2002 oldsmobile intrigue over-heating ( almost overheats but drops back down) what

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cassiefonder

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could this be? my 2002 oldsmobile intrigue was overheating so i bought a thermostat and waterpump and placed it in, now the needle will go way up to hot and then back down to middle again, and it will keep doing this, also my check engine light just came on and auto zone said it could be O2 sensor, and ideas- note: when my car starts to get hot the heater gets really hot and when it kicks back down to normal my car starts to blow cooler air?????
 
Could you have trapped air in the system. This will usually clear up after a couple of startup/heatup cycles. Just a guess.
 
The O2 sensor being the problem sure sounds like a long shot!
 
Definately sounds like trapped air to me. I beleive there is a bleeder screw at the top of the radiator on the passenger side.
 
Make sure your overflow tank is full and keep on filling the tank every few heat and cool cycles. Seems you do not have enough fluid. Keep us posted
 
i can almost gaurentee you the problem is cause by the two plastic L shaped pieces that are located on either side of the water pump connecting the pump to the block. i had this problem on my intrigue for about 4 months and tried many different things and ended up replacing most of the cooling system. The problem didn't stop untill replaced those two plastic pieces. If i knew that right away it could have saved me a lot of money.
 
overheating

i got this info from another site from a guy mike.
can not stress how important it is for you to buy real GM parts for this car. Remember it is cadillac v6 engine and no part from auto zone or Napa are going to fix this problem. This style of engine uses a reverse flow coolant system another words its coolant flows from the top of the engine to the bottom. Most cars are the opposite. The thermostat is located were the bottom hose of the radiator goes into the bottom side of the engine it is held in by two bolts. When you pull it out you will see that the Thermostat is 4 to 6 inches long. It cost about 50 dollars when you by it threw GM dealership. The water pump is just to the left of it and cost about 140 dollars threw the GM dealership. The impeller on the GM water pump has to holes on it that help get rid of the air and help keep the pressure up. The reason you can rev the engine and cool the car is because you build enough pressure in the system to overcome the thermostat spring tension and then coolant runs threw the radiator. Here lies the problem buying the pumps from autozone and Napa their pumps do not build enough pressure in the system to overcome the spring tension on the thermostat sitting at idle. Even though it is called a thermostat it more of pressure valve than a thermostat it opens more on pump pressure. Also since it is pressure coolant system it is very important that the reservoir is in very good shape including the cap. I had to buy a new one from GM which was 100 dollars. Now to bleeding the coolant system. No where on the engine is there any bleeder ports. So when I got on the internet I found a guy who devised a bleeding system for this car which works very good. You have to go to auto zone to get the T fitting that helps flush the coolant system. You cut the hose in half and stick this T fitting in between the cut hose pieces and this T fitting is now permantly part of your coolant system. The hose you cut is the hose coming from the heater core and going into the top of the engine. You will need to goto K- Mart or Wal-Mart to get a fitting for your garden hose to hook into the the T fitting. I had to cut my garden hose to install the fitting to connect to the T fitting. A Ball type valve fitting for your garden hose works the best. Connect the garden hose to the T fitting but don't open up the valve on the garden hose fitting. Remove the top Radiator hose going into the top of the engine and leave the hose connected to the radiator. Drain the radiator completely which the drain for it is at the bottom of the radiator Turn and pull out. When radiator is completely drained push in radiator drain and turn. Turn on water hose and open valve you will get a steady stream of water coming from the top of the engine. Monitor the reservoir so that you do not overfill the reservoir. You can let the reservoir fill up about 3/4 but adjust your water flow going into engine if it gets to high. Make sure you get all the air out of the engine block where it comes out of top of the engine. You should get a steady stream of water out of the top of the engine when the air is out. Shut valve going into T fitting and do not disconnect the water hose. Fill the radiator with 50/50 premixed antifreeze coolant From the top of the radiator hose. Have someone hold the radiator hose while you open the radiator reservoir cap. Fill the reservoir with premixed antifreeze until you get a steady stream of premixed antifreeze coming from top of engine. Put the reservoir cap back on and let reservoir level go below the cool line about an inch. Then hurry and connect the top radiator hose back on to the top of the engine. Make sure the clamp is on the radiator hose going into the top of the engine. Turn the hose water on and you will see the level in the reservoir rise. Let it rise to to cold line then shut valve going into T fitting and disconnect water hose but be quick you have to put the cap on the T fitting to keep the air out the water will start to shoot out the T fitting get the cap on as fast as possible. Then you are finished bleeding. Good luck do not skip any steps or buy cheap parts it will just cause frustration in the end. The popping or gurgling sound is the water boiling and not air. Make sure you get the right parts other wise you will spend 40 hrs on fixing the car like I did. I spent double the money because I bought the parts from Autozone and no matter what you do or how well you bleed the system it will always overheat until you buy the parts from the dealership. No cheap way around fixing this car you have to use OEM part "original equipment manufacturer parts".
 
