Searched the forums for an answer but didnt come up with much. My 05 Ram 1500 is running hot at idle, has given me the check guages light and beep. Cools off while driving to the normal range. Upper and lower Radiator hoses are hot .. I dont understand what is going on.. Any ideas??

 

Sounds like your fan clutch may be shot and it is not speeding up the fan enough to pull enough air thru the radiator. What engine to you have?

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

 

Agreed. need to know engine size though.

If both upper and lower rad hoses are hot, the stat has to be open, the pump has to be circulating and the rad isnt blocked.

 

sorry its the 4.7 V8 ... Thanks for the help so far

 

Check around the site a bit but most guys with 4.7s that over heat end up with blown head gaskets and/or cracked heads. Keep that in mind when going through your diagnostics.

 

First off what is hot ????? If its only while sitting jus like these guys said your not getting enough air flow through the radiator , either the fan clutch , poor circlation ect

 

Temp guage goes from 3/4 to the red line with the check guages light on. Is there a way to trouble shoot the fan clutch? Sould I be able to spin the fan by hand with the engine turned off? Thanks for the help so far.

 

Are you losing any coolant? If not the fan clutch is likely the problem, if so I would check the oil for coolant contamination. You can do a coolant pressure test also to check for blown head gaskets. Usually though overheating in traffic or at idle is a low airflow problem like stated previously. Overheating at speed is usually indicative of a low coolant flow problem.

 

Elec fans ??????

 

If you've had it hot enough for a CEL in a 4.7 you've probably done in the head gasket, maybe cracked a head. The 4.7 has those coolant lines VERY close to the cylinder walls - too close IMO.

Don't operate that truck until you diagnose the problem, but yeah if it's coming back down to normal temp when moving and getting air thru the fins, then in all probability the problem is with the clutch fan...