alanurm@tonto.DEC (Sustaining Engineering at CSS_NSG) (09/03/85)
Need help analyzing a overheating celica... Car: 1982 Toyota Celica GT liftback with 2.4 liter 22R engine. Problem: Temperature gauge creeps up and up and up until needle comes to rest in gauge area that is red (rest of gauge is white line). This problem shows up rapidly when car is taken up onto highway. Turning on the heater will cause the temparature to drop for a bit but then it will creep back up. Any attempt to drive much faster than 50 mph will cause the needle on gauge to stay in the red zone. Readings with a thermometer show the following: gauge at 1/3 full scale: 160 deg. F gauge at 2/3 full scale: 190 deg. F guage at just below red zone: 210 deg. F Background: Car was purchased used recently and had been in accident. Car was repaired by shop for damage to right front area before purchase. What has been done: Fan belt was tightened. (Belt was loose) Thermostat was replaced once - no change Thermostat was removed completely - no change, just takes a little longer to heat up. Had Radiator shop check radiator (while on car) - Thus far no exhaust leaks into coolant, water pump is pumping okay as far as they can tell. Reccomendations: The Radiator shop says that the radiator must be taken off, flow tested. They started talking rodding out, recoring, new radiators, etc. This makes me nervous. What I need: Has anyone gone through this sort of thing, what happened, what was the final outcome, etc. I really hate to spend $100 - $200 just now on a car that I just got. (I can't take it back - private sale). Any advice, warnings, horror stories, etc would be extremely helpful. thanks in advance... Len Alanurm - DEC reply to ...decwrl!rhea!tonto!alanurm or post to this newsgroup. I will summarize and post if there is sufficient response.