Overheating PT

[Ironman]

I had the same problem, with a few exceptions. first of all, I was losing coolant...out the overflow tank. The top would pop off and coolant would spill all over the engine. I replaced the thermostat, that didn't help the problem, so I took it to a shop and had them look over it, they did a pressure test and didn't find any loss of pressure, but they did notice that while the car was running the big black hose right under the intake plenum (I think that is the radiator return hose) got hard (it should be soft and "squishy"), meaning there was pressure buildup. They told me they had seen this before and that there was a hair line crack in the head gasket between one of the cylinders and a coolant port. this made sense to me because a hairline crack wouldn't show up in a 32 PSI pressure test, but with the compression from the engine. air would be able to get into the cooling system and cause the pressure. So they did a head job on it (I had them do all the belts, the water pump, and the power steering pump since it was making that whining noise) they also sent the head out to a machine shop where it was leveled (to get rid of the warp age that was present) so if there is coolant all over the top of your engine, and/or the hose feels hard, you might want to think of doing the head gasket.

[Deano]

All the radiator hoses feel fine to me. I've yet to try to work on it so far. That tends to keep the miles from piling up.

[dragonfly1021]

hi mine did is last year. I did all the you have done..mine was trash in radiator. I cracked the head on the compressor side. They took the radiator and flushed and fix the head. thank goodness it was under warranty. no problems since.

[Deano]

Called dealership to find out what they charge for any of the offending problems.

Could be thermostat: Labor- $140 Parts- $20
Could be water pump: Labor $650 Parts $100
Could be head gasket: Labor $1000 Parts $45

I knew the "could be-s" but didn't know the prices. Probably be better off not knowing. Hopefully, it's the thermostat. I should be able to do that myself. $9 thermostat plus coolant sounds a lot better than over $1000 any day.