I just got done changing my timing belt, water pump, power steering belt, alternator belt, air conditioning belt, and radiator hoses.
I did all of this because last thursday I dropped about 1 gallon of antifreeze in the Home Depot parking lot… also, I have 97K on the motor, and I don’t think the belt/pump job had ever been done.
The old radiator hoses seemed fine, so they didn’t cause the leak.
The waterpump was sealed nicely, it didn’t leak from there either.
I’m guessing that the antifreeze blew out of the bottom of the radiator at the hole by the drain plug. It looks like a relief valve…
So after putting nearly 5 Qts of antifreeze/water mixture back into the radiator, I drove around last night, and everything appeared fine. But this morning, I drove for about 15 (expressway) and when I stopped at a gas station to get air in a leaky tire, I noticed steam from under the hood.
Steam was coming from the radiator cap (which was on all the way)
Also, my car seems to idle lower, at about 4-500 rpms.
If I tap the gas, it’ll go up, then slow down to 200 rpms, the car will vibrate from the engine running so low…
Things to check: thermostat, radiator cap, bleed the cooling system. The only hose that has ever failed on me is the one that feeds antifreeze to the throttle body. Did you replace that one? Check that if you didn’t.
Did you dilute the antifreeze 50/50 with water? Did you use antifreeze that is safe for aluminum?
How does your temperature gauge behave?
Maybe your timing belt slipped a tooth or more after your initial test drive…that would cause pretty crappy idle.
the bad idle could be caused by low coolant level… I would suggest replacing the cap and bleeding the cooling system. when you remove the cap, is there pressure into the rad? (go slowly when removing the cap)
Well, it’s good you did all that work but your problem is probably something like the rad cap(change this first), a pin-hole in a hose…an o-ring on the tube your t-stat mounts to?
Good luck… and yeah the idle gets messed up if the temp senders don’t have enough water temp
I haven’t checked the thermostat…
I’m planning on throwing on a new radiator cap tonight…
I bled the cooling system when I put in the antifreeze (which was mixed 50/50 with water), though I may not have done this entirely correctly… I’ll check the manual again… I did bleed it until there was a stead beed coming out of the bleeder bolt by the upper hose on the engine…
I replaced the hose that feeds the throttle body(because I have an intake, and I removed that stupid metal tubing thing) with one slightly too large, so I tightened up the hose clamp on it, but I plan on getting the correct hose after work tonight.
The temperature gauge runs a little below the middle of the gauge, which is normal… though higher than when I got the car…
I already replaced both radiator hoses, so I don’t think that there are any holes in them, and it wasn’t leaking from them at all today or yesterday…
The engine idles smoothly, it just idles lower than it used to. It usually idles at a steady 600 rpms. now it seems to be closer to 500. It almost seems like accessories put more of a strain on the motor than they used to…
After I let a hack do my timing belt for me, I had the same problem with idle. I redid it myself and it ran perfectly. How did you set your timing? did you line up the crank pulley TDC marks and set the cams with 5MM pins? A good way to check for correct cam timing is to measure vacuum with a guage. I’m not sure what it should read at idle, does any body know what it should be?
