why is this happening!!??
 

so this has happened a few times now.

im driving to work, and all of a sudden my trucks' temp gauge is creeping closer and closer to the red....its darn near to the red... i pull over thinking "oh shoot" and give it a minute or two it slowly gets back down to the half way point.

now on the way home it doesnt do it. but 2 days later driving to work it does the very samething. now im freaking out. but when im driving home it doesnt do it.
(i take the same route to and from work, its all level freeway, 12 miles to work and 12 miles back) this usually happens in the first 7 minutes of driving or abouts 7 miles or less.

now its been a few days and it hasnt done it, and im at a loss. but now just the other day, same thing!

i now notice a small amount of radiator fluid collecting under my truck after work.

what do i do! im scared to drive it till i know whats up.

i dont think its a head gasket or anything like that. there is no smell of antifreeze in the exhaust.

any conclusions??

Mine did the same thing. Had a small coolant leak and if I didn't keep track of it, it would start causing the motor to heat up. If you haven't topped off the coolant recently try that

My pickup did the same thing. Sorry to say I never found out what caused it because I ended up blowing the head gasket. Now it doesn't do it after fixing it. I am also interested in knowing also if anyone knows.

perhaps its just a small leak that i didnt notice? now its gotten bigger?

hmm time for a new radiator and tubes i guess. if indeed that is the problem.

mine would creep but never get past 3/4 and the normal was 1/2 so i changed my coolant and oil. fixed everything i would try finding the leak tho that could be dangerous for ur motor if u forget one day and dont look down at ur gauges

well i have a second vehicle i have been driving the last few days, but now its in the shop, so im stuck with my overheating truck. argh!

alot of time if a thermostat is sticking it will cause this, and that how most head gaskets blow. That and not re-tightening the head bolts, so everyone buy that $3.00 thermostat! lol, gosh people these days!:great:

what makes a thermostat "stick" ?? well regardless...guess its time to replace the darn thing.

I think after time they start sticking, Although i have brand new ones right out of the box stick!

Also just double check the water and oil oil for either one in the other, hopefully this helps you out.

Im having the same problem. Overheating spiraticaly with a small leak. it turned out to be the water pump leaking so i replaced it at the same time i did all new hoses and a new thermostat. i got the truck back on the road today same thing is happening.. im thinking its the temperature guage itself not reading correctly.

I had this problem last year and I finally fixed it after a few months of trial and error.

The first thing you need to do is a new tstat and a pressure cap. The pressure caps go bad contrary to popular belief and if it doesn't hold enough pressure in the rad the truck will overheat. Those are both cheap and easy to change, and a good starting point. But they didn't fix my problem...

Btw, get a 180 degree tstat when you replace it. The FSM calls for a 180-190 degree tstat so you'll still be in spec.


My truck would only run hot intermittently, and I noticed I could smell coolant but never find any leak at all. Finally one day I found a pinhole leak in the top of the radiator so I went to the store and got a Ready Rad for like $118 and a new water pump while I was at it. I figured while I was in there I might as well do it all. Once I got the new rad and water pump in, the overheating problem vanished. With the new tstat and pressure cap as well, everything is brand new as far as cooling goes and the gauge is rock solid now.

As an added side benefit, I'd had a pinging problem for about a year before that and with the added cooling capacity that even disappeared. I think what it was doing was leaking in air in the top of the rad and cavitating in the water pump. I bled the new system as well as I could and haven't had any troubles since then.

Test your thermostat.

Drop it in some hot water with a thermometer and check to see when it opens.

If it sticks or doesnt open at the right temp then you've found your problem..

check for fan marks on your radiator, I have a second generation runner and if if I flex it out radically the body flexes just enough for the belt driven fan to rub on the radiator, caused a very small hole that only leaked sometimes, and only after the truck was heated up, ended up buying a new radiator
good luck

Sounds to me like you have a plugged up radiator since your issues occur on the freeway. Try the new t-stat but if that doesn't do it your radiator is to blame. It's just not getting rid of the heat fast enough.

Frank

thanks for all the help guys. im gonna look into it after i get off work.

have you read about the 22re temp overshoot problem? mine has that. It doesen't get that high, but it goes way past the normal warmed up spot

i havent but i gotta get back to work now. i will read up in it later tonight.