My wife's 2000 Buick LeSabre with the 3800 v6 is overheating badly at idle. The cooling fans do not come on unless the A/C is also turned on. No loose wires or obvious damge can be found. Suggestions for troubleshooting Please. o No: Ed
Thanks "James". Sorry to take so long to respond as I was out of town on business until this afternoon. The thermal switch is a possibility but also a stuck open relay. I was hoping for some troubleshooting tips from someone with this same issue previously on this car/engine combo. Ed
you may have a upper intake leak like my 2002 impala had. ran real bad.thermostat was shot and the temp sensor.only had 40,000 miles on the 3.8. just a suggestion. Ray ________ Interracial Sex
Thanks, Ray. Don't think it could be an intake leak as the engine idles smoothly and has excellent performance. If it wasn't overheating at idle, I would be very satisfied with it and it's great gas mileage. I had the cooling system checked out and a drain /flush as well as a thermostat replaced at a local radiator shop and no problem was found with the cooling system but still overheats. The radiator shop suggested taking it to an auto electrical shop and have the thermal switch checked. That service is schedueld for this Saturday. Ed
ed when i say mine ran bad i didnt mean at idle.just acted funny when driving.check your temp sensor if that is bad itdoesnt tell the computer the right thing and then you have all sorts of problems.when i say upper intake i dont mean the one bolted on the heads. there is a upper intake like a black box bolted on top of the intake itself. that is what usually leaks. and it doesnt leak antifreeze.must leak vaccum or something.i bet that is your problem, very common with the 3.8 . let me know when you find out. thanks Ray ________ Toyota avalon
OK, the cause was a bad ground on the temperature sensor. Works fine now. The shop checked the coolant and found it was about 80 percent antifreeze which didn't help either ! Ed
