Intrigue 2000 Overheats with heater on

So here's my dilemma.

My 2000 Oldsmobile Intrigue has been overheating when the car is idle and the heater is on. The top radiator hose feels warm, bottom hose is cold. Both heater core hoses feel warm. So there doesn't appear to be a blockage in flow. The water pump is fine (spins freely, no leaks, no missing teeth).


I thought maybe an air bubble could be the culprit so I took it to Firestone and had them flush the radiator. This did not fix anything and actually made it worse. Now it seems to overheat at idle regardless of heater being on or not.

What's going on here?

Thanks!!

Is your thermostat stuck open?

If it was stuck open, wouldn't that mean no heat from the heater? I guess it is possible it may be stuck closed...after doing some more research I saw something about a service bulletin on the thermostats not letting enough coolant through and it recommend getting an enhanced one. Would this be advisable?

Thanks for the reply!

If it's never been replaced I'd replace it.

I'm sorry that the head gasket went on the your LX5 engine.

Before you spend even one more penny on the engine, TAKE IT TO A DEALER!

For ~$200, any GM dealer, will tell you that the head gasket is bad, and it's ~$4K -> ~$5K to get it fixed.

A local shop would likely do the head gasket repair cheaper since they would likely NOT send the heads out to be checked or "resurfaced/decked".

As I've said many times before, if you want to keep the car, then get a 100% new LX5 engine while GM still has them and is selling them CHEAP (~$3K)! That's what I did.
(Wow, Pace went up by ~$1,000. They must have only a few left, or they have fools doing their pricing. Not many cars that took the LX5 are still on the road.)

Or, for ~$45, prove to yourself that the head gasket is bad. See the link below.

Or, junk the car, and donate the money you would've wasted to Charity.

Or, junk the car, and give me the money that you would've wasted.


http://www.w-body.com/showthread.php/52127-2001-Oldsmobile-Intrigue?p=1191508&posted=1#post1191508


Good Luck!

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Even a properly functioning Intrigue will get hot if left idling for the fans to cool, or when driven at gravel road speeds. If it takes several minutes to overheat but otherwise drives normally, just get your use from it until things become really bad.

Very late update I know.....I replaced the thermostat about 3-4 months ago and it worked like a champ up until now. Now, on top of it overheating, it is also telling me I have low coolant while my reservoir is full. I had it flushed so theoretically there shouldn't be blockage correct?

It was also giving me DTC P0401, EGR flow insufficient. I went ahead and changed it for a new one just because I thought it was a good idea anyways seeing as how it is so old. But it did nothing to solve the problem. Any ideas?