shlammed

Everything was working fine with my car until this -35C **** today. I turned my car on to let it warm up (i dont care about what that thread about warming up cars says i aint getting frost bite to save engine wear) and after a while, my temp guage gets up to normal operating temperature BUT FREEZING COLD AIR IS STILL BLOWING...WTF? So then I turn it off and go back inside and decide to give it another shot. So, I go outside, and sure enough after a few minutes it starts blowing heat. Now, after about 15 minutes of a 20 minute highway drive to work, I look at my temperature guage and it's almost in the red zone. WTF is going on?

shlammed

can it be something simple as low coolant?

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

you have a blown head gasket most likely

it could be a sticking thermometer.... but given no heat in the cabin and then overheating... points to a head gasket problem.

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

yeah... it could be low coolant, but given your problem I would have assumed you ruled out that possibility already.

shlammed

well...it started heating after a while and was heating for the whole trip...but the temp guage was way up there

shlammed

no...it was too freezing and i was late for work to check coolant...ill check after work.

shlammed

if it's a blown head gasket...what are my chances of making it to my gf's house 15km away from work?

shlammed

and blown headgaskets are ****** expensive to fix aren't they.

imported_gatherer

it could be a bad rad....

yes blown head gaskets are hell to fix...

but what fluid mixture do you use in your rad.... maybe it froze in a line and created a leak?

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

as long as your car does not OVERHEAT, as in peg the line in the red.... you should be okay.

bbarbulo

iTrader: (2)

well, don't jump to conclusions just yet.... check all other possibilities, like a leak, low coolant level, or stuck thermostat. I was just saying on an older car, it's not uncommon to see h/g failures with these symptoms. each time I did a h/g change the symptoms were the same.

shlammed

So as long as it's not in the actual red im good?

imported_gatherer

yes.,.....

shlammed

k I should be ok then. Who knows maybe it won't happen again...but i doubt ill have that kinda luck

imported_gatherer

but I';d like to know what mixture you used for your rad fluild... because...

if you took premixed antifreeze from the store....(this is 50% antifreeze and 50% water) and mistook it for pure antifreeze and mixed it with 50% water .... you'd get 75% water 25% antifreeze and that might not be enough anti freeze to keep the water from freezing and busting a line.....

shlammed

No...I got pure antifreeze that said right on the bottle how to mix it and I did it 50/50. That was back in september or so.

imported_gatherer

ok then .... rules out my froozen line theory ... what is the rating of the anti freeze? how low a temperature can it go

shlammed

i forget...it was months ago...it was like -60 or something with 50/50 mix

shlammed

wouldn't a blown headgasket be more obvious? like **** leaking everywhere?

imported_gatherer

so would a busted coolant pipe....

however with the busted coolant pipe if it broke from froozen coolant then the froozen coolant keeps it from leaking out till your engine warms up and then bam coolant all over the road and none in the rad....