Thanks for your never-ending support! The quick and precise answers and suggestions that you all provide is priceless in its worth. After the timing belt change ( I skipped the water pump, it looked fine during a visual inspection) I drove my toyota camry (v6) up the road to the park to see if the overheating problem once again arises. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes on the road, my needle starts climbing towards H again, so I pull over and pop the hood. The first thing I saw was my coolant reservoir laying askew in my engine compartment, then I noticed coolant spewing out of the radiator cap. I disconnected one of the hoses to burp all the steam out, refilled the coolant and started to drive home. Almost immediately my needle reached for the H, but since home was right down the hill I decided to risk it. At the top of the hill there is a stop light, at which I was at red and idling, watching the needle touching the H now and going into the red zone. I could hear a hissing sound from under the hood which sounded like the radiator cap again. On green I crested the hill and started downwards and almost instantly my needle fell into the normal operating temp. Once on level ground again and parking my car on my street, the needle again began ascending to the H...so my question is:
1. My thermostat has been removed, so ruling that out, what could cause this?
2. Is my car cooling on declines because the angle moves the coolant towards my radiator?
3. Why so much pressure under the radiator cap?
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3 Answers
You may have developed an air bubble in the system, probably from the reservoir falling off, or from the mechanics not bleeding the cooling system after emptying it. There'll be a pocket of air in the system that's making the car overheat.
Does the car lose power when it's overheating?
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Coolant temperature decreasing on the incline could well be because the engine generates much less heat going downhill, since it's not working as hard. This would give the cooling system a chance to bring the temperature down.
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Of course the wáter pump "looks" fine. It always does, until the seal fails. or the bearing fails and takes the seal with it. You should always change the pump when you are at the timing componentes. After the overheatings you experienced, it won't be long for the pump to fail. I am pretty sure your problems didn't go away completely.
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