The temperature gage has been reaching the 1st mark before H on my 1999 Dodge Caravan when I drive in the heat

Question

There has been no burning smell or steam or smoke coming from the hood and when I drive early in the morning or at night the temp gage in in the normal range. This only happens in the daytime when the outside temp is 96 degrees or above. I do have all the maintenance done on time. It has 175K miles on it. Any comments?

Answer 1

might be just my luck but ive never seen a flush do much good. with the motor cold take the radiatior cap off and then rev the engine, if coolant poors out, than you got a clogged radiator.

Answer 2

1: Your radiator pump maybe choked or faulty. If your coolant has rust color, that means inside radiator is rusty. Time to change a new radiator before it choke up the whole cooling system!

2: Your radiator coolant maybe low. Top it up.

3: Check your radiator fins for leakage when your engine is hot. Stones may hit the fins and cause it to leak. Another cause is when the radiator is already low in coolant, the air inside expands thus causes the radiator to crack due to great pressure.

4: Last fault i can think of is the thermostat sensor at the radiator which is unlikely. Remember, engine oil temp is always higher than radiator coolant. The temp reading you see from the dash board is from the radiator. That means your is engine hotter than you think!

Note: Do a radiator flush twice or once a year.Top up with ready pre-mix coolant. Do not mix coolant and tap water. Tap water contains impurities that causes your radiator to rust. Use de-ionize or distilled water if theres a need to self pre-mix. You can install a oil cooler kit to prolong your engine and prevent over heating during high speed long runs. Recommendedded for hot countries.

Cheers

Answer 3

You may need to have your system flushed. With that many miles there is probably a build up of sludge and sediment, which makes it too difficult to cool during peak temperature hours. A flush generally costs about a hundred dollars and will clean out all of that nasty gunk, so you'll be good to go again. It's a smart thing to have done. I very highly reccomend it... especially since if left unflushed, it could cause your water pump or radiator to go out. That would be costly to fix... much moreso than a simple flush that takes about 20 minutes.

Answer 4

you need to check the cooling fan on it when they don't kick in at the right time it will cause the gage to rise on it some,especially in hot weather,id also check and make sure the belts was good and tight on it and make sure the thermostat is working right,if it checks out ok and still does this you may have to get the radiator cleaned out on it they will cause one to run a little hot,what happens is the bottom of it gets stopped up and doesn't let the coolant flow through the radiator fast enough to cool the engine off,good luck with it.