Maybe this belongs in the M42 subsection, but there isn't much traffic there, so I figured I'd just put it here.
I was driving back from Chicago a few days ago, and all of a sudden, the car started running hotter... Typically it runs about a needle width under the halfway mark, but it was running about a needle width above when I was watching. The gauge was pretty steady, too. Oil temps stayed basically the same the whole time. When I started driving, the car was fine; the condition just kind of randomly started as I was driving down the highway. I wasn't running hard at all; probably around 3k revs, never getting into boost.
Even worse a sign is that I appear to have lost some coolant. I don't know exactly where it was at before, but there was about 3 inches of depth in the reservoir instead of the typical 8 or so.
The oil and coolant both look fine, though, although the coolant is due for a flush. The car idles fine and drives really well. I can't really tell if it smokes abnormally because it is so freaking cold out; it always looks like the exhaust is smoking.
The water pump is fine and the t-stat checks out based on the temps of the radiator hoses. Heat is great, and nothing smells noticeably different.
note that the car is boosed, running 7.5 psi, and has 240k miles on the clock, about 6k with the turbo. Any ideas, besides a head gasket, that could cause this? Any easy way to test if it is a head gasket? There doesn't seem to be any pressure in the cooling system, although I was under the impression that it should be under pressure when it is hot, but I'm also not seeing evidence of a leak anywhere.
I don't have access to a pressure tester for the cooling system or to test leakdown or anything, so that's ruled out for the moment.
Also, I drove the car yesterday and it actually seemed okay. I wasn't on the highway though, so that may have played a role.
I was driving back from Chicago a few days ago, and all of a sudden, the car started running hotter... Typically it runs about a needle width under the halfway mark, but it was running about a needle width above when I was watching. The gauge was pretty steady, too. Oil temps stayed basically the same the whole time. When I started driving, the car was fine; the condition just kind of randomly started as I was driving down the highway. I wasn't running hard at all; probably around 3k revs, never getting into boost.
Even worse a sign is that I appear to have lost some coolant. I don't know exactly where it was at before, but there was about 3 inches of depth in the reservoir instead of the typical 8 or so.
The oil and coolant both look fine, though, although the coolant is due for a flush. The car idles fine and drives really well. I can't really tell if it smokes abnormally because it is so freaking cold out; it always looks like the exhaust is smoking.
The water pump is fine and the t-stat checks out based on the temps of the radiator hoses. Heat is great, and nothing smells noticeably different.
note that the car is boosed, running 7.5 psi, and has 240k miles on the clock, about 6k with the turbo. Any ideas, besides a head gasket, that could cause this? Any easy way to test if it is a head gasket? There doesn't seem to be any pressure in the cooling system, although I was under the impression that it should be under pressure when it is hot, but I'm also not seeing evidence of a leak anywhere.
I don't have access to a pressure tester for the cooling system or to test leakdown or anything, so that's ruled out for the moment.
Also, I drove the car yesterday and it actually seemed okay. I wasn't on the highway though, so that may have played a role.
Comment