QuestionI greatly appreciate you writing me back so qiuckly, I will do my best to answer your q's, first- it's the top hose that is blowing and only when the car is running hot not when it's running cold. Second, we removed the pump, and spun it to see if it was pumping water through it, it was. We ran water through the radiator, and inspected the termostate but did not boil it. All of them look new and are free of rust and corrosion. Third, Yes all of the cars parts were replaced, the car's damage was to the front right side of the car. The AC radiator was rounded to fit the frame but that appears to be the only wierd thing about the repairs. And finally the heater is not blowing hot air at all. No matter if the car is hot or cold, it still just blows out cold air. I hope that this info is a little more helpfull,
Thanx again,
Cat
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Followup To
Question -
hey there, I inherited this car from my mother about 3 months ago. 2 weeks ago the car started running really hot, I knew the coolant needed to be flushed so I didn't stress about it. I flushed the coolant myself and the same day i did so, a hose off the radiator blew spraying coolant everywhere and causing the car to run rediculously hot. thought the water pump needed to be replaced, not that, took it out it's in great shape, same with the thermostate, checked the radiator, and it's not that either. after replacing the water pump, thermostate and checking the radiator I attempted to take it for trial run. within a block the hose blew again =0( Now the car was in an accident in 2001, and needed huge repairs, which apon opening the hood I discovered were not done so well at all. I'm praying that the problems I'm having are not derived from the poor repairs but I'm lost as to what's wrong. The dealership wants $1100 to try and fix it, but i'm poor and i need as much help as i can get so please get back to me asap
thanx
Answer -
First step is to figure out what is causeing a large enough restriction to blow the hose off.
Is it the top or bottom radiator hose?
The top hose flows coolant away from the engine and into the radiator and the bottom is "to the engine from the radiator"
what did you do to check the thermostat and radiator?
does the hose only blow off when the engine gets hot? or will it do it cold too? what part of the car was damaged and did they replace every effected part? does the heater blow hot during the short period the car will run?
let me know more info, their are a lot of things I need to know before I can tell you what's most probable.
-cheers
scheidmiwa@hotmail.com
Answerit sounds to me like the radiator has a restriction of some sort, it may be flowing but not enough to relieve the pressure at the top hose. What you can be sure of is:
the pressure from the waterpump is good untill it hits the radiator when the pressure increases enough to blow the hose. If you wanted to test this, you could remove the radiator and get a hose to connect the inlet and outlet hoses together, if they still experience excessive pressure and pop off, you know the restriction is somewhere else (though i'm not sure where else it could be since i believe the lower radiator hose goes directly to the waterpump inlet).
the reason the heater doesn't work is most likely because the engine isn't hot enough to open the heater valve. I BELIEVE you can get a radiator pressure tested to see how effectively it's flowing, this may be worthwile to look into.
hope this helps
-cheers
