# Heater stopped working/ Car gets hot quickly!



## bria922 (Dec 23, 2005)

I'm new to this so forgive me if I don't sound very technical. The other day when I was driving home from work (a very short distance) I turned the defrost to hot and up high since it didn't seem to be doing anything. I noticed that even though the gauge was set to the hottest setting, only cold air was blowing out of the vents. A minute later I looked at my temp gauge and it had crawled all the way up to the line right before it starts to overheat. Again, my car should barely even have warmed up by this time and it was already signaling overheat. Also, I had noticed a few days prior to this incident that the engine fan seemed to be on every time I turned the car off, again, even after very short distances. This had never happened before. It now, however seems to be doing it every time I drive. Any thoughts as to what could be happening? Am I looking at an expensive fix here? Should I be concerned about driving it? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## Snafu (Dec 17, 2005)

Does the temp climb higher without the fan/defrost on?

What is your coolant level like - check the rad and the reservoir. Only check the rad level when it is cool unless you know how to check it when it is hot. One thought is that it is low and needs to be topped up.

One thing you could check is when it starts to get hot (and it is not suppose to be warm by then) pull over and open the hood. See if the engine block, rad hose are hot. Maybe a bad thermostat not opening (hot engine and cold rad and/or rad hose)

Just something to check out


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## gfriedman (Oct 12, 2005)

Bad thermostat or no coolant in system


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