mrt1963 said:
Here lies the problem buying the pumps from autozone and Napa their pumps do not build enough pressure in the system to overcome the spring tension on the thermostat sitting at idle.
Click to expand...
so your basic problem was a water pump issue? which exact water pumps did you try exactly? model/manufacturer?

try rockauto.com or gmpartsdirect.com if you want acdelco parts without having to pay dealer prices. The AC Delco versions of the water pump is only an extra $10 more than the aftermarkets + Shipping Extra at rockauto.
 
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I wont know until this week end i just wanted to post what i found so could help others. the waterpump i am putting in is from napa
 
Did you refill using Dex-Cool coolant for that Aluminum block engine?
 
i flushed it twice and it still over heats. used the orange anti freeze 50/50
 
I have the same problem as the first post 'cassiefonder' and I was told that it may be the freeze plugs(?) Does anyone have any other suggestions. I'm open...(just like my termostat housing
 
Does anyone know where I can get a 02 intrigue over flow housing?
 
Overheating Pain

Like many others I have had overheating problems. The temp will rise to close to the red and can only be brought back down to the midway point by raising the RPM's to over 2000 for a short period of time (rinse and repeat). I had the head gaskets replaced because at the beginning it was loosing coolant. At the same time the water pump and cam positioning sensor was replaced. This indeed corrected the coolant loss issue, but not the overheating issue. After reading forums about this overheating subject, I tried the recommended bleeding procedure, which yielded no results. I read still more forums and was convinced that people were correct about using only OEM replacement parts for such things as waterpumps and thermostats. Since a NAPA waterpump was installed when I had the head gaskets replaced, I ordered a GATES OEM water pump and a GATES thermostat. Upon taking out (well, my Uncle did the work, I watched) the NAPA waterpump, I noticed that there was no difference whatsoever between that NAPA pump and the GATES pump. I did notice however that the original water pump that was replaced when I had the head gaskets changed had two small holes in the impeller that this new GATES pump did not have. Long story short, we drilled a couple holes in the new gates water pump thinking that it would expell more air while pumping. So upon the completion of the installation of the new water pump and themostat, we blew the TBI (Throttle Bottle Intake) gasket while attempting to bleed the coolant system of air. (We hooked up a garden hose to a T-connection that we spliced into one of the hoses coming out of the firewall .... as was described in a post that I believe I found on here somewhere). Anyway, we were able to find a TBI gasket and got everything wrapped back up. Well, nothing I did worked one bit. It still has the issue of overheating. I just don't get it! It has to be something related to pressure in the system due to the fact that you have to bring up the RPM's to get the temperature down. Am going to take it in and have it troubleshooted one last time. The heatercore being plugged up is the only thing that I can think of. Anyone else have any suggestions?
 
mrt1963 said:
The reason you can rev the engine and cool the car is because you build enough pressure in the system to overcome the thermostat spring tension and then coolant runs threw the radiator.
Click to expand...

This is new to me... can you post a link on where you obtained this information?

I had this issue in a car once, it turned out to be a broken (4 pieces) t-stat. While driving on the highway, the car would start to over heat, put in neutral, rev a couple times and let fall to an idle, it would cool down.
 
My 2000 (256,000 miles) was having this problem. I replaced the thermostat (second time on this car) and it still was overheating. (cap too...) I ended up yanking the radiator out because the drain valve was plugged, flushed it good, replaced the drain valve and bleed valve, put it back in and THEN did the radiator flush addititive, flush, bleed, drained again, added coolant back in and rebled. This has taken care of my overheating, but now I am losing coolant somewhere, which I didn't used to do...:( Am currently trying to find that, I think it's on the backside somewhere as I was getting a little wisp of steam from back there. Looking down with a mirror it appears I have enough of a leak to burn off before it drips down. I'm bumming...I love this car.
 
Im having the same problem. I can get my car to cool down when I rev it over 2000rpm. I was going to change the water pump but I saw a lot of unsuccessful results on here. Has anyone come up with a working solution yet besides replacing the whole radiator?
 
overheating

i just fixed the overheating problem. my 2000 intrigue would run hot unless you reved the engine over 2k rpm. i put in the enhanced thermostat and flushed all dexcool from the engine. i put in the prestone antifreeze that can mix with any antifreeze and bled the radiator about 4 times. 3k miles so far and overheating is gone.....
 
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