04 grand am overheating

N

Neighba

New member
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
0
can someone please shed some light on my overheating issue........car idles at 220' (normally 200') temp rises dramatically (240') while on road. new rad cap,new radiator, new stat, water pump working fine, both high and low fans operate when they should, no coolant leak (externally). oil, trans fluid clean, bled air from water rail (everything i read says bleeder is on thermo housing, not on my car).
Now for the symptoms.............heater works intermittantly, low coolant light on with full coolant (while engine cold and hot). engine temp climbs higher than usual in idle and would max out at 260' if allowed to. no sweet smell to exhaust or white smoke. both upper and lower radiator hoses hot to touch as well as heater core hoses. Replaced radiator (assuming water/coolant restricted inside rad) this morning as a sure fire fix based on all other causes checking out, to no avail, the only thing i can guess is that one of the smaller metal cooling lines is blocked with gunk or something, grasping at straws here. Running out of thoughts, and avenues to troubleshoot, if there is anything i missed please comment. I am not a certified mechanic, but have worked on and fixed every car i have owned in the last 20 years.....this one will be no exception, but a little push in right direction will be greatly appreciated, thx for reading
 
you dont mention which engine but the V6 has issues with lower intake manifold gasket. You should also check for hydrocarbons in coolant as a sign of internal leaks. Did you pressure test the cooling system?
 
I have a 2005 3.4 Impala and it had very similar symptoms. I decided to tear it down and found a bad head gasket. I recently purchased a 2000 Grand Am 3.4 and it has a blown head gasket (I knew I was buying it with a blown head gasket). Just my 2 cents but it seems like these iron blocks and aluminum heads don't get along very well. Try a head gasket leak test. I think I saw that O'Reilly's rented them but I may be wrong.
______________________________
 
On the Grand-Ams the bleeder is on the end of the rail that connects to the water pump because near the thermostat housing, is a tube that goes all the way into the overflow tank.
 
^^ agreed with 03 grand-am. It is on that black pipe that is staring at you as soon as you open the hood. I looked at the grand am GT I bought recently and it looks like there is only 1 bleeder ( my 3400 Impala has 2 bleeders-1 on that pipe and 1 of the thermostat housing)

Neighba let us know if anything happened :p
 
What was happening to me was the bad head gasket was pumping exhaust into the coolant system, creating gas pockets in addition to external leaks. The exhaust pushed coolant back into the resevoir making it look full. I bet if you run it with the cap off that it will boil and bubble.
 
Dane,

Yeah, my Impala did the same thing. The OP hasn't replied so who knows what's going on now.
______________________________
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top