I have a 95 Olds aurora 4.0 liter 32 valve yada yada yada. I live in south western Virginia so there are a lot of hills. My drive to work is more down hill and my drive home abviously is more up hill. It is about a 15 min drive each way. I can make it to work just fine, but the car heats up to about 225 degrees F. and then shuts off on the way home. The fans are working fine there are no coolent leaks and up to this piont there are no bullet holes in the engin block. I can’t make any promises for the future. It will also do the same thing if I am driving in town, having to stop and go to any degree of frequency. I took it in to the shop to have some other things done and to be inspected, but my mechanic could not get the car to missbehave. Nothing regarding this behavior showed up on the diagnostic. He kept it and drove it for two weeks and nothing. I must mention that he did not drive it through any communities with apopulation larger that 5000 people. in that area there are no stop lights, only deer crossings. I got the car back thinking whatever he had done to it had fixed whatever was wrong or by some mirical it fixed its self, but with some detriment to my short lived euphoric state, with in the week it did it again, and again and again… what should I do aside from loading my gun?
My initial thought is you have a thermostat that is only opening part way. During your down hill commute the restricted flow is not a problem but on your way home pulling hills causes more heat build up resulting in the overheating.
You could also have a partially plugged radiator that would cause the same symptoms. How long has it been since the t~stat was changed and the cooling system serviced?
~Michael
Do you mean that the car dies? If so I think you have two different issues. Actually the Auroras do run a little hot especially in stop and go traffic and 225 is really about normal. It drives me nuts too but that’s just the way they are. As long as it comes back down again and stabilizes, seems normal. A couple things to check though are the belt to the water pump to make sure that is in good condition. Also if you have a lot of miles on it, it may be time to replace the pump (about a $2-400 job) with a special tool. Another thing would be to make sure that the front of the radiator is cleaned of bugs and debris.
As far as the stalling, if it is stalling hot, or intermittantly or at idle, etc., that could be the fuel pressure regulator. They had problems with them.
Agree; this type of overheating usually has one of 4 causes; dirty cooling sytem (radiator mostly), faulty thermostat, water pump not functioning, or a faulty coooling fan switch/thermostat. I would have the cooling system flushed, thermostat checked, and cooling fan checked. If the cooling system was recently serviced I would go back to the shop and ask whether these other items were checked.