and I guess I drive pretty fast on a regular basis. The other night while I was driving, I heard a weird sound from my car and then the battery light came on in my dash. As soon as that happened, my power steering also went out because the steering wheel was super heavy to turn. I drove for about 5 more minutes and then I noticed my engine temperature gauge was way over the hottest limit. I thought it was broken but my engine was actually that hot. I pulled over to see what happened under the hood and my whole engine bay was covered in liquid. Also, a small piece of my fan chipped off. I had to jump-start my car to get it to drive home and I haven't driven it since. My friend told me I have a coolant leak but I can't find where it's leaking from. I also checked both the radiator hoses to make sure they were on tight and they were. so I'm not sure what to do.



this is when i pulled over

this was when i started it the next morning

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

The Battery light (alternator issue), power steering going out and your overheating all are related to something in the accessory belt area.

How old is your water pump? When you pushed your fan blades by hand in that video was it HARD to move the fan or did it more or less feel like it was spinning freely?

If your main cooling fan clutch has gone bad it would have sounded like a loud tornado under the hood every time you revved, meaning the fan clutch has malfunctioned and would be locked at a 1:1 rotation ratio. That would mean you need a new one. The fan blades look fine in your video. Unless you saw a chunk had come out of one of them it's fine to re-use it. However, this issue would only cause excessive drag on the engine at all speeds and if anything you'd have excessive cooling rather than not enough.

So unless the fan clutch has an issue anyway, that is not what caused your engine to overheat.

Unless the accessory belt is very old and cracked it should be fine. Otherwise, replace it if it is really old.

The leaks will have to be looked for. If your upper and lower radiator hoses are in good shape then you'll have to keep looking elsewhere including the coolant bypass hoses.

When was the last time the thermostat was replaced? It's possible that it could have become stuck closed which would block the flow of coolant and that can definitely cause an overheating condition IF it has failed. Usually thermostats fail in the stuck open position which makes an engine take absolutely forever to warm up to operating temperature if at all. Sometimes, however, in rarer circumstances, they can fail in the stuck closed position.

Is your radiator in good shape? No cracks? If it has any leaking issues you will need to replace it with a new Denso 92-96 style OEM unit.

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My main concern is how long you may have driven the SC while the engine temperature was through the roof. You may be okay but the risk would have been allowing enough overheating for long enough to cause any cylinder head warpage. Not trying to scare you but that can be a risk if any engine overheats for too long.

Check into the other things mentioned above and get your OEM radiator checked. When this happened to me a long while back it turned out to be the original radiator having gone out.

Another time I did have my mechanical fan clutch go bad and I needed to replace that as well.

It's also possible to have a small coolant leak when your OEM heater control valve goes bad. It's rarely ever the full assembly itself... just the valve. If you notice any issues up there then we have some DIY threads to address that or you order the replacement OEM part from overseas for semi-acceptable money.

Best to diagnose this issue one step at a time.

I DO NOT recommend you drive the SC until you find the culprit and fix it.

azmirock

Hey, thank you very much for your reply.

I am not sure how old my water pump is, I bought this car 4 months ago and I've only just changed my oil 2 weeks ago.

When I pushed my fan blade it was spinning freely.

I changed my fan, a couple of the blades had broken off.

I checked all my hoses and couldn't find anything.

I just recently changed my serpentine belt about 3 weeks ago because of a weird squealing sound but my old belt looked to be in good condition.

I'm not sure about the thermostat.

I took out my radiator and it looked good. No cracks or anything.

I probably drove the car for about 10-15 mins with the temperatures that high.

I have not driven it ever since that day.

So when I was taking out my radiator one of my neighbors came to take a look at the car (he's a mechanic) and then he noticed my serpentine belt was really loose like you can pull it off with your hands with no effort. So he thought I had the wrong size belt. It turns out my crank shaft pulley (harmonic balancer) was broken and that's why my belt was really loose. I believe that is also why I heard that squealing sound in the first place when I had originally chanced my serpentine belt. I just received my new pulley today, I will be putting it on Sunday and keep you updated.

Thank you again for your response, I appreciated it very much.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Wow! Yes, a broken crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) can definitely cause these symptoms too. The rule of thumb is that the OEM pulleys last about 200k+ miles give or take ten or twenty thousand or so. They are very well designed for a couple decades of service at least but when the rubber begins to crack and separate, issues can arise once it fully splits.

Very good catching that and getting it and the broken mechanical fan fixed! Once you refill the coolant and burp the system (it can help to slightly elevate the nose of the car to get out all the bubbles in the system if needed but that isn't always needed) then see how the temperature of the engine gets when warming up to temperature.

But before refilling the coolant you can just replace your thermostat for good measure in case it may have contributed to the overheating issue. It is very easy to get to on the 2JZ-GE. The OEM part number is 90916-03093 and it should come with the required O-ring. In case it doesn't (but it should) the O-ring itself is P/N 96721-24022. The thermostat is about $35-$40 new and you can easily do it yourself in 10-15mins with the coolant already drained.

From what you have reported back it seems that everything else is in order. Your head gasket and head may be fine. If the cooling fan and water pump were not doing their jobs due to a loose belt that could certainly have contributed to an overheating issue.

With all of that addressed, just see if it warms up to normal temperature and holds appropriately. Then give it a drive and see if the engine response is normal. I am sure it will be though.

If you have any concerns over the health of the head gasket and wish to investigate this then an easy way is to purchase one of those two-stage (one cylinder on top of the other) fluid head gasket leak testing kits off Amazon. They are designed to go right where your radiator cap should be when the engine is started up fully cold. You can then see if there is any telltale change in the color of that fluid due to escaping gasses in the engine coolant such that would indicate any compromise of the head gasket. And once you get your result either way you can just shut the engine off before the engine temperature gets too high for the coolant to stay in the radiator without the cap on.

Overall though it sounds like you have probably solved your issue! Hope the fan blades and harmonic balancer were all you needed! Although replacing an old thermostat cannot hurt before you put in new coolant.

azmirock

I never knew how hard it was to take out that one bolt on the harmonic balancer. that took me almost a week to get out but I finally replaced it and everything was looking well. then I started filling my car with coolant and came to find out I had a pretty big leak in my radiator. I ordered a new one that should be coming in but so far looks like a new harmonic balancer and radiator were the answers to my problems. again thank you very much for your help and input it was very appreciated.