v braaten

So, my '04 Mustang GT has been overheating for the last week. There are no noticeable leaks but, here are the symptoms. After 15-20 minutes of driving, as the engine warms up, the temp gauge goes to about the 12 o'clock position and there is a strong coolant/overheating smell. I have a 30 minute drive to work, so before I leave work in the afternoon I check the coolant level and it is always fine. I drive home, check the oil, and it's clean but the dipstick is so hot that it has smoke coming off of it. About an hour later I check the coolant level and it's usually 8-12 ounces low;I refill it. Coolant is clean too. Still, no leaks.Even as hot as the engine gets, the fan doesn't come on. The "check engine soon" light doesn't come on but, I checked by using my SCT tuner to search for trouble codes and it says there are none.

Today I replaced the thermostat. I drove the car for 20 minutes and it overheated again with all of the same symptoms as before. Obviously, not a thermostat problem.

If the fan doesn't come on wouldn't the car throw a trouble code? Since the water pump isn't leaking and doesn't make noise, and the thermostat is good, what else could the problem be? Maybe the radiator?

If anybody has experience with this kind of problem I would like to hear from you.

96t-bird

Have you check your intake manifold, heater hoses,heater core etc? Is the water/coolant circulation?

petrock

The radiator fan not functioning won’t through a code. I would start looking into the cause of that. Do you overheat on the highway, or only in stop/go side streets? The fan is supposed to keep air moving over the radiator when the car isn’t moving. If it doesn’t come on, then the coolant won’t be able to cool down and you’ll overheat.

Good luck...