Last night in VA Beach I was trying to get to a Hotel Party, but of course with all the traffic due to the fireworks show I ended up driving for 2 hours in stop and go traffic trying to find parking. Well during this time I start to smell strong exhaust smells comming from my car so i look at the temp guage and I'm within a hairs width of being in the red for over heating. I was like this for about an hour due to the fact that the @@@ hole cops wouldn't let me pull over anywhere to let my car cool down. So the only thing I really could do was blast the heat and pray for the best. She was fine this morning when I drove back home. But my question is what could have happened to my car and what should I examine or look for to see if any damage was done.

 

Anytime a motor runs REALLY hot it causes damage. If you were still in the normal range you probably didnt cause too much. Anyway, check your coolant level. I bet its probably a bit low. If it isnt when was the last time you changed it? Also, theres this stuff called water wetter, it changes the surface tension of the water and helps keeps things cooler, because more of the water, on a molecular level, contacts the metal to help dissapate the heat. Hope this helps.
-P.

 

thanks...it was seriously only a hair width away from the red line for over an hour! So I hope there isen't anything major done. I still can't believe the cops wouldn't let me pull off anywhere to cool the car off!

 

I've had that sort of thing happen when I was waiting to drive into a parking lot for a Green Day Concert in the dead of summer. My guage didn't climb as high but my blinker were acting wonky along with soem other electronics. I actually had to turn off the car in traffic and let it sit for a minute then restart it.

Im thinking the computer overheated.

No problems since.

 

does it have the daul fans?

 

No, it's just the single fan. I'm not sure what happened. I mean it just ran right below the red for over an hour. I guess I will just have the fluids and stuff checked out and see what's going on!

 

check to see if the fan is working right... you can use a bottle of redline water wetter to help

 

Yea check the fan to see if it's running, if the fan doesn't kick on, well there's your problem. Had the same thing happen to my 98, the power supply to the fan went bad, bought a new fan for $230 from Ford[:@], and problem was fixed.

 

same problem happened to my first car, temp gauge went up in traffic and wasnt anywhere to pull over, shut it off and let it sit for like 5 mins since traffic was at a stand still... later on once the car died (several months later due to piston rings) but anyways checking over it the fan sensor or whatever it was was all dirty and i wiggled it and it came on, wouldnt helped to have that running that day.

 

if the sensor does go a cheap fix is to use a toggle switch tell you can repair it.......you may be able to use a daul fan from a turbo coupe