SpiffyMcGee

My Mach 1 recently starting overheating. The temperature gauge will sit perfectly centered if the car is just idling, but as soon as I start driving a little, the car will overheat to the point that it'll start surging and trying to stall. When the problem first arises, when I come to a stop the RPMs will drop to 500 and go back up. As the car gets hotter, it'll dip past that in an attempt to stall.

Is my thermostat shot? Or could it be the waterpump? My brother, who's got more experience working on cars than I do, said that since the car actually idles perfectly once it's cooled down, it might not be the waterpump.

Thanks in advance for any help.

ackuric

ya but once you hit higher rpms, which would require the waterpump to pump more, you overheat, correct?

My guess is water pump, I could be wrong. Failing thermostats, radiators, fans, all would cause excess heat at idle, more so then while moving, in most situations.

Seems to me as if your water pump can only pump so much, or you may have a resitriction somewhere in the system, which is very doubtful, since its a fairly open system.

Gumby

If it's an 04 then isn't it still under warranty? Just take it to Ford.

Daisy2000

That actually happened to my car too. I had just got my pulleys installed that day and the mechanic forgot to plug the fan back in. Guess he had to unplug it to make more room while installing. I actually took my car to a different mechanic that same day and he looked at it and pointed right to the problem. Snapped it back in and i was good to go. You might want to make sure it isn't something as simple as that first.

DTK

+1 on the water pump. That is what it sounds like.

Like Gumby said, take it back to Ford if you can.
My '04 is still under warranty until next summer.

Whatever you do, don't keep driving it around while overheating or you will f**k something up.

I have seen blocks crack due to overheating and one chick I worked with a few years ago came in to work and said "can you look at my car, the temp needle went to red on my way to work".
I go outside to look at it and it is on fire (no s**T, it was on fire!).

I am sure your problem is not as extreme but get it fixed man as it ain't going to go away.

Chopper

I figure it's the thermostat.The reasons being;
It idles with no overheating.
It heats up as soon as you start driving.
This points to a blocked system and a car of this young age doesn't have blocked cooling passages.
The only thing that can logically block the coooling system is a faulty thermostat.
A waterpump failure is due to bearings or seals going south,not impeller blades.If the impeller blades have come loose,the engine will overheat no matter how fast the engine is turning.
I would take the car to Ford and fix it under warranty.If there's something more wrong,you have the repairs documented.

04charcoalgt

this sounds right

kylebgt

Defiantly sounds to me like your thermostat is stuck in the closed position. Dont drive it until you get it replaced. Even if it turns out to not be the thermostat start with that, they usaully dont cost more than $15. If that doesnt work then look into the water pump, but I couldnt imagine that going out on a 04'