Okay guys? My car is overheating at highwat speeds but not sitting in traffic. WTF? There seems to be a little bit of oil in the coolant but no collant in th oil. I checked the coolant this morning and it was very low but there are no leaks anywhere. I'm thinking head gasket. How do I know for sure? Compression check? Thanks.

 

If there's oil in your coolant, I would suspect the headgasket, as well. I would do a compression check, although you can have good compression and still have a blown headgasket. Are you displacing any coolant into the reservoir at all? That's what my car did under boost when the h/g was blown. boost and combustion pressure would push the coolant out of the cooling system and into the reservoir. When enough of it was displaced, I would overheat.

 

Resevoir is half full, above the line.

 

BTW, what's up with this squad stuff? Did I miss somthing?

 

if were sure there is oil in coolent never mind, but if not, i assume the rad. is clean, i/e highly unlikley, but fan could cool in traffic but road speed wouldn't pull enough through clogged rad. highly unlikely but possible, when you say overheat do you mean on guage or steam coming out ? if guage, might be sender prob. but i assume were talking about steamy melt down and not guage prob..

 

even if your reservoir is filled correctly, check your radiator level.

considering you're turbocharged, it's very easy to assume you have a blown headgasket. do a compression check.

 

No, the radiator is a year old. The guage gets almost to all the way hot, it does not actually biol over or anything? So coolant temp. sensor?

 

what makes you think it's the coolant temp sensor? if the fans come on at idle, it aint the sensor.

it could be the sending unit, but highly unlikely.


besides, you said it overheats on the highway, but doesnt in traffic. that's backwards of any car with a cooling system problem, but it's parallel with a car with a blown headgasket.

the air rushing into the grille at 60mph should cool the motor reliably. only when you're in traffic could the fans come on, as there's no air rushing over the radiator to cool the motor. sinc the motor isnt overheating in traffic, but overheats with a load on it, it sounds like you probably have a blown headgasket or other severe cooling system deficiency... not a sensor malfunction.

 

Word. Thanks man. I am off Friday and I will fix it one way or another.