my mom just came home and i had to take the car to go to work. i turned it on, turned around and noticed a louder than normal sound the car was making. it was a fairly hot day and the engine hot/cold sensor was a little bit above halfway going towards hot. this never has happened before - it's always dead center between hot and cold. the sound went away after driving a little bit and i did not have the AC on which my mother did. is this a precursor to something breaking or dying or am i just paranoid? thanks

 

Has the coolant been serviced? Is it original and how many miles on it?

 

In most (probably about 90%....or more....basically 'almost always' but not quite) cases, as long as you have fluid in the coolant reservoir while running, it won't overheat. I've seen brand new coolant rot out a radiator ONCE, and that was probably due to a bad ground, and it wasn't applicable to regular cars. Not quite sure what the noise you were hearing was (maybe describe it more in detail?), but perhaps it was the engine fan blowing. Sounds like you are OK, or within the confines of "normal." If the engine temperatures reaches closer to "HOT" or if you hear a metallic noise (metal on metal, metal on plastic, etc), it may be time to get it checked out.

 

That headgasket is of poor construction, and is prone to blowing when overheated. Anything out of spec should be delt with accordingly.

Flush the coolant, change the thermostat & both pressure caps. $30 now is better than $1500+ next week.

 

thanks for the advice. i haven't noticed it anymore today and will wait to see if anything else happens to it before doing anything to it. it's a 1993 with 180,000 miles on it