QG18DE Overheating

JLee1469 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 07:17 PM

So here's the story. The radiator blew up while my dad was driving this to work last week. He works nights and I never fixed the dead bulb for the engine temp side in the cluster so he was unaware it was running real hot. Car got towed back home.

Replaced the radiator, thermostat, upper and lower hoses, and filled with Prestone 50/50. Water pump isn't leaking. Drove it around for a little but then it starts overheating again. Cold start idle is fine, needle goes up after 5-10 min of city driving. Hope it isn't the headgasket!

Anything else I should consider before I try to sell the car? Dad wants to move on but the car still runs great otherwise. 223k still gets 34mpg and is real quiet. I think I'll drain the coolant, test/swap thermostats, MIGHT replace water pump although I'm hesitant cause I never done it before, might even drain the oil and get an analysis to check if coolant is in there.

boyrs · #2 (**permalink**) 07-17-2011, 01:10 PM

not sure about the 1.8L, but know the 2.5L has been prone to get bubbles in the lower hose causing overheating. the fluid is suppose to be filled under pressure to prevent this.

soty453 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-18-2011, 04:00 AM

There is a bolt on top of the thermostat housing that you can loosen while the car is heating up. This gets rid of the air in the system that was trapped when you had everything off. Once you see a consistent stream of coolant coming out, then you can tighten it again, and you should be good to go.

soty453 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-18-2011, 04:03 AM

It's proper name is the air relief plug, by the way. I'm new to this forum stuff, so I'm gunna ask you guys how to upload a photo from my desktop lol. I have a pic where it will show you the location of the plug, but I dunno how to do that. That's if you can't find it. If you can, then awesome!

JLee1469 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-29-2011, 05:42 AM

I was able to find it, thanks anyways soty453. I think I bled it properly but no good.

Had some free time earlier this week and took out the water pump. Hasn't leaked until I loosened the bolts. Propeller freely spins with pulley. Spoke to first owner and he never changed it so 220k on it and don't seen an issue. Out of ideas!! Should I bother buying a new pump and install it anyways?