Car is overheating when at stop lights...?

Question

Forgive me for the details, but I don't know anything about cars... here goes... :-)

Whenever we stopped at a light, the temperature on my gauge went to "H" almost immediately. As soon as we started going again, it went back down to normal. This happened several times before we actually pulled over and stopped.

We happened to stop at a Jiffy Lube, and they flushed out the coolant (?) and replaced some fluids. This seemed to help for all of 1 minute, and then we had to pull over and stop again.

Any ideas as to what it could be?

Answer 1

if your car has an electric fan its not working.  when you start driveing you are forceing air thru the radiator which cools it down

Answer 2

Good old rip off jiffy lube. A good place not to go. I would certainly think the cooling fan is not working.

Answer 3

could be 1 or 2 things, the coolant is not circulating threw your radiator.  You could either have plugged up radiator or the water pump is not working.  YOu didn't mention what year and model car, but the chances of it being front front wheel drive vehicle.  The temperture sensor is not work, because the fan is not turning when you are sitting still.

The next time, you could try rolling down all windows and turn on the heater.  I know it is hot, but that will take some heat away from the engine.

Answer 4

A jiffy lube "flush" is about worthless. You probably have a blocked cooling system, a bad fan sensor or electric fan (if so equipped). I would say the thermostat needs to be checked along with having the radiator professionally cleaned or replaced. I also recommend having the heater core checked. Since I don't know how old the car is or how many miles are on it it is difficult to tell the source of the problem but I have stated what are the common causes of overheating.