Running warm engine temps

san~man · Sep 4, 2008

Occasionally, the car will run warm if idling in place with the a/c running. Warm meaning to the point where the needle is obviously past the half point, and warm to the point where I had to shut down and put the heater on a few times.

The coolant tank is full when the car is cold prior to start, so I'm not low on fluid. During my last oil change, I checked the underside and nothing "appears" to be leaking.

Any suggestions on what else to check, or anything I missed?

san~man · Sep 7, 2008

Bump....where's Mike at?

BlownFiveLiter · Sep 7, 2008

I'm not sure of the CCRM pins on the 4.6 cars to test the fan, but with max AC the high speed fan should turn on. I can't even check autozone.com for a CCRM diagram, since it's blocked here at work, and the Autozone site won't work right with the only proxy site I could find that will let me on here. If the 99+ CCRM is the same as the 96-98 DOHC cars, the diagram in this thread might be able to help. Other than that, it at least might give you some reference on where to start with a fan diagnosis, should that be an issue.

FoxRod87 · Sep 7, 2008

Is the A/C still cooling good just sitting and idling. Or do you have to go down the road to get it to cool down? Just make sure your fan is working properly.

san~man · Sep 7, 2008

the a/c works fine and was serviced prior to my extended warranty expiring. Also, the fan works fine. In fact, the day it ran really hot, I popped the hood to aide in cooldown and checked the fan prior to turning the car off and it was running ok. I also tried a bottle of water wetter in the radiator to help in cooling.

I wonderif I should try a coolant flush that those oil change places perform?

Any other suggestions?

CobraRed_96_GT · Sep 7, 2008

Where's the coolant level in the O/F tank when it's hot? I find when i did a flush i needed to get it just to the right point before it'd work right. Also is the radiator cap up to spec? Take it off and play with the sprung part and see if it wobbles or comes loose.

96GT281 · Sep 7, 2008

how bout a thermostat

Mustang5L5 · Sep 7, 2008

What's the condition of the coolant? Is it original? If it is, it's past due a flush and refill. You can do it yourself. It's pretty easy.

Crzyhrse · Sep 7, 2008

Do you have Underdrive Pulleys? Not sure about the 4.6's but with my 5.0 with pulleys it would overheat if idling with A/C on, or if you were in really bad crawling traffic. Other than that my car ran great when going a decent speed.

san~man · Sep 7, 2008

I have pulleys, but it's only become a problem as of recently.

FoxRod87 · Sep 7, 2008

If everything is working good then I would put a thermostat in it and flush the cooling system.

hotmustang331 · Sep 9, 2008

YIKES! When the needle moves, I hear thats around 240*s

Im betting its the thermostat not working correctly..partially opening, plus the UD pulleys....there isnt a lot of coolant flow happening.

san~man · Sep 9, 2008

It was scary as ****. One day after hard driving at work (weather was really hot too), the needle almost hit red when I was going up a mountain. Luckily I caught it in time, pulled over, shut off the car to accessory only, popped the hood and then ran the heater to cool down.

I thought for sure I'd blown the head gasket , but it was ok.

d98gt · Sep 10, 2008

My car was having a similar problem before it eventually broke the timing chain (unrelated though I was in process of hunting the problem down). It ran fine for years with the u/d pulleys but in a matter of a day decided it wanted to get hot if not cruising at a decent speed. Hopefully all will be well once I get this engine back up.

fudleyd · Sep 10, 2008

san~man said:
It was scary as ****. One day after hard driving at work (weather was really hot too), the needle almost hit red when I was going up a mountain. Luckily I caught it in time, pulled over, shut off the car to accessory only, popped the hood and then ran the heater to cool down.

I thought for sure I'd blown the head gasket , but it was ok.

Yikes! That would scare me too!

Hopefully it is just a thermostat or something easy...I have never had overheating problems in my stang and I have been running UD's for at least 6yrs now.

san~man · Sep 10, 2008

Ya, I haven't either until about 6 months or so ago. I'll get the coolant flushed and t-stat changed when I get a chance.

fudleyd · Sep 17, 2008

Hey san~man I drove my Stang today (it's not my DD) and for some reason I thought of your problem. Have you had a chance to look at it or figure anything out yet? Just curious...

RedDaemon · Sep 17, 2008

id try burping it first. easiest thing to do. you might have air in the system

id do this before replacing what might be a perfectly functioning t-stat

did you check the level in the RADIATOR when the car was cool? id top it off then burp the system

RedDaemon · Sep 18, 2008

bad idea?

Running warm engine temps

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