As I’m driving, heat is coming thru the vents and below my dashboard (where my accelerator & brakes are). As I step out of my vehicle, the heat from under my car is extremely hot. This started once I had an fuel pump & filter, distributor, cap & rotor, rear brake pads & rotors replaced ,air condition maintenance, along with tire balancing & rotation, alignment & oil change. When I picked up my car, I drove it home without any noticable problems. The next day during my transit that morning, all HELL BROKE LOSE!!! My car was losing power, the A/C stop blowing coolness and a horrible smell (with minimum smoke at the time)from the back of my car. I took my vehicle back that morning and they kept it for two days. When I picked it up. They said they replaced a module, spark plugs, and wires. However, I noticed that late evening, they replaced my battery too. I had to take it back two days later because (as I informed them two days earlier) of the hot air blowing thru the vents and I didn’t have the unit running. They notice the exhaust valve was broke & replaced it (so they say). Now the heat & smoke is left to deal with. So I been observing my temperature