I need help and suggestions

[saleen137]

My mustang gt just took a crap today. People in Southern Cali would know that it's been hell with the weather. It's been 111-115 degrees here in Riverside. Anyways today after work I was dropping off a co-worker. I was running the A/C and the car felt fine. I dropped her off and once making the turn onto my street I feel my car sluggish. I was thinking flat tire but then I felt the car stumble a bit then started losing power. I mean significant amount of loss power. All of a sudden the mustang wouldn't go any faster than 5mph and right when I made it to my driveway it died. I popped the hood and see smoking rising from the engine (throttle body, intake manifold) then looked at the bottom and smoke was coming from the cat's just on one side. Facing the front of the car would be your left side. I heard a sizzling (sp?) sound from the cat and the exhaust pipe. Which makes me think it's oil burning correct? Or at least some type of liquid. Now I know I wont know 100% whats going on till a mechanic looks at it but does anyone have somewhat of an Idea? Any help or suggestions would be gladly appreciated. The car only has about 57K miles on it. If that helps.

BTW this is my 99 Mustang GT

 

[Dope 97GT]

Did the engine temp go up? And was the A/C still blowing cold?

 

[03ghoststang]

Did the engine temp go up? And was the A/C still blowing cold?

thats what i was thinking it might have over heated and i know what your talking about with the weather man its just been ridiculously hot but whatevers i cant complain

 

[Dope 97GT]

i would try to check the radiator my friends integra just overheated and the radiator on the one side stopped cooling and the a/c went and then the car started to bog got mad hot then it was done.

 

[DTNODYA]

First, I say check all your fluids. Coolant, power steering, oil, etc. If any of them are low then you may have some idea of what fluid was burning. It was more than likely coolant IMO. Check your belt and make sure it isn't frayed/flapping, check thermostat area for cracks or just green coolant ....

That's a start.

The weather sux right now ... way too hot!!!

 

[03ghoststang]

lately alot of people are getting into some over heating problems out here in L.A ,and i dont even use my A/C in this weather. Just check all your fluids like mentioned above

 

[04gtdrop]

Sac is just as bad. My car went to the dealer this morning cuse the A/C compressor took a dump....I saw one of those signs in front of the bank on my lunch today. it said 115....i dont know if it was right, or broken. But damn! i know what your talking about...anyways enough about the weather.


Yeah check all your fluids. Was it making any noise besides the sizzle?

When did the a/c stop blowing cold air?

How far did you drive from droping off your friend till you got home??

 

[merc123]

My exhaust sizzles when I stop and turn the car off. My race car does it too. I think it's just stuff in the pipes and not necessarily a fluid on it. Check the exterior of the pipes though and around the engine bay. Crank it up and then look around to look for leaks. Have someone rev it or you rev it with the throttle arm and see if anything leaks.

 

[saleen137]

Alright to answer some of your questions here they're.

I checked all fluids and everything was filled to the max. Now I didn't notice any leaks except for water from the A/C making me think that it was water leaking onto the pipes that was the sizzling sound I heard.

I drove maybe around 40 miles or so one way to drop of my co-worker (Anaheim Hills To Riverside). I only live 3 miles away from my co-worker. The A/C was on the whole time and people who know the 91(W) around 4pm it's bumper to bumper.

Once I got to my co-workers house, I dropped her off and turned off the A/C and had the windows down to smoke a cig. So I wouldn't be able to answer the question regarding how cold the A/C was blowing.

The temp from what I noticed was fine but I was concetrating on getting home rather than checking the temp so It might have been higher than usual.



Okay now that I've answered a few of these questions, I let the stang cool down, then posted on stangnet, and gave enough time before I went outside to start the stang. So I go outside to turn it on, and all of a sudden it starts up fine. I didn't hear any noises, nor did i see any smoke coming out of nowhere. So I'm guessing it overheated correct. I still don't feel comfortable driving it until I have a mechanic look at it. I really thought something major was wrong and f'ed up my motor.



I want to thank everyone for their responce. I'll be going home today and have another look at it and look more into the things described in this thread. Thanks peeps

 

[merc123]

of the co-worker