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  #1  
Old 02-01-2010, 07:27 AM
thickasxthieves thickasxthieves is offline
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Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

This morning on my way to work my coolant temp kept rising and falling in the very hot range, normally the car runs with the needle slightly above i guess what you caould call halfway, but this morning the needle kept rising aproaching the red. and three time it even rose into the red, in which case i'd let off the throttle and drive slower and it would cool to above 3/4, then after awhile rise again. this cycle happened 3 times on my 18 mile drive to work. at the longest, it probably spent not quite a minute in the red temp zone.

then upon reaching work, i popped the hood and i had smoke literally pouring from immediately underneath the power steering resevoir. there werent any visible leaks, but then again i only looked for maybe a minute cause i was already late to work. my car is no stranger to power steering leaks, in fact the rack is leaking right now and im saving to get that fixed, but ive never encountered this amount of smoke coming out quite so fast from an area ive never seen smoke before. any ideas?
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Old 02-01-2010, 08:29 AM
dcarrb dcarrb is offline
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Re: Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

Have you checked the coolant level? Are you sure the "smoke" you see isn't actually steam from a busted or leaking radiator hose?

dcb
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Old 02-01-2010, 09:32 AM
thickasxthieves thickasxthieves is offline
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Re: Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

i just went out and checked coolant level, its about halfway between minimum and maximum, the radiator hose didnt appear to have any leaks in the hose itself, however it did smell like coolant and i could see some liquid pooled on the block. and now i feel pretty dumb for not realizing that in the first time
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94 Emerald LS w/ awd 4.44 swap 199xxx daily driver
Stage 2 ECUTune chip, 370cc injectors, ECUTune valve body and TCU, solid rubber motor mounts from a forester, outlaw phenolic spacers, COBBTuning lightweight blue crank pulley, Bontragerworks 22mm rear sway bar & endlinks, StrongFlex poly front sway bar bushings, Powergrid adjustable front sway bar endlinks, 17" MOMO CORSE RPM wheels w/ Toyo Proxes4 225/45, drilled/slotted rotors f/r, stainless lines, ceramic pads, Blue silicone radiator hoses, power mode switch, gold jdm hood badge, 20% tint all around, Hella optilux xtreme yellow fog bulbs


parts waiting to go on car: the rest of the strongflex polyurethane suspension bushing set
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Old 02-01-2010, 09:45 AM
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Crazy_pilot Crazy_pilot is offline
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Re: Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

How is the level in the rad? It can be a lot lower than the overflow. (As in, lots in the overflow and the rad empty). Buy a jug of pre-mixed coolant and pour it into the rad directly through the cap.
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Old 02-01-2010, 09:13 PM
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SoCal LS-L SoCal LS-L is offline
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Re: Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

Find a block tester kit and follow the instructions (very easy) to test for a possible head-gasket leak, which could cause the overheat, or be a result of it. Thats the very first thing I would do to make sure the overheat didnt damage the engine.

Also of course check for leaking coolant after you top off the radiator and have the engine warm. If your coolant is still full, suspect a thermostat or water-pump issue.

What did the smoke smell like? If it was a burning rubber smell, it probably is a seized idler pulley for the timing belt..... which also drives the water-pump.
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Old 02-01-2010, 09:20 PM
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Re: Rising coolant temp, smoking power steering pump, HELP!

I was also thinking a bad idler puller causing undo stress on the engine. When randomly replacing some of my pulleys, I discovered the one under the AC had seized. In my case, the belt was just sliding through, causing damage only to the ac belt.
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