I just bought this car sitting at 213k miles , previous owner states his uncle changed the timing belt, water pump, and thermostat and it drove 700 miles before overheating, it was sitting one notch above normal temperature when I test drove it and overheated almost to red line when I got on the freeway for one exit and got off, it cooled one notch fast after turned off and I felt the engine and it didn’t feel too hot at all and the coolant hoses didn’t feel too hot either.. soon as I bought it I burped it and bled it with a big funnel from the reservoir not knowing about the bleeder valve near the intake.. noticed lots of air and air bubbles right away and did the idle at 2000 rpm for 5 minutes and let cool down from the reservoir 3 times where it burped bubbles almost consistently before I learned about the bleeder valve..then opened that up and filled it and the reservoir and burped that once and coolant did get drop into the reservoir but still staying one notch above regular temperature and heat doesn’t turn on until car is regular temp and I start reving at 2000 rpm, as far as I can see no leaks and have burped car in the car on my driveway once so have tried that. Any ideas? I also tried opening the bleeder valve and having that and the reservoir open while both full and tried turning the car on as both starting spitting coolant right away so I turned the car off after a second, and when I do have the car on with the reservoir open and the funnel on it with coolant burping it and try opening the bleeder valve it squirts coolant out right away, I’ve read people say to open the bleeder valve and fill it up while the car is on but it doesn’t seem like I can do that since it starts gushing out coolant please help before I take to the dealer for an inspection thank you in advance

 

When the engine is cold, start the car and turn the heat for the cabin up to maxium setting, fan on max setting, radiator cap off, prepared to add coolant as the engine warms up. You might have air trapped in the heater core circuit.

 

FWIW, the "bleeder" near the intake is actually on the throttle body. And it's a fill port, not a bleeder. When filling the cooling system, it'll back fill the reservoir on it's own. Bleeding the system is very straight forward.

 

Engine needs to be tested for blown head gaskets.

 

that’s what I’ve been doing, I’ve done this 5 times and when I turn on the heat it’s just ice cold until I start reving at regular temp then when the car heats up and I still rev the heat works until I start driving and have the revs low and when I thought it was finally empty of air I took it for a test drive and it still over heated and did the same thing, no coolant in oil and no white smoke out the exhaust, having air pockets in heater core makes sense but why has it been a pain for me to fix?

 

I have bled the system like the guide says twice already and the only part I left out was draining the engine.. I opened filler plug, and reservoir then put my no spill funnel on the reservoir and fill the filler hole to the top then I close it and fill the reservoir to full and turn on the car and do the rev to 2000 rpm and all of it except drain the coolant at the beginning, is that really what’s messing me up and causing this whole mess?

 

no white smoke from exhaust, and no coolant in oil

 

That is not a diagnosis, both can be true but the head gasket(s) blown.

 

Hook up a code reader that does real time data and find out what the temps are when it's near the red line. Sometimes the gauge is faulty.

 

i would try bleeding on an incline, where you raise the front end of the car to get the funnel at the highest point possible then hold the revs to extract any trapped air.

in my experience, it took over 20 mins of holding the rpm at 2k to really get the air bubbles out of the system - with the heater on full blast of course!

 

You bleed the system with the radiator cap ON.

1. Fill the engine thru the fill port on the throttle body. This can be a slow process. I stop filling when I see coolant start to back fill and remains in the reservoir.
2. Install the fill plug.
3. Fill the reservoir until it's full.
4. Install the radiator cap onto the reservoir.
5. Bleed the system per the attached procedure in Post #3. You don't rev the engine. You hold it at 2k - 2.5k RPM until the engine reaches operating temperature (watch the gauge).

It should not be this difficult.