Hi..I have a 1998 Volvo V70 wagon..Inline 5 auto...I bought this car back in the summer and recently found out that the car had water in it instead of antifreeze..Well the car froze up during a cold spell that we had(the guy i bought the car from told me that he had just had the car serviced and had all the fluids checked just before i bought it)..I had the car thawed but not before i started it and noticed on my way to work that it was overheating...it was all taken care of and now has the proper antifreeze but it's still overheating...I can drive the car but only with it out of over drive and the rpm's 2500 or above it'll keep it cool...can anyone help me out on this???Is it my water pump or head gasket??

 

Is the coolant level dropping since you have sorted out the correct coolant fluid mix?
Any sign of milky oil on your dipstick or foamy sludge under your oil filler cap?
Any excessive steamy exhaust smoke or water out of the tailpipe?
Probably worth doing a compression check or even better a cylinder leakdown test and maybe get your coolant tested for evidence of exhaust gas contamination.
That should indicate if your head gasket is gone or not.
I hope you havent cracked the head due to the 100% frozen water previously in your system. (Even worse-a cracked block)
Let us all know your results.

 

I agree with the previous responders diagnosis with the head/block issues. All of the above (except the compression test) will take just a few minutes. If these show good results, the compression test would be next and would isolate to a blown head gasket. BTW, you can test for exhaust gas in coolant by taking off the coolant resevoir cap and starting the car. Look inside and see if you see bubbles developing in the resevoir.

The fact you can drive the car at 2500 rpm without it overheating is a good clue that the issue is coolant circulation.

What I think may have happened is the water was frozen and you started the engine. The water pump is driven by the timing belt under tremedous tension. There is a good possibility that the impeller was frozen in the water and the shaft turned and your impeller and is now slipping on its shaft. This may be why the high rpms are allowing some cooling. Essentially you are getting enough water flow at high rpm to get water through the radiator.

You also have to consider the thermostat was frozed and damaged and is sticking closed. I wouldn't think the rpms would matter on that but you have a situation that is not supposed to happen in an engine.

All this said, you may find that all of the above happened. The most important thing to determine is if the head and/or block is cracked. If either is cracked then the engine will require serious repair or replacement which will be costly.

 

Sorry to read about your situation. Sad to say that these cars are not very forgiven when overheated. If the temp needle ever reached the read, there is a good chance that the head gasket is blown.

Does the car run rough?
Is the CEL on?
Does the coolant reservoir try to overfill while driving?
Is the car leaking coolant anywhere?

When someone says that "things have bee taken care of" that can mean a lot of different things. If my car's coolant system froze and I started it, then it displayed signs of overheating, I would assume that the water pump needed to be replaced. On these cars, and most others, that means a full timing belt job to get the water pump replaced.
Self = $250 all parts and a tool or two.
Shop = $650 to $900
Dealer = $700 - $1,200

As stated, check for signs of a blown head or motor, before you have the water pump replaced. Not worth throwing good money after bad if the motor is damaged. A compression test is due but will not guarantee the head gasket is not leaking.

 

Hi Guys....Thanks for responding...So the fact that i can drive the car at high rmp's means that it's probably the water pump and not the block or head gasket?...The car runs fine other than it overheating...it always had alot of exhaust coming out but it's burnin a bit of oil ...427,000 on this ol girl...Yeah it had no issues until this happened..So if i change the water pump i have to put a new timing belt on too??

 

oh and i forgot to mention i took the therostat out of the car and gave it a quick run and it's still doing it unless i keep the rmp's up....this is very strange...i have a very limited income and am not prepared to have to fix a really expensive project at this time

 

Well, I have to say, your ol girl is up there. If its burning a little oil at 427k miles you should buy her all the oil she wants.

Did you check for oil on the dipstick? Milky oil is coolant in the oil. If you just changed the oil it should be clean. if it's got some milage on the oil it will be dirty, but neither case should be a milky tan color.

Did you look for bubbles in the coolant reservoir? Really hot exhaust gas in the coolant can raise the temperature.

Does the exhaust smell like burnt oil or does it have a sweet smell. Coolant will cause the exhaust to be VERY white and billowy. It smells sweet and different than burning oil, which i am sure you know the smell of, based on your comment about oil burning.

Not withstanding the results of those questions. I'd replace the water pump. Taking the thermostat out takes that out of the equation. BTW, don't run it regularly without the thermostat in it. If it gets that cold where you are you will never get heat in the car to speak of and you'll get bad fuel economy.

At 400+K miles the car has had a FEW timing belts. There should be a sticker identifying when that was last done - most put them on the timing belt cover or the inside of the fender.

I looked up a timing belt component kit (full kit with water pump) for your ol girl.. $116 plus shipping. A water pump alone is $30. You have to take the timing belt off to replace the water pump. If you can't figure out the age of the belt, replace it all. If the belt is brand new but the pulley and tensioner were not replaced last time, replace it all. If everything was replaced and you have very little mileage on the belt, replace the pump. Personally, I would just replace it all unless I had just replaced everything. I'd be pretty p*ssed if I replaced the pump and then the belt broke or a pulley failed. But you know your finances and we all have to make those kind of financial decisions.

I would imagine the labor would be 4 hrs or so. If you can do it yourself or have someone do it for you, there are threads and instructions to do the work. The worst part of timing belt jobs, with most cars, is the balancer removal, and dealing with coolant when you are going to replace the pump (which I think should be done every time the belt is replace (my opinion).

Good luck and let us know.

 

It is possible to replace the water pump without replacing the other timing belt items. I just seen a post on Matt's site where a guy did it.

If you don't mind, it would be great if you can do a test...
1. Pull the top radiator hose off of the thermostat housing.
2. Pull the thermostat (already done).
3. Start the car and see if the car pumps coolant out of the thermostat housing. (Be prepared to shut the car off immediately if coolant starts pumping out real fast).

My theory is, if the water pump has a broken impeller, it will NOT pump coolant out of the thermostat housing when the car is started.

I had one broken before like the picture below but did not try my theory. Just didn't think about it at the time.



It is NOT a good idea to drive the car with an overheating situation or without a thermostat. Things will only get worse. If there IS A CHANCE that your head gasket is good, it would be best to fix the car ASAP before you blow the motor.

Also, if you can NOT determine when the last timing belt job was done, that does need to be done as well.

Can you work on it yourself of do you have to take it to a shop?

 

I think she will get *some* flow as she can get the rpms up and get cooling. The idea was a good one, though messy!

 

Hi Guys....Yes it is the waterpump...Getting ready to get it fixed ....In the meantime though went to start the car to take it the shop to have pump changed when all of a sudden it wouldn't start....No lights completely dead on the key.Now i was out in it cleaning it out and had dropped something down in the console and took the middle console out to retrieve it before taking the car to the shop and low and behold the next day wouldn't start and the battery was down to 1/2 volt....brought battery in to charge and before i even put in on the charger it had worked it's way up to 3 volts with in minutes(this is before it was put on the charger)...The car obviously now has a short in it somewhere from me messing around with the centre console...What would be under there that could have done this?...I seem to be having alot of issues with this car lately

 

Well, you certainly have a battery drain but i seriously doubt it is a short. There are lots of fuses to prevent that from happening. You've probably got a light switch left on. Maybe you hit a switch (emvergency flashers, headlights, etc). The battery is so dead you don't havenough power to light anything up to tell. Get it charged to 12V and hook it back up. You'll find it. Don;t forget you will need to put the code in for the radio.

I'm glad you determined it was the waterpump.

 

Hi Kwatt...

Thanks for responding back..Yeah charged that battery and found out that it's the ignition switch that is bad...Urg..Not gonna bother much with the car as i really don't have the time to be fixing all these issues right now....Seems to be besides the waterpump it needs new timing belt also and a heater core on top of all the other stuff it needs to pass safety inspection....I really appreicate all your help and thank you very much but at this point it would be cheaper for me to buy another car

 

Well, I hope you didn't pay to much for it in the summer.

Some cars are good cheap transportation for a little while .