Wonderin if anyone could please help me out a little bit. Ok here is the problem. So about a month ago I noticed that my temp. gauge would start reading really high, so I would check the engine and it would be cool. Over the last few weeks the problem has started to get worse, with the temp. saying that I was overheating, only to go down and really flucuate. Even at night, I would drive down the street and it would say I was overheating for a while, and then go down and back up again. The next problem that I have noticed with this is that my fluid levels have been going very low and sometimes I notice that the fluid is almost completely drained from the resevour. The fan and everything else is working properly, I just replaced the actual tank where the fluid is kept, and a vacuum hose which seemed to help where it does not overheat so fast, but the gauge still reads over time that the car is overheating, which in many cases i know that it is not due to only driving it for 2 or 3 minutes. I have been told to replace my thermostat, anyone have any idea what could be wrong?? BTW, the car is a 2000 dodge neon with about 80thou and some change. I get the oil changed every 3k miles, and to my knowledge there is nothing seriously wrong with the ride, except the problem listed. PLease let me know.

 

well...i think i can help u out, u c, my dad has a 1997 dodge neon sport, and my bro drove it out once and he called me telling me that the car overheated, what the problem was, was that the engine coolant is leaking, u should seriously check that out...u dont want ur engine overheating alot...and with the guage, maybe the sensor is all messed up or fried somehow, im not a mechanic or anything, but u can always check hehe

 

check if theres any coolant leaking, try to find the source of the leak, check your radiator too, i remember my 1st gen neon had a minor leak in it at about 89k miles,i drained my coolant and put some stop leak and it fixed the problem. if theres no leak and your overheating or your temp gauge is being shady, take it to a shop before it gets worse.

 

yup, check for leaks, your gage is probably going up and down due to air getting in the cooling system. Worst case you have a head gasket leak.

 

After many months of trying to fix the problem of randomly overheating in my neon and many people giving the wrong answers I finally have the solution. My car would randomly overheat could not figure it out tons and tons of mechanics I talked to said it was cracked head only problem with that is I was never losing coolant so I knew it was not that. The solution was very easy Neons are supposed to be able to get air out of the coolant system automatically. Maybe in most case not mine. Had an airlock in the heater core simple solution is to put and access with the prestone flush kit on the top hose of the heater core start car and slowly add coolant the old fashioned way until you have no more bubbles. Have not had any overheating issues since and it has been a year. So much for the cracked head. Hope it helps some people I know it took me a very long time to actually find somebody with the correct answer.

 

have you replaced the thermostat and radiator cap yet? if you do the thermostat make sure you leave the cap off and let the car run until the thermostat opens and lets the coolant flow a few times to burp the air out, also look to make sure your fan comes on. if still have issues after that then you got bigger problems waterpump, clogged radiator or head gasket.

 

Let's remember this thread is from 2005 folks (almost 7 years old)