JFNash

2nd time happening to me: I started my car, backed up and drove few hundred feet before stopping at a traffic light.

While stopping there, I noticed the engine cooling fan was running at max and the temperature was going rapidly up (in less than 10sec the gauge almost hit the red line).

While the gauge was going up I shifted the gear stick to P and the gauge dropped to normal in less than 5sec.

I shifted back to D and the car drove normally ever since.

Will take her for a check up but I'm curious what may be the culprit?

SC400slide

iTrader: (11)

Sound's like a sticking thermostat. Probably want to get that replaced.

jmcraney

I would guess that one of the radiator hose is collapsing either because the hose is defective or the radiator cap is defective or the cooling fluid reservoir is not properly vented.

CJITTY

I think it is thermo...this is the 2nd post like this in the last few weeks, but doesn't sound like something that can be solved pretty quickly..keep us posted

JFNash

I took it in today...

First reaction from the lead mechanic was: it's a malfunctioning thermostat.

Upon further inspection he found bad thermostat, leaking water pump, and around half of the coolant was already out!

Not sure what would cause the thermostat to die, but it did.

Will let you know how the fix goes.

Thanks gentlemen.

JFNash

I just got the car back.

They replaced the thermostat, water pump and the coolant.

I drove about 80 miles at various speeds with a lot of stops & go's. The temperature gauge is exactly at the splitting point between the two lines in the middle (it used to be slightly up most of the time with two times going rapidly up as described in the original post).

Thanks gentlemen for the input.

marylandlp

I don't understand why the low coolant warning light didn't come on or why the gauge would drop when you put the car in park.Did the dealer say anything about the warning light?

JFNash

marylandlp:

I'm not sure why the low coolant light didn't come on, but maybe because it wasn't low enough to trigger the warning light. I never asked and the dealer never said anything about it.

I saw the area around the water pump. It was covered with coolant residues where it looked like the coolant had been dripping for quite some time already.