Hello, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Here's my story:

I own a 2005 S2000 turbocharged with a ptuning turbo kit. My A/C has been on the fritz for a while now and I feel like maybe it finally gave out. The heater valve is stuck and will not fluctuate when I turn the dial. The green lights behind the climate control no longer illuminate (eg. the AC light, the recirc light, the +/- lights). I am not sure if this is causing trouble in my coolant system because I don't fully understand how the coolant system works. I know the basics. I've done a little bit of research and found people with similar problems, but not exactly. I'm coming to the conclusion that I may have more than one problem..

Here's where the immediate problem began. I was driving home from work and as I was pulling off the highway I just noticed my temperature bar full (I know, terrible that I wasn't paying attention) White smoke began pouring out the front of my hood, as I opened my hood I discovered that the cap of the coolant overflow tank had burst and was spewing out coolant/white smoke. There was no smoke anywhere else. I let the engine cool down in a parking lot for about 30 minutes, played with the heater valve (which is still stuck in the "pushed out" position). Then it was about 2 miles left to go home, so against my better judgement I decided to drive home. It was 10PM and I used a flashlight to see if I could see any oil in the coolant. There didn't appear to be any, so HOPEFULLY I can rule out a blown HG because I just got the damn head built and labor is expensive!! When I got home I did a more in depth look and topped off my oil. It was fairly low, I'm not sure if this played a part in the incident either. I also took out and cleaned the overflow and refilled with coolant and bled some air out of the system using the front bleeder valve. This is where I am a bit ignorant. There is a bleeder valve next to the heater valve, but if the heater core is not working correctly is that going to effect how my car cools down?

I know this is a lot of information and I appreciate anyone who reads the entire thing. If you have any suggestions please feel free to shoot them my way. I pray it's not another HG... Also as far as the heater issue. Should I just get a new heater core and replace it? In my research the only information I could find out about the climate control is people who the dash lights aren't working, but that's not my issue. My issue is the GREEN lights are not illuminating and absolutely NO air is coming out of ANY vents. Also the dials don't seem to do anything.

 

The heater valve being stuck wouldnt cause the engine to over heat.. Any time your climate control is set to cold its closed anyway. But with it closed youre not going to be able to correctly bleed the system.

I havent had any issues with my climate control panel but ill do some searching and see if I can find some trouble shooting steps for you.

First, have you recently taken apart the dash for any reason? IIRC the climate control side is all operated off of one plug behind the panel so if you had that off and didnt plug it in that could explain why you have no lights or power to that.

 

Here you go, check fuse 20. If youre ever having any kind of electrical issues its always a great idea to check the fuses first before wasting time chasing the issue elsewhere (we've all done it). If that fuse is bad it looks like it could be the reason behind every issue youve described. Let us know what you find.

 

Thank you, I will certainly check fuse 20. Could be that simple for the heater/ac, but then a mystery why it over heated. I drove it today, it stayed 2 bars below half the entire drive until I got off the highway and started going slower. Maybe not enough airflow getting to the rad, but then that was never a problem before..

 

Dude you're a boss! Fuse 20 was indeed blown. Heater works again. I will bleed coolant system and see if I'm overheating from airlock

 

Yea, its hard to say. You said the head was recently worked on/replaced? Its possible you had an air bubble that finally showed its face. I would make sure your fans are coming on. If you turn on the a/c they should both come on.

 

Well maybe I celebrated too early. Fuse #20 blows within a few minutes of driving. I have the ptuning turbo kit and I'm fairly sure they wire in the oil scavenging pump to that fuse... I could be wrong.

I did recently have ptuning rebuild the head. If I can get the heater to work I could bleed... my ac fan is deleted buy it has never been a problem. Unfortunately with that fuse blown the engine fan doesn't come on either. I think that's why I'm overheating at low speeds. At highway speeds there is plenty of airflow..

 

Sounds like you have an open or short somewhere.

 

Justin, Ken should have emailed you. He's on it.

Freddy
703.257.1728
freddy@ptuning.com