Hey guys my buddies AP1 is having an over heating issue and we could use some professional advice.

He first noticed the problem on the freeway going about 60mph and the water temp gauge went up to 4 bars, and then for a split second it hit 5 bars. He pulled over to cool off and check for any leaks, no leaks found.

2003 Ap1 w/ 30K miles (he bought the car from a dealership 5 months ago with the low mileage) No mods, all stock

Ok so we drained the coolant with the help of s2ki's DIY, followed each step to the T, one thing we did notice was that inside the overflow reservoir and the neck of the radiator, there was a lot of brownish-rust-looking build up. And if it was in the neck of the radiator im sure it was worse inside the radiator.

Went to Pepboys and purchased a couple of Radiator Flush kits. These kits are suppose to help chemically clean out all the build up inside your cooling system.

So since the brownish-rust-looking buildup is still present inside the cooling system, would this be the main cause of the over heating problem?

Before i flush the radiator with the chemical stuff are there other things i should check?

Thanks in advance s2ki'ers

 

If the radiator had sufficient coolant in it but was overheating on the freeway you should check for a blown headgasket

 

i knew this one was coming lol

 

What are the other ways i can determine if its a blown head gasket without removing the head?

 

check your oil and oil cap to see if there is a milky residue.

 

ok, ill check this out and keep everyone posted.

 

ok my buddy took the car to Honda and they said they found oil in the radiator. So blown head gasket? Or could it possibly be another problem worst case scenario?

Thanks in advance.

 

head gasket.worse case would be cracked block,imo

 

can you post the link to that DIY please? I cant find it

 

thanks