I sprayed my engine down yesterday and a few hours after that my car said it was overheating and surging the lights on all gauges. I’ve been told thermostat and maybe water pump, but have found no leaks and car is driving just right. What should I do??? I don’t want to go thru the bs of changing thermostat or water pump if it’s not needed. PLEASE HELP.
Did you cover all electrical stuff in the engine bay with bags?
If there were no issues before the shower you gave it, I would presume that you got water into an electrical connector that was not meant to get wet.
I would park it in the sun, with the hood up, and I would fill a spray bottle with alcohol and spray everything down, especially all the electrical connectors that you got wet. A day in the sun should dry everything out.
Yosemite
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I did not. Could it possibly dry out or did it do some damagel
But of course its rainy and overcast here for the rest of the weekend in Texas
Most of the underhood connectors are probably watertight, but the one near the thermostat housing probably is not. It’s the one that signals the temperature gauge or light. That one could probably just be unplugged and left that way to dry out. If you see others that are simple pull-off connections, they too will dry much faster if separated.
If just letting it dry off doesn’t work, did you spray cold water on a hot engine? If so that could have cracked some part of the engine’s metal parts, and created a coolant leak, possibly internal to the engine. That could definitely cause overheating. Don’t assume that’s the problem, but keep it in mind. Shops assess overheating problems all the time, so a shop assessment is your best bet. You could make the sure engine fans are turning on and spinning like crazy when it is starting to overheat. A cooling system pressure test would probably be where to start at the shop.
The radiator fans and the alternator are not water proof. There could be a cooling system problem or a charging system problem. How hot is the engine when the warning appears?