today there was a ton of rain, hail, and tornadoes in okc. my work had its doors blown off and the roof partially caved in. on my way home my car overheated. i stopped and put some antifreeze/coolant in and went on my way but half a mile later it overheated again. it has plenty of coolant. I thought that it might be related to the horrible screeching sound my belts make when it is wet outside. i went through a ton of puddles and i was wondering... "would a wet/bad belt cause my engine to over heat?" if not, what else could be the problem. it was about 65-70 degrees today so it shouldnt have been too hot.

 

Check coolant level. Check for leaks.

Thermostat could be bad.

 

No,it wouldnt have any affect on them you would just have a loss of power if anything cause they would be slipping but im with ghost thermostat is probably bad so replace that and go from there see if that corrects it,if that doesnt check your oil see if its milky looking cause you could have blown your headgasket but start withe the cheapest thing first thermostats usually go bad but if that doesnt fix the problem then assume the worst lol...the headgasket......how many miles does your car have on it by the way?

 

160k or so. thermostats dont sound too difficult, righht? i just remembered... when this problem started it would cool down a bit when i was idleing. i dont know if that is relevant or important. thanks!

 

no its not to hard unbolt your water neck then pull out the old one but make sure you put it in the right way so make sure you see what way it was in there when you pull it out so you dont put it in backwards then put the new gasket over the thermostat and put it back in bolt it back up and your good to go i did my first thermostat in my neon last summer and i never did it so its easy and just in case you didnt know the top radiator hose is the one that goes into the water neck good luck o0o and thermostats are cheap between $7.99 and $14.99 at advanced auto

 

great! i appreciate it and i will let you know if this helps.

 

forgot that does sound like the thermostat because it should stay at a steady tempeture

 

ok, i replaced the thermostat with a fail safe one that would stay open in case of another failure but my car still overheats after about 5 minutes of driving. i have topped off the coolant but it did not help. replacing the thermostat was cheap and easy but did not fix the problem so are there any other ideas? when i drive it, the temp goes up and down depending on how fast i am going and how much i accelerate, etc... but it always starts beeping at me sooner or later and i have to stop and let it cool down. it took me an hour to go 6 miles to get the car home yesterday. any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

please dont tell me i blew a head gasket....

 

UPDATE: so i did a little research and i thought maybe the water pump is bad. i went to pull it into the garage and it took a while to start. i had to try several times and rev the engine before it finally started. any ideas? could the timing belt be causing my starting problem AND the overheating?

 

your waterpump could be bad i forgot that one but that is could be whats wrong and did you get a chance to look at your oil to see if its milky by any chance?If its not milky then its your waterpump and i dont remeber wat brand waterpump but its brand new and its $39.99 at advanced auto but then if you dont know how to put it in then you have to get it installed and thats where they will get you with labor probably cost you around $150-$250 depending on how expensive they are a hour but i would rather it be the waterpump then the head gasket cause that costs alot more then this im 99% sure your problem will be solved after that just check your oil to see if it looks milky tho and let me know thanks