Fins clear - not too many dings or bugs. I can see all the way through almost everywhere (both radiator and condensor), when I shine on the back side. No damage to fans or housing. No damage to my front bumper cover (aka dam), nothing blocking normal air flow. No coolent loss and I have "burped" the system as much as humanly possible.

Fans come on and stay on when AC is on. When AC is not on, fans kick on/off as needed and the temp guage never goes above 7/16th.

The car does a normal warm up and rises to about 3/8 to 7/16 of the temp guage and stays there when I don't run the AC (hot, cold, whatever).

On days when the temp is < 85ish (mornings, late-evenings, or those not so darn hot days), same thing. I can run AC all day, no issues

On hot days, car warms up to normal temp, stays there for about 15 - 20 minutes and the interior of the car will cool down just fine. After that, depending on how hot it is outside and how "hard" I am driving it, the temp guage starts creeping up to max temp, and if I don't do anything, after about a minute or two, it jumps to overtemp and dings like mad.

If I turn off the AC, it will slowly go back down to normal. If I turn off the AC AND turn the heat to full on, it drops like a friggin stone to normal range in less then 1 minute. If I leave the AC off, it won't go back up. if I turn it back on, it starts all over again.

 

They making sure the condenser in not clogged or a bunch of bent fins another issues is the condenser may be clogged for the a/c system and causing excessive head build up how hot is the a/c system getting ( One little peice of metal can cause a lot of blockage in this area )

 

Another thing how does the heater working on very cold winter days. My 98 durango did the same thing

 

I did state:

"Fins clear - not too many dings or bugs. I can see all the way through almost everywhere (both radiator and condensor), when I shine on the back side. No damage to fans or housing."

I do believe that it has something to do with the AC system as a whole, but what that something is has yet to be determined. Remember, this ONLY happens on days where the heat outside is > 85+F. Any other time, everything works perfectly OK all the time, no issues with anything.

 

My heater works so well I could cook steaks to well done. If I turn the vent to recirc mode and full heat, the car gets so hot that you cannot stand to be in it - even if you are in the back seat.

In the dead of this past winter, when it got down to about 20degs early one morning, I still only ran my heater at 1/2 full heat with the vent set to fresh air mode.

 

Cut a big hole in your bumper. The reason its over heating is because the A/C is dumping the heat in front of the radiator and something isn't working efficiently causing it to climb in heat. Could be a plug in the system, poor coolant. poor air flow through radiator. I would recommend a coolant flush and go from there. If all else fails cut a hole in the bumper to get some extra air flow in there lol. Does the coolant system build pressure normally? Does the A/C compressor turn on and off? If it does, is it frequent? How clean are the fins on the radiator? Are they dirty or corroded? Is there any residue under the radiator cap?

 

"Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full" on cutting holes. Never gonna happen. At best I will remove the cover to see if that makes any difference if all else fails.

PLEASE NOTE: On days where it does not get above 85 degrees F, there IS NO PROBLEM. Only really hot days like the ones we have been having create this senario and ONLY when I have the AC on. If I don't turn it on (and I didn't on the day it hit 105), it did not even try to overheat!

1) Radiator AND condenser fins clear and not bent (can see all the way thru. This is true for more then 95% of the radiator. No corrosion.

2) Slight residue on the radiator cap and when it opens to push fluid, you can see a small wisp of vapor around the pintle of the cap that holds the spring.

3) AC compressor kicks on and off and by frequent, I suppose it happens about every 60 seconds on a hot day with it set to full fan/recirc mode/full cold.

On final note here. Notice the huge increase in the number of folks reporting the same problem as am I. This is one of the hottest summers on record so far, and it is not a coincidence that more and more older Neons are starting to see issues with this heat. One guy already replaced his radiator, and it did not help, so I am not so quick as to try that yet either. Another has replaced almost every major component of his cooling system, with no relief.

More and more evidence points to the AC and the dumping of the heat in front of the radiator as you state.

Why is the AC generating so much heat? I have not found the solution yet. Compressor going bad? Clutch going bad causing the Compressor to overheat? R-134a levels are OK. Air in the system causing too much pressure/heat? I just don't know.

 

If the compressor is kicking on and off every minute or so, i would assume the a/c system is working properly. You have me stumped. I would consider a cooling flush again, pressure washing the a/c condenser, and changing the thermostat. Even if you did this stuff reason being: I have installed faulty thermostats, sometimes the first coolant flush doesn't get all the gunk out, and power wash the fins again jus to be sure. Also have you used a scanner to check your fans high/low switching in relation to the cars temp?

 

On an other note back when I was at midas I was working on a ford taxi with 200k+ miles that would over heat only sometimes. I changed everything. And i mean everything down to the intake gasket and plenum. I tested the fans many many many times. Still did it. One day I decided to test the fans while I ate my lunch. Well I observed the temp going up, the fan switched to high like it should of. I went to the front of the car and stopped the fan with my hand when I was done with lunch(don't try this), and it just stopped with almost no resistance, and slowly spun back up. New fan fixed my problem. Moral: even though everything seemed fine, the motor in the fan was weak and not working efficiently through town traffic to cool the car.

 

air dam or plastic valance that mounts under the radiator on the core support it sticks down about 2 inches and rubs the ground when you pull into a driveway.. mine was broken and missing a big part of it. it redirects the air up into the radiator and not under the car