02LSE96LSC91SE84TC
Dedicated LVC Member
My car went into a overheat power reduced mode today. Gauge shot up to hot, temp light came on, dash said reduced power.... I pull over as soon as I could, was stuck in a construction spot and no shoulder to get on so it took about a minute to get out of dodge. I really didn't believe the car was overheating anyway. Turned it off for less than 1 minute restarted all was fine. No way it cooled to a normal temp in 1 minute so i wasn't worried i overheated but obviously knew something was up. After reading the manual and learning the car will do that before a real overheat occurs I checked the obvious. Coolant was down some but not enought to do this IMO. Looked at some bugs stuck in the condensor, not to many but started looking closer, saw some crap in there. So I pulled the header panel cover thingy and holy crap. Look at all this crap stuck in my radiator....well was stuck in there. Appearently the condensor and oil/tranny cooler get more actual highway force air cause the radiator was all kinds of jambed up. Kinda like a dead spot for crap to collect. Most flushed right out with a hose bit so much accumulated at the bottom after that I had to take a stick to loosen that crap to get it to flush out. Crazy. I never ever have seen so much crap stuck in a radiator in my life. On the plus side I'm assuming I'll have no more problems and its nice to know our cooling system can operate with half the radiator blocked from airflow.
I did notice my fan running w/o a/c on this year sometimes and never recall it doing that in the past summers. So there was some signs, but never did the gauge move from its normal 1/2 spot.
Funny thing is it was a cool 70 at most today, never a problem last week in near 90 degree weather.
I would suggest anyone capable of pulling that cover to look at theres. As far as doing the cleaning if your unsure of a safe way to do it. Common sense the coolers are delicate and you shouldn't spray you motor with water...etc.
I did notice my fan running w/o a/c on this year sometimes and never recall it doing that in the past summers. So there was some signs, but never did the gauge move from its normal 1/2 spot.
Funny thing is it was a cool 70 at most today, never a problem last week in near 90 degree weather.
I would suggest anyone capable of pulling that cover to look at theres. As far as doing the cleaning if your unsure of a safe way to do it. Common sense the coolers are delicate and you shouldn't spray you motor with water...etc.