jdroth50

Well, my baby overheated today. Coolant spewing out of the top of the reservoir like mad. I only have 10,000 miles on her, but am wondering if the UDPs might have had a hand in this? Not sure if the water pump is completely dead, or if it is another issue all together. Any thoughts/comments?

fordfanboy

Do you have the EH20 pump?

Doesn't sound like it. Why are you convinced it was the water pump? Did you bust a belt?

"Coolant spewing out of the resevoir like mad" is not just a 'little' hot. That's more than hot enough to blow a headgasket. You should have noticed the dummy gauge long before ity got that hot. It would go redline before coolant would start spilling over.

Hate to say it - but I'll bet you've blown a head gasket and done some nasty damage.

F1Fan

Hi jdroth,

Your car is almost new and should not have overheated unless you wereparked intraffic on a very hot day with your air conditioning set toMAX.There are a couple of things to check before you panic. First once cooled down and more water/coolant solutionwas added does the car run normally? If not take the car into the dealer and have them check it out. If the car is running O.K. confirm that the fans come on and that there are TWO speeds you can hear as the coolant heats up while sitting at idle. If the fans are not working check the fuses and relays. If the fusesare intact and the fans still don't turn on you may have a short, a broken wiring harness, broken connectoror a possibly a failing ECU. If the fans turn on and there are two distinct speeds you can hear then you may just have a coolant system blockage of some sort most likely a stuck thermostat.

Pull out and check your thermostat in boiling water using a thermometer to know exactly what the water temp is you are using. I don't havemy factory Ford shop manual CD with me but Ithink it should start opening at 192F and be fully open by 212F degrees but I'd have to look to confirm those thermostat specs.It may have justbeen a bad or marginal thermostat combined with the UD pulleyson a hot day while sitting intraffic with the A/C on. If you are this lucky thermostats are cheap and easy to replace. This is one of the reasons I won't use UD pulleys as I live in SoCal where it is HOT all the time, there is a lot of traffic and I like running my air conditioning when it get over 80F. But if you feel youhave to keep the UD pulleys onat least get a 160F degree thermostat and lower your cooling fan on-off points in the ECU using your handheld tuner.

If all of yourcooling systemchecks outdoing all of the above checks and your coolant is still bright yellow/green most likely it was just too hot and your UD pulleys caused the problem.But if I were you I'd install a Meziere electric water pump and be done with it as you will neveroverheat even in traffic that is parkedwith your air conditioning on maximum kill. The trick is tore-install yourstock pulleys and lower your fan on-off points and litterally you will never have a boilover again in the car as long as you take care of the cooing system by flushing annually and refiling withthe factoryspecified ratio ofwater andFord coolant of the SAME color for your local temperature ranges.

Cheers!

jdroth50

My temp gauge always sits a with the needle a little under the halfway mark. It was idling for about 5 minutes while I was loading some stuff into it, and I noticed when I poked my head in to put something in the back that the a/c was coming out hot, even with it set on cold. I then noticed the temp gauge was about 2/3 of the way up. By the time I moved it into a parking spot within about 20-30 sec, the temp gauge was almost all the way up. And as far as it being the water pump goes, I'm just assuming. The belt is fine, and it could very well be the thermostat. But I drove it for about 2 hours before it heated up, half of that on the highway, and never noticed the temp gauge move.

F1Fan

Maybe youhad a big air bubble in the system.After you filled the cooling system back up did you try to burp the air using thecoolant system air bleed port? Oh, did it run O.K. after refilling? More than likely you justgot it too hot.

Cheers!

22kart22

yeah +1. Try it again and see what happens. Could have been a bubble screwing up the water pump vacuum

jdroth50

I didn't even take a shot at refilling the coolant and trying again. I was paranoid that I would do more harm than good, so I just called the handy free roadside assistance and had it towed back to the dealer. I was mainly just curious if anyone in a hot climate like Houston had run into a problem like this after installing the UDPs. I'm rockin' the hell out of this loaner Taurus, though. 3.0L of raw power.

Kingofbeers

Hey JD - what'd the dealer say? I'm curious, because mine pooped out about a few pints of coolant from the reservoir after I parked it in the garage the other day. No signs of overheating, or anything.The manual saysthe temp gaugeturns red, the engine runs on alternating cylinders, then shuts down completely in a real overheated situation, so what's with coolant coming out the reservoir I wonder -

Anyway, I hope yours is OK - just curious what the diagnosis was.

Thanks

jdroth50

Just got her back today. I feel like a total *** for even taking it in. The fuse that controls the fans blew. Luckily they didn't mention anything about the toys I've added under the hood.

Kingofbeers

Glad your baby's OK

Sounds like your dealer's a lot cooler than mine -

Thanks