geekdrew
Member
- Joined
- May 5, 2003
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Reynoldsburg, OH
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '99 XLS
Last night, I drove home from work, and all was well... drive out to see a client, then to dinner, no problem. Ate for about 30 minutes, then got back in the truck. Got on the freeway... about 4 miles later, the temperature guage is reading higher than normal.
I don't recall my temp guage having any markings on it besides 'C' at the lower end and 'H' at the upper end. Most of the time when I'm driving it, the guage stays at maybe 15-20% up the scale from Cold... not indicating it's very hot. Last night on the freeway it was about 50%. Since I didn't see any markings indicating what the normal temp should be, I assume it's not a good thing that it's running that much hotter than normal.
I eased off the gas and just drove pretty steady, so I didn't have to speed up/down much... I was on my way to a friend's house about 30 miles away. About 1/2 of the way there I felt a little chilly... so I turned on the heater. I had the temp knob at about 2 O'Clock, with the fan being on the 2nd position, and the windshield defroster was selected.
Lo and behold, I look down a minute or so later, and I'm watching the temp guage creep down. When the needle hit the stop boundary just below 'C', I turned the heater off, to see what would happen. Within a minute or so the temperature had jumped back up to about half-way up the guage (50% of it... whatever that temp would actually be).
By that time I was rather warm from the heat, since I had *just* shut it off. However... if it supposedly kept the engine cooler... I drove the remainder of the way with the heater on and my windows open.
Got to Jason's house at about 7:00 PM. We were in a crisis situation with some other things, so I didn't get back to the Explorer till 3:30 AM. I noticed that the white reservoir for the coolant is completely empty. I take the cap off of the radiator... I can't see any coolant at all. So I put the cap back on, shut the hood, and slept at Jason's.
Skip to this morning. I refilled the radiator and the white reservoir. I then drove 20 miles to my biological parents house, and the temperature stayed fairly low the entire way... lower than it was last night, but still higher than normal.
Three or four hours later I leave for my house... a couple of miles away, I notice that the temperature guage is back up to last night's high. I turn on the heater and put down the windows. The temperature drops. I had to stop for fuel, so I checked the white reservoir and it still had the same amount in it that we put in it this morning. I didn't want to take the radiator cap off because I had been driving and I'm not familiar with how much pressure it may have been under.
I drove the remainder of the way with the heater on and the windows down. I tried turning the heater off when I was on a stretch of road that allowed me to stay at relatively low RPMs, but the temp still climbed to the same high level. I just got home a short while ago, so I figured it couldn't hurt to post here before I take the truck to some place to have them look at it (as I am not in the least bit mechanically inclined (other than with computers
)).
Any thoughts? BTW, the top radiator hose IS getting hot.
<edit>
Also note that a similar problem happened about 3 months ago... nearly the same thing, exactly. It seemed as though the coolant was just disappearing. I refilled the white tank and the radiator a couple of times, because it kept drinking the coolant. And then the problem stopped as suddenly as it started... the coolant remained there, and the temperature guage reflected that it was OK.
I don't recall my temp guage having any markings on it besides 'C' at the lower end and 'H' at the upper end. Most of the time when I'm driving it, the guage stays at maybe 15-20% up the scale from Cold... not indicating it's very hot. Last night on the freeway it was about 50%. Since I didn't see any markings indicating what the normal temp should be, I assume it's not a good thing that it's running that much hotter than normal.
I eased off the gas and just drove pretty steady, so I didn't have to speed up/down much... I was on my way to a friend's house about 30 miles away. About 1/2 of the way there I felt a little chilly... so I turned on the heater. I had the temp knob at about 2 O'Clock, with the fan being on the 2nd position, and the windshield defroster was selected.
Lo and behold, I look down a minute or so later, and I'm watching the temp guage creep down. When the needle hit the stop boundary just below 'C', I turned the heater off, to see what would happen. Within a minute or so the temperature had jumped back up to about half-way up the guage (50% of it... whatever that temp would actually be).
By that time I was rather warm from the heat, since I had *just* shut it off. However... if it supposedly kept the engine cooler... I drove the remainder of the way with the heater on and my windows open.
Got to Jason's house at about 7:00 PM. We were in a crisis situation with some other things, so I didn't get back to the Explorer till 3:30 AM. I noticed that the white reservoir for the coolant is completely empty. I take the cap off of the radiator... I can't see any coolant at all. So I put the cap back on, shut the hood, and slept at Jason's.
Skip to this morning. I refilled the radiator and the white reservoir. I then drove 20 miles to my biological parents house, and the temperature stayed fairly low the entire way... lower than it was last night, but still higher than normal.
Three or four hours later I leave for my house... a couple of miles away, I notice that the temperature guage is back up to last night's high. I turn on the heater and put down the windows. The temperature drops. I had to stop for fuel, so I checked the white reservoir and it still had the same amount in it that we put in it this morning. I didn't want to take the radiator cap off because I had been driving and I'm not familiar with how much pressure it may have been under.
I drove the remainder of the way with the heater on and the windows down. I tried turning the heater off when I was on a stretch of road that allowed me to stay at relatively low RPMs, but the temp still climbed to the same high level. I just got home a short while ago, so I figured it couldn't hurt to post here before I take the truck to some place to have them look at it (as I am not in the least bit mechanically inclined (other than with computers
)).Any thoughts? BTW, the top radiator hose IS getting hot.
<edit>
Also note that a similar problem happened about 3 months ago... nearly the same thing, exactly. It seemed as though the coolant was just disappearing. I refilled the white tank and the radiator a couple of times, because it kept drinking the coolant. And then the problem stopped as suddenly as it started... the coolant remained there, and the temperature guage reflected that it was OK.
