Few Questions, Over heating again...What route do I go?

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wade0731

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I have an 02 Lincoln LS 3.9 V8. I have ready many threads and I am just not sure what way to go with this. Well I made a thread when I first came on here about my LS over heating and I thought I had fixed it. It went months without over heating. When the other week it over heated again. So I replaced the degas bottle because it had some hairline cracks in it. After this, it didn't over heat for a few weeks, everything seemed great. Now on my way to my vacation spot, 7 hours away it starts to over heat in stop and go traffic. I turn the heat on get going again and the temperature stays down as long as I am actually going. If I am sitting still it wants to go up.

I have checked my fan to see if it kicks on higher when I turn on the air. It does go faster. Does this sound like the fan actuator or pump is going out or do I have an air bubble in my cooling system somewhere because the heat turning on did the trick when I sped up. Perhaps I just didn't bleed it right even though I followed the directions to a T?

Not sure which route to go. A cooling system overhaul would be hard for this college student, but I know its could be necessary. What should I start going at first?
 
wade0731 said:
A cooling system overhaul would be hard for this college student, but I know its could be necessary. What should I start going at first?
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I have a 00' v6 and I feel your pain being a college student with an LS. Not complaining about it but just the amount of work that has to go into it. I too have this overheating problem and just ripped out the thermostat and bled the system and my car runs below midway mark even with the a/c on. It wont hurt if you're doing highway driving since the thermostat is pretty much open all the time. Just make sure to bleed the system out thoroughly.
 
fudge12 said:
...It wont hurt if you're doing highway driving since the thermostat is pretty much open all the time. Just make sure to bleed the system out thoroughly.
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It does hurt (engine life, gas mileage, performance), but this has been argued to death already...
 
wade0731 said:
...Not sure which route to go. A cooling system overhaul would be hard for this college student, but I know its could be necessary. What should I start going at first?
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Check the cooling fan. It should be unreasonably loud and strong when the engine is overheating. If not, then it is a problem.
Suspect all plastic cooling system parts that haven't been replaced in the last five or so years.
 
Thanks guys. When it trys to overheat again I'll check out the fan joegr. jjcool00 I replaced it with a dorman I belive. I had researched it on here and a lot of people had used it too with success.
 
wade0731 said:
Thanks guys. When it trys to overheat again I'll check out the fan joegr. jjcool00 I replaced it with a dorman I belive. I had researched it on here and a lot of people had used it too with success.
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I can personally say that I(not knowing better before joining this forum) replaced my degas with the dorman bottle and it MAYBE lasted 6 months. AND I don't drive my LS daily. High chance that ur dorman bottle is now cracked again as well.
 
wade0731 said:
... I replaced it with a dorman I belive. I had researched it on here and a lot of people had used it too with success.
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I'd say that a few claimed success (for the first six months, anyway), and a lot said that it didn't last long and to stay away from it.
 
@jjcool Wow alright I will give that a check! That must be a real piece of crap product. @joegr Thanks for that info, probably will replace with a motor craft ASAP if I'm going to do all of this right. What piece of equipment as far as the cooling system is usually next to replace after the degas that I might be able to see stress cracks in? Only reason I ask is because of the tight funds as a college student.
 
Also when it is about to over heat the A/C gets really hot when the temperature starts to go up.
 
wade0731 said:
... What piece of equipment as far as the cooling system is usually next to replace after the degas that I might be able to see stress cracks in? Only reason I ask is because of the tight funds as a college student.
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The coolant outlet pipe / thermostat housing / engine fill cap.
 
Okay, turned the car on fan wasn't on. Turned ac on while idleing, fan didn't kick on. Drove around the block came back left it in drive fan wasn't on. Let it get a little over 3/4 on the temperature gauge and the light saying its over heating came on and the fan still didn't come on. I'm guessing there is something wrong with my fan lol?
 
wade0731 said:
Okay, turned the car on fan wasn't on. Turned ac on while idleing, fan didn't kick on. Drove around the block came back left it in drive fan wasn't on. Let it get a little over 3/4 on the temperature gauge and the light saying its over heating came on and the fan still didn't come on. I'm guessing there is something wrong with my fan lol?
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Sounds like the actuator to me....... Like Joe said, the fan should sound very, VERY loud!!!!!
 
Should I have it tested somehow to make sure this is it? Even though I don't really like them, I have a Ford dealership in town.
 
wade0731 said:
Should I have it tested somehow to make sure this is it? Even though I don't really like them, I have a Ford dealership in town.
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They'll want to replace the whole unit...... That'll be BIG $$$$$$$$. IMHO, I would replace the actuator anyway. They do seem to fail if the hydraulic fluid isn't changed.
 
Yeah, I figured that's what they would do. Where should I order the actuator from? Would Autozone carry it? The only thing that gets me is that when I turn on the heat it seems to make it cool faster, I thought this meant an air bubble?
 
wade0731 said:
Okay, turned the car on fan wasn't on. Turned ac on while idleing, fan didn't kick on. Drove around the block came back left it in drive fan wasn't on. Let it get a little over 3/4 on the temperature gauge and the light saying its over heating came on and the fan still didn't come on. I'm guessing there is something wrong with my fan lol?
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Are you saying that it isn't running at all, even at a low speed? If so, you have a bigger problem than just the actuator.
 
wade0731 said:
... The only thing that gets me is that when I turn on the heat it seems to make it cool faster, I thought this meant an air bubble?
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You have little to no airflow through the [big] radiator. The heater cores are really a small radiator. If you turn on the small radiator (heater), then it cools the engine.
 
Yes that's what I'm saying. I cranked it and I looked in there to see if its running and nothing. I took a stick put it in there to move it to see if I was looking at the right thing and it was the fan and it moved when I pushed with the stick. I turned on AC and it didn't run either and everything else like I said above.
 
You have a problem with the fan system then. What's the fluid level, and how does it look? Can you see fluid circulating in the reservoir with the engine running?

You said "I have checked my fan to see if it kicks on higher when I turn on the air. It does go faster." Was this incorrect, or was it running then and it's not running now?
 
joegr said:
You have a problem with the fan system then. What's the fluid level, and how does it look? Can you see fluid circulating in the reservoir with the engine running?

You said "I have checked my fan to see if it kicks on higher when I turn on the air. It does go faster." Was this incorrect, or was it running then and it's not running now?
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That WAS correct as of about a month ago when I was checking it to see if that was the cause instead of the degas bottle. As of now it doesn't move at all. The fluid level is a little below max cool level or whatever it is called. I opened the bleeder valve on the way there when I was stopped, to try and possibly get some air out so it leaked some fluid from that. As for being able to see it circulating, you mean in the degas bottle?
 
The degas bottle is for coolant. We're talking about the hydraulic fan system now. It takes Mercon V automatic transmission fluid. Never put anything else in. The reservoir is at the front of the engine on the passenger side. (There is a similar reservoir on the driver's side that is the power steering, which also takes Mercon V ATF.)
 
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