issue with a customers car

kneedragger25

Registered User
so I was working on a 04 kia spectra today. We replaced the radiator due to two large holes in the bellast. so after the rad was done I added some new coolant and cleaned my mess ran the car with the cap off to bleed any air in the system. so after I drove the car and during letting the car warm up in the shop the temp syated under half on the needle so I drove the car after a min or so the temp started to climb so I drove back to the shop and checked for the fans and they were both on full blast and the lower hose was colder than the top (top was 120 and the bottom was at 90) so I told the SM to get me a new thermostat to remove that from the head games and once instaled I did the same thing and during the test drive the temp climed again an fans wer on full blast, acoding to the wiring diagram the ECT contols the fans and the gauge the head never got hotter than 150-160 the top hose was 120 and lower 90 the head at the ECT was 180-190 but the gauge was all the way hot. to me the engine was good the thermostat was a 190 deg and everything checked out fine with the engine temp so is my assumation of a bad ECT correct?
 
I would also suspect the ECT sensor. I used to work at a Hyundai dealership, and the elantras were notorious for that. The sensor would start reading fine, then at a certain temp they short out and read way too high. They are pretty cheap, and easy to get to, so might as well replace it and see if that cures the problem.
 
so I was working on a 04 kia spectra today. We replaced the radiator due to two large holes in the bellast. so after the rad was done I added some new coolant and cleaned my mess ran the car with the cap off to bleed any air in the system. so after I drove the car and during letting the car warm up in the shop the temp syated under half on the needle so I drove the car after a min or so the temp started to climb so I drove back to the shop and checked for the fans and they were both on full blast and the lower hose was colder than the top (top was 120 and the bottom was at 90) so I told the SM to get me a new thermostat to remove that from the head games and once instaled I did the same thing and during the test drive the temp climed again an fans wer on full blast, acoding to the wiring diagram the ECT contols the fans and the gauge the head never got hotter than 150-160 the top hose was 120 and lower 90 the head at the ECT was 180-190 but the gauge was all the way hot. to me the engine was good the thermostat was a 190 deg and everything checked out fine with the engine temp so is my assumation of a bad ECT correct?
Did you use a vacuum coolant tool to remove the possibilty of air in the system? Do you know what tool im speaking of? It is called an air lift. I always use it no matter what type of vehicle im working on. Is the car actually overheating? It sounds to me like it may not be? Where is the ECT located? Where is the temperature guage sending unit? Without seeing the car I have several questions. First issue is making sure there is not any air in the system. If you donot have an air lift tool. Lift the front of car on the rack a few feet off the ground and run it with the cap off. If there is no air in the system, Id start looking at cooling system performance. You need to know if it is actually over heating. Most notably the water pump impeller. Since you say it over heats only when driving leads me to believe this may be an issue...Im sure there is resistance test in the Kia shop manual to check and see if the ECT sensor is indicating correctly for the resistance that the sensor is measuring...If the fans are running full bore I ask where it is getting the overheating indication from to activate the fans? Not the ECT....especially at 180-190 degrees.
 
the tool er use to remove and fill the cooling system does all the work for me and I bleed the system twice. as far as the car goes Its not ovwerheating using our verus to check the temp via the ECT its at 208 with no fans then fans come on and drops to 190, using alldata the norm temp is 209 with therm fully open. once the ect was replaced the fans started working correctly but the gauge is still bad. so after a few head scratches I called the kia dealer and they stated they had some issues with the instrument cluster on those cars so I refered the customer back to the dealer. and the fans get comand from the PCM via the ECt the ECT has three wire two go to the PCM and the other goes to the gauge.
 
the tool er use to remove and fill the cooling system does all the work for me and I bleed the system twice. as far as the car goes Its not ovwerheating using our verus to check the temp via the ECT its at 208 with no fans then fans come on and drops to 190, using alldata the norm temp is 209 with therm fully open. once the ect was replaced the fans started working correctly but the gauge is still bad. so after a few head scratches I called the kia dealer and they stated they had some issues with the instrument cluster on those cars so I refered the customer back to the dealer. and the fans get comand from the PCM via the ECt the ECT has three wire two go to the PCM and the other goes to the gauge.
Thats the good part of working for an Independent shop. You guys can refer them to the dealer. Unfortunately for us dealer guys, we were always the last ones to get our hands on the vehicles. Epsecially if it was out of warranty...Glad you got it worked out. It didnt sound like it was actually overheating to me....
 
the car was runnign great just a bad reading gauge, I also had a PT cruiser come in the guy requested an ECT thernistat and coolant saying he had the car for 4 years and never changed the coolant and the gauge was reading a little high sometimes. so after the job was done I noticed the gauge was reading the same and told him it could either be a corroded gauge sending unit or a miss calibrated gauge. The gauge was working correctly but in the wrong section everything had shifted up one line. the guy was happy and said he will bring the car back in a year to re flush the coolant since he does alot of stop and go driving.
 
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