Hello Friends of the RAM,

Yesterday I brought my boat to the lake, it's about a 55 mile drive and temps were close to 90. I had no issue on the way up, nor right away, during launch I let it idle for about 10 minutes, after I launched my boat and was bringing the trailer to the parking area my temp began to climb and pushed into the 245 range, the dash lights came on saying "Check your Guages." I immediately turned the heat on full blast to help bleed off extra heat and headed down the road. Once I got going the temp moved down back towards a more normal range, I say more normal because it hovered just over the tick mark in the middle of the range rather than to just left of the tick mark where it usually is. Once I got the heat under control I parked it while I tended to my boat.

On the ride back the temp stayed about the tick mark and I had no more issues, but when I stopped to buy fuel I checked the coolant reservoir to find it empty. My next stop was to Autozone to buy some coolant and fill the reservoir up. I continued to drive the truck and after a few stops of 30 minutes to an hour the temp is staying near the normal temp.

My question is, should I be looking for anything in particular because of the over heat? I had my water pump replaced last year and my truck has just over 90,000 miles on it. I'm guessing it wasn't burped fully after the coolant was replaced and that I may never had noticed an issue if I hadn't let it idle so long. However, if there are common reasons for low coolant and maybe it wasn't due to bad burping I'd like to know so I can check for them.

Thanks
-Bob

 

I'd check for signs of coolant leaks. Water pump weep hole, heater hoses, radiator end tanks, etc.

Of course, if the radiator cap isn't holding pressure it'll boil it right out the overflow then when it cools down it'll suck the bottle empty.

Sticking thermostat, plugged up radiator, leak, or head gasket is about all that would cause these things to overheat when they're not loaded down. Or the fan failing.



What kind of coolant are you putting in it, just out of curiosity?

 

overheating problem I had was related to water in fuel and failing injector function. by slowing down below 70 then 60 I could keep temperature at 195. truck max speed finally dropped to 15 miles per hour just prior to a 88 mile flatbed tow. thank you AAA

 

How would I check for leaky head gasket?

As for the others, I can't detect a leak anywhere and I don't smell the sickly sweet coolant smell you get with leaky coolant. So if there's a leak it isn't obvious.

When I filled the reservoir this last time I used DuraMax coolant. When my water pump let go last year I had orange coolant all over the driveway so I figured I'd better stick with orange.

Cheers
-Bob

 

Orange, as in Dexcool?

Yuck. I'd flush that out and get all of it out. I'm not a fan.


If it's head gasket failure, it'll usually over-fill the bottle and dump it on the ground.

You'd check the same as any car, do a block test and check for hydrocarbons in the coolant.

I run Fleetcharge in my truck. The factory fill for yours is probably Chrysler's HOAT.

 

I wonder how much if any GM changed the formulation of Dexcool after losing the class action lawsuit over its corrosiveness?

I won't go near the stuff myself...

 

I was at AutoZone and looked at all the available coolant, none of them said HOAT on them, so I went with "orange" coolant as I know that's what was in the truck and many people on various forums also said orange.

Where do I get HOAT?

Cheers
-Bob

 

Definately not filling the bottle. After filling with coolant and letting the engine get stone cold it sucked in about 3 cups and seems to be staying there.

Regards
-Bob

 

HOAT is Chrysler's stuff. Hybrid Organic Acid Technology or some such thing.

I'm not sure what the aftermarket has that is comparable.

 

I have had the same problem. 70K miles and no problems. The truck over heats and fills the reservoir. when its cold I can remove the Rad. cap and get a rush of air. Have had the heater core replaced, water pump thermostat radiator and the coolant (Pink Factory). Its out of warrantee and I have a little over $1000 in it now. Dealership does not know what the problem is nor does Dodge(RAM). Problem is worse when I am hauling tractors or Camper.


Love the truck and the cummings but I can now see why people don't want to buy Ram. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks