over heating

[RottonRob]

I was asked to check and see if I could find out why a 2003 overheats. It has been to a couple garages and had the thermostat changed twice. They say that is the problem. It does have a automatic and pulls a 5th wheel.

Is there a way to check the fan?

Thanks

 

[rashwor]

The fan should not spin freely at all by hand. If it does, the fan clutch is bad. Check it with the truck both cold and hot; it should not free wheel under either condition.



Also, when driving the truck, do you here the fan engage when it is hot? It will sound like a helicopter under the hood when it does.



The clutch on my '99 never engaged enough to make it sound like a helicopter and the truck never ran hot. Both my '92 and my '05 sound like a helicopter when the fan clutch engages.

 

[Troll]

Here is the ultimate overheating story. The guy next to me was working on an Intrepid and after multiple t-stat changes, fan replacements, a pcm change and several calls to Star they finally told him to replace the heads.



He did but yet again after driving for about 45 minutes it would overheat again!!!!!



Me (being the humble hero I am) asked him if he had replaced all the hoses. After a dirty look he said "No, why the hell would I do that?". I said 'I dunno, but you have changed every other part in the damn car so why not, its not like DC is going to get upset about $40 worth of hoses, they are already into this for $3000. . "



He reluctantly agreed and. .



Long story short, the bottom hose would heat up and collapse after being driven for a while and cause it to overheat.



"When all other possibilities have been exhausted, the only thing left, no matter how improbable, must be the answer. " ..... Spock

 

[p-Bar]

Here is the ultimate overheating story. The guy next to me was working on an Intrepid and after multiple t-stat changes, fan replacements, a pcm change and several calls to Star they finally told him to replace the heads.



He did but yet again after driving for about 45 minutes it would overheat again!!!!!



Me (being the humble hero I am) asked him if he had replaced all the hoses. After a dirty look he said "No, why the hell would I do that?". I said 'I dunno, but you have changed every other part in the damn car so why not, its not like DC is going to get upset about $40 worth of hoses, they are already into this for $3000. . "



He reluctantly agreed and. .



Long story short, the bottom hose would heat up and collapse after being driven for a while and cause it to overheat.



"When all other possibilities have been exhausted, the only thing left, no matter how improbable, must be the answer. " ..... Spock

My Dad always taught me to change out the cheapest stuff first.

 

[p-Bar]

getting back to RottonRob:

is it blowing the radiator cap or showing hot on the temp guage. Are these stock gauges?

 

[cerberusiam]

Is it really overheating or is it just the gauge registering hot? Has a manual gauge been installed to verify temps?

 

[p-Bar]

Is it really overheating or is it just the gauge registering hot? Has a manual gauge been installed to verify temps?

My point exactly

 

[Turbo1Ton]

The fan should not spin freely at all by hand. If it does, the fan clutch is bad.

Rashwor, I'm not trying to start anything here but, I don't like to see incorrect information being passed around either. Where did you get this information?



One of the checks you can perform to see if the fan clutch is bad is to see if the fan will spin more than 5 rotations (with the engine shut off of course). You must try this when it the engine is cold. This check comes directly from the FSM.



I have been told that if you can hold it while it is running is another way to see if it is bad. I wouldn't suggest trying this one.



Mine went out last summer and when I replaced it I could not get it to spin more than about a half of a revolution. Maybe that is what you meant by not spinning freely?



Like I said, not trying to be a jerk. I just want to make sure that good info is getting passed on.



Jeff

 

[RottonRob]

Thanks for the info. He said that the gauge went clear over. Said that he couldn't here the fan.

Would it work to block off the radiator and see if the fan came on. He said that he lost coolant the first time

This guy would go 100 miles out of his way ,to not cross a mountain

Thanks again.

 

[p-Bar]

he lost coolant outside to the ground? or looked low on the recovery tank?

 

[RottonRob]

On the coolant level ,I will ask him tomorrow. Thanks

 

[RottonRob]

Checked with him and didn't lose coolant on the ground. Said it just went over to the red mark.

Anyway to check codes or does it throw a code? Thanks

 

[cerberusiam]

Checked with him and didn't lose coolant on the ground. Said it just went over to the red mark.

Anyway to check codes or does it throw a code? Thanks

My advice, get a mechanical gauage on it and see if it is actually getting hot before throwing a ton of money at something that might be an electronic glitch. The gauges in the instrument cluster are NOT TO BE TRUSTED!! They are set by the cluster controller by the info it is getting from the ECU. There are too many places where a signal can get interupted or changed and that will translate into bad readings.



I believe a code code of some kind should be present but it is hard to tell. If it didn't blow coolant all over I would suspect it is a bad gauge reading. If the fan didn't kick in it is either not seeing the heating or the heating doesn't exist.



Another question, did this happen towing or empty?

 

[Turbo1Ton]

One suggestion is to check the wires that run to the fan clutch. On some of the '03's there was an issue with the wires rubbing the radiator and shorting out. Look at lower passenger side of the fan shroud where the fan clutch plugs in. Somewhere up in that area is where it might be rubbing. I was one of the lucky ones and mine wasn't rubbing so I'm not sure of the exact location that they were rubbing through.



If this happens I would imagine you might see a code but I guess there is always that chance that it wouldn't throw one.



Jeff

 

[RottonRob]

This happened when he was towing.

Was just looking a TDR and found TB 18-022-06. will ask him if he had that done. might be all he needs.

Also tomorrow will check the wiring. Thanks again

 

[JHardwick]

Rashwor, I'm not trying to start anything here but, I don't like to see incorrect information being passed around either. Where did you get this information?



One of the checks you can perform to see if the fan clutch is bad is to see if the fan will spin more than 5 rotations (with the engine shut off of course). You must try this when it the engine is cold. This check comes directly from the FSM.



I have been told that if you can hold it while it is running is another way to see if it is bad. I wouldn't suggest trying this one.



Mine went out last summer and when I replaced it I could not get it to spin more than about a half of a revolution. Maybe that is what you meant by not spinning freely?



Like I said, not trying to be a jerk. I just want to make sure that good info is getting passed on.



Jeff

Good call.

 

[RottonRob]

Ok ,This morning I checked his fan and compared it to mine. I do believe he has a fan problem. Mine would turn one blade and his 5 or6 . Also when I started mine the fan turned fast ,his slow. .

Now does anyone know what they cost?? Thanks for all the info.

 

[MMeier]

Fan clutch ran me $275 earlier this year when the original took a dump @ 108k miles.

 

[RottonRob]

Thanks for all of the replys. I will tell him the price . Now it is up to him.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Check out www.newmoparparts.com or www.dodgeparts.com or another place like that. I bought mine from newmoparparts.com and was very pleased with the service.



Jeff