92 sc400 .

2 nights ago my thermostat housing broke. i purchased a new thermostat, housing, and gasket and when i was putting them on i noticed the thermostat that i took out was only the top hat.. the spring and valve was not there so it was just str8 open. mind u ive never had an issue with my cooling system up until this.

i replaced above mention and idle the car for about 20 minutes or so.. all is good. i come back to the car a few hours later to try to fix my climate control cuz it stopped coming on. and while i had the center console exposed i the previous owner didnt have the traction control, power/ect, and cig lighter plugged up. so i plugged everything back in and went out for a minute.

and the car just started over heating almost instantly. parked the car and notice smoke coming from the transmission area and before i shut it off a rattle developed only while the car was in drive. tranny was still shifting smooth and i didnt notice any significant powerloss. .... i let the car cool down and i took the thermostat out thinking it wasnt opening. drove the car right back home before it overheated again.. and same thing needle never went down just kept coming up..


my mechanic is coming to take a look at it but.. any ideas in the mean time so i can know more/less what im in store for if this has happened to anyone else

 

ugh...this happened to me and it turned out being my radiator had a hole in it. leaked coolant. but if you haven't noticed any puddles under the car then its probably not that...possibly the water pump is not re-circulating the coolant through.

 

yea i was thinking water pump too, all my coolant was there but it looks like its not moving anywhere. i popped the rad cap when it was hot and there was no pressure at all.. but im worried about the tranny noises and me stalling in drive. i have no leaks; coolant or oil.


..... waiting for the car to cool down before i get at it again

 

this is my first sc so im not as familiar with its systems. is the tranny cooled by the radiator ?



edit: so with the car cooled down it started up fine. no noises besides some catalytic rattle. so im hoping the smoke was just from the tranny overheating because it was like a burnt oil smell. still waiting on mechanic to come help me pinpoint this problem. if it is the water pump it would be a good thing cuz i had just bought a new t-belt and water pump that i was about to install.

 

i had made another thread about this when it was just the housing that broke. no overheating problem. this is what it all looked like.. see what i mean about the thermostat. im hoping that that was intentional and not that the thermostat broke inside there

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...c/sc400024.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...c/sc400022.jpg

 

Same thing happened to me...wird rattle but car idled fine. My thermostat housing broke too, not as bad as yours but it did. However i soon found out that my camshaft bolt on my passenger side bank broke. So after replacing oil and the coolant the car drove about 2 miles before shaking like crazy and stalled in drive again. I noticed vibrating and took off the cover and viola...broken cam bolt. Once i took off the housing cover the gear fell off and everything.