okay today i drove to school temp was fine and then i parked my car and sat there for 5 min. then i turned the car off and herd the gurgling sound. i turned the car back to the on position and i saw the temp gauge higher but not all the way. then i drove it home fine. then i noticed the fans weren't kicking on. so i messed with the wires and now they come on. any ideas on where the short can be taking place at???

 

I've been running into the same issue with my '02 sxt. I'm gonna do a full radiator flush on it today and see how it goes. my next step is to replace the radiator and wire a toggle switch for the fans. I'll post how the temp does after I flush it.

 

Coolant flush would be a great start, cleaning out the radiator fins is also good maintenance. Thermostat and radiator cap is also something cheap to replace that is good maintenance (unless you can check them)The fan only runs when it needs to. Sitting at a stop on a hot day the fan should kick on because the air is not flowing through the radiator. What more then likely happened is when the car was shut off the coolant stopped circulating and cooling. This caused the coolant to rise in temp and create more pressure which caused the coolant to be forced into the overflow (the gurgling noise). The temp read higher because the car was sitting and the coolant wasnting moving. Also when coolant is pressurized it raises the boiling point and effectiveness of the cooling system, when the pressure was released it allowed more heat to soak in the coolant. If the fan kicks on and keeps it from overheating its more then likely fine. The fan flows the air when the car is not moving fast enough to cool it fast enough. If you use the A/C that is even harder on the cooling system because is more strain on the motor, and more heat at the radiator because of the condenser.. The items i mentioned at first are good things to make sure your getting the most out of your cooling system on these hot days. Does the car even overheat? If the fans dont kick on at all, and it allows the car to overheat then its time to get out the multimeter and test some wires.

 

Got the flush, new cap, new thero. and I overheated with a/c on at various times while driving. fans kicks in and stays on. I put in new NGK V-Power copper plugs.

 

Are you sure the fans are running on high speed? How's the water pump? And why change to copper plugs?

 

I'm not sure if they are running on high speed. I'm thinking it has something to do with the water pump, 132xxx miles no pump/timing belt change yet. I had NGK Platinum plugs but I keep reading that they run hot.