Car overheating in freezing weather

EvilDreams · 18 Dec 2010 at 15:38

As above, this happened to me today. I noticed the temperature gauge was off the top, and the heaters were just giving me cold air. There's a lot of snow and ice here in Aberdeen and at about 6:30 this morning it was extremely cold. The windows were frozen shut, doors wouldn't open, that kind of thing. Frozen windows and no heater = not fun.

I was only making a short journey thankfully, but I noticed steam coming from the coolant filler cap thingy when I got there. The fans were spinning up fine. As it's just a throwaway car I didn't pull over right away, maybe drove for a mile or so, which might have been stupid but it only has to last until February when it fails its MOT anyway and I have another car so meh. The washer jets were frozen up too and I just put a load of new fluid in there last week for the winter temperatures.

Would the symptoms suggest something wrong with the thermostat or was the coolant just frozen up? If so can I just dump a load of new coolant in with the existing mix or do I have to drain the coolant first?

EvilDreams · 18 Dec 2010 at 15:41

TaKeN said:
Do you have any anti-freeze in your Rad?

I haven't bothered to check other than that the levels were OK recently.

It may well be that there's just water in there as I never added anything to it myself.

EvilDreams · 18 Dec 2010 at 15:45

I definitely cleared off the snow on the front grille before I set off....and the heater vents/intake/whatever as I always do that.

EvilDreams · 18 Dec 2010 at 16:24

That's what I thought when the heaters weren't warming up. I had it idling before I drove to work because I thought I'd prevent this very problem.

Can I just as a quick fix top up the coolant with more antifreeze/coolant? Or do I need to drain it all out and start from scratch?

EvilDreams · 18 Dec 2010 at 16:31

I don't think any permanent damage was done as it stopped overheating later on in the day. Not sure if the heaters were back to giving hot air though.

EvilDreams · 19 Dec 2010 at 11:56

It won't. I don't see how you got that impression from my post either.

It wasn't badly overheating. There wasn't steam shooting out from under the bonnet. There was a whisp of steam coming from the coolant cap after I stopped.

I don't really care if it breaks.

Why does someone always have to come into threads here and start acting all belligerent? Do you think I have nothing better to do than sit here with you and go through every sentence of my original post until it meets your satisfaction? Do you like BMWs?

EvilDreams · 19 Dec 2010 at 12:05

The last I checked was yesterday afternoon, when the overheating had stopped, but afaik still no warm air from the heater. I have to drive it to Halfords to get some antifreeze today. I've been waiting for the afternoon so the same thing doesn't happen to me again

EvilDreams · 19 Dec 2010 at 16:13

Two can play the eyeroll game.

:rolleyes:

My mouth was actually closed when I typed that first post. -100 OCUK antagonistic pedant points for you....so I suppose you'll just have to keep thinking of me as a fool.

Anyway, I put some water and coolant in today as it was very low.

It seems to have fixed the problem.

I should probably check it more often but it's not strictly my car anyway and shouldn't be solely my responsibility but that appears to be how it is.

I just love it how any OP here is basically on trial the moment they hit "submit."

EvilDreams · 20 Dec 2010 at 13:41

There's really no need to get yourself so worked up.

EvilDreams · 20 Dec 2010 at 14:05

The (legal) owner (as we both pay for half of the car in question) doesn't look after his own car either.

Either way, we are talking about a 14 year old Honda that cost us £200 and when I say I don't care if it breaks, I am not bragging, I really mean I don't care as it was bought to be driven until it breaks. Which it apparently hasn't.

Will there be any further questions/cross examination/assumptions?