02, overheating, car newbee!!

michelep · 03-02-2009, 08:03 PM

Ok so I don't really understand cars that well but, recently my kia started to overheat a lot and fairly often, it does it mostly when the heat is on, its pretty cold up here so the heat is usually full blast. the fist 2 time it happened after the battery died cuz of the cold and i got boosted and then drove with the heat on and the car totally overheated. since, well if i drive more than 10 mins with the heat on, it goes???

someone said it could be the thermostat? I don't have a whole lot of money to get it fix and i'm always afraid of having mechanics taking advantage of me so if i seem to know what i'm talking about, it may help

thanks

PLP · 03-02-2009, 08:16 PM

did you say very cold? How cold it is? -20F?

there are several possibilities. Some very likely another one not so much, but still possible.
Start from last one

First - thermostat is not working, replace it and it should be fine. BTW - you may drain and/or flush radiator also since antifreeze will have to be drained.

Second - if it is really cold and your antifreeze is not very good it could freeze in radiator. When you start engine it overheats almost right away it could be it because frozen fluid is solid and does not flow

Third (which just came to my mind) - water pump. Sometimes it runs out and has to be replaced.

Fourth - not enough of fluid - add some and see what happens.

Now, how to find it out....

Open the hood, check the coolant reservoir for fluid. Is it liquid? If so, is it above minimum?
If so, two options are excluded.

Then, start the car. Localize two thick rubber pipes - one delivering coolant to radiator, another below radiator to engine. The upper one should be hot first, the bottom one gets hot after the radiator is hot.
So, start engine and keep touching all the pipes. If you can feel heat on some of them (also, the small ones going to the heater core) its fine. If you can get plenty of heat from heater - water pump is fine.
If the engine reaches its right temp you should feel the thick upper pipe is getting hot. Then radiator is warming up and after several minutes bottom one will get hot too. After next few minutes the fan on radiator should start spinning.

Let me know what of this worked what not.

EDIT

there are also some issues with overheating when air/gas ratio is off.

cbane1 · 07-01-2009, 10:27 AM

My 01 Sportage is oveheating and I have also had some problems with Code 0171. do you thnk this could be the cause of the overheating? I have replaced the main hose from the air filter box tothe top of the engine. I do not see anything else that could have been unplugged. could you possibly send me a diagram of some of the things that should I should be checking? Any help is appreciated.

PLP · 07-01-2009, 10:40 AM

michelep,
you did not respond. I believe overheating is over, isn't it?
I just realized what could it be. The coolant. Since it was so cold that battery died, your coolant could contain too much water; therefore, freezing point is much higher than it should be. So, coolant probably froze in the radiator. Not completely, but enough to block any flow.

cbane1
DTC 0171 - system too lean.
Yes, this could be a cause of overheating. When system too rich, though, engine may not reach the right temperature.

Could you give more details? Mileage, location, any other codes, problems with starting, fuel economy, irregular idling, loose of power and so on. anything and everything.

cbane1 · 07-01-2009, 10:53 AM

This Sportage has about 120,000 miles on it. We have had problems in the past sitting in the car rider line at school with it overheating. I am in Mississippi (and yes I have all my teeth) and when it gets 96 degrees we can't run the air while idling. I just had the problem with the P0171 and noticed that the main air intake hose (I think that is what you call it) was dry rotted with holes in it. I went to a junkyard and fould one in great shape and replaced it myself. I have worked on the car before and it is not very difficult. I removed the battery cable to hopefully reset the code but after I drove it a while the check engine light came back on. Same code. I have had no problems starting, no noticeable fuel consumption, idiling is OK and the power seems to be OK (for that car - not very fast to begin with.

I drove out of town yesterday. The temp outside was about 97 and we were traveling about 65 miles per hour for about 1-1/2 hours. About half way through the trip the temp guage started climbing above the halfway mark to about 3/4. When we arrived I raised the hood and let the engine cool. I checked the water and had to put in about a pint. We got backon the road about 9:00 pm and did not have any trouble with the temp. It stayed in its normal position just below half way. I am not sure where to start.

PLP · 07-01-2009, 11:02 AM

Thanks,
you could add car and location to your profile

Why didn't you stop right away to see why temperature was going up?

This I believe was lack of coolant. Did you have to add coolant/water at any other time? Do you have any leak?

Another things to check.
Thermostat, radiator (is it clean? all fins are fine?), flush system, check radiator fans, does A/C work fine? Does it blow cold? and again, all connections (fuses, relays, connectors, grounds...)

For lean system - many things. Either, you can go around and check everything or have someone with live scanner see what is going on. So, I would start with spark plugs, cables, air filter/air intake, check connectors on all sensors. Also, injectors/fuel pump. You may try to add some fuel system cleaners (a good one, not the cheapest).
I hope someone else with Sportage may have more to say about it.

MOWellsinVA · 08-01-2009, 05:54 PM

Last year our '97 Sportage EX was overheating badly. Tried thermostat, temperature gauge, radiator flush, but it kept overheating and boiling over. The coolant overflow/expansion tank has a cap assembly with a sort of siphon hose running down to the bottom of the tank where the overflow from the radiator flows in. Turns out that the hose fitting at the top was broken and hanging on by a thread; when we replaced the top cap and hose assembly, the car has not overheated once. Coolant was venting out of the system and not being captured by the overflow/expansion tank, leading to a low coolant situation. A seventeen dollar part fixed the problem.