90 Towncar/running hot

Hi, my husband is a Lincoln fanatic, but not much on the computer. Recently the car started running hot constantly, so he had someone change out the water pump, that worked for about a week and it's hot again. We also have to keep adding water, and its not leaking out anywhere. He loves the cars but knows little about them, so I thought I'd educate myself a little.Thanks for any help, Amanda :)

also let me say this,,,about a month ago the A/C went out, and someone told him to take the belt off until he could get it fixed. Now I know on this model it's not a serpentine belt, so would that have anything to do with it? Amanda

Hi, my husband is a Lincoln fanatic, but not much on the computer. Recently the car started running hot constantly, so he had someone change out the water pump, that worked for about a week and it's hot again. We also have to keep adding water, and its not leaking out anywhere. He loves the cars but knows little about them, so I thought I'd educate myself a little.Thanks for any help, Amanda :)

Amanda,

It could be so many things but I will point you in a direction that may help.

Possilbe components that could cause this problem.

1)radiator - does it run hot at high speeds, low speeds or does not matter? If high speeds radiator is clogged from the inside, if slow speeds means it is clogged from the outside. Dirt, paper or leaves may be trapped between the radiator and condensor. (the condensore is infromt of the radiator and is a little smaller.) If it does not matter it may be over 50% clogged but, I do not see this since it was working fine for a week.

2)water pump - replaced.

3)Radiator cap. If this is bad, the system will not build pressure and it will blow coolant out while you are diving.

4)Thermastat. The thermastat can be slammed shut. This is usually caused by dirt build up in the system.

5) Possible head gasget leake.

Note: If your car is running hot the A/C will not work. Hopefully by solving your overheating problem the A/C will start working again.

Hope this helps.
Townie

By running hot do you mean like steam coming out under the hood over heating or?


Something that is often over looked, make sure your overflow line and container doesn't leak. If it does you will notice a loss of coolant every time the car heats up. But this wouldn't cause it to run hot normaly. Is there a sweet smell in the vehicle while it's running? if so is three any moisture comeing through the vents? Does the car produce a lot of sweet smelling white smoke out the exhaust?

A couple cheap things to try would be changing the thermostat, having someone flush the system (with pressure) to get any "gunk" out that could clog the think lines in the heater core/radiator and prevent the thermostat from opening.

Also, NEVER DRIVE AN OVER HEATING VEHICLE. you might think it's not far but driving it a few extra blocks can cause major damage to an engine $$$ MAke sure there is coolant, a car won't steam when it's dry but is still over heating.