Overheating

[sheemone00]

Yesterday I noticed that my car was overheating and that was odd because I changed my radiator about 2 months ago (1996 Nissan Maxima @184K miles).

I filled up on gas then as soon as I entered the freeway (lots of traffic) I noticed that my temperature was pretty high. Then as the traffic subsided and I started to travel faster my temperature slowly dropped below the average level.

I can see that traveling faster pushes more air through the car thus cooling it, but I'm wondering why its overheating.

Same thing happened in this morning's commute.

For some reason the hood release is not working all of a sudden and won't pop the hood so I can't check the coolant level.

Any suggestions?

 

[jtvang125]

Check your radiator fans to see if they're coming on. If they do, check the thermostat.

 

[Thegonagle]

A combination of: coolant thermostat stuck open, and electric fan inoperable.

Test the motor by jumping it directly to the battery--if the motor checks out, it's likely a sensor that turns the fan on and off. Or else a wire is corroded/burned out. Or a relay is bad. Check the wiring diagram (schematic) in your service manual (Chilton/Haynes are usually good enough) to see what it could be, and go from there.

 

[nakedfrog]

My suggestion is to fix the hood release.

 

[Vette73]

Could be rad. fan not working (did you reconnect it when you replaced the rad?)

 

[sheemone00]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
My suggestion is to fix the hood release.

Haha yeah, I just found about it last night when I tried to check my coolant level.

 

[LTC8K6]

Start it up cold and sit and wait for it to warm up and see if the fans turn on.

One other thing you can do is turn on the AC, as this usually also turns the rad fans on immediately.