2001 PT Touring Edition - Overheating problem

[Rowarken]

I have had my Cruiser for a year now and love it. However, in the past month, it has been almost overheating whenever I am at a traffic light - not when I'm traveling. I got a Chilton's tear down & rebuild manual from the library to do troubleshooting - it's not the temperature gauge, the radiator, coolant or hoses.....
Any ideas about this? A friend found an article online about the possibility of it being the head gasket.

Thanks

[slartyblarfast]

Dollars to doughnuts your cooling fan is not working. Very common problem.... Too common. With the veh idling turn the a/c on. See if the radiator fan is running or not. It may run slow also. The high speed side may not work but the low speed side might. Easiest way to tell is if the a/c works good sometimes at idle and then sometimes not good.... You can also hear the difference in the sound of the fan.

[CREWZIN]

Agree 100% with the above answer. The fan only works when your below 35mph. The air through the radiator cools the water above that. Below that, the temperature is controlled by the fan. Both high and low speeds are controlled by the computer and as was already said, it's a very common problem for one or the other speeds to burn out. Expensive fix if the dealer does it. If you can do it yourself, fans are under $100 on eBay and other sites, and your labor is nothing compared to about $300-400 for the dealer. Do a search on this forum for "overheating" or "fan replacement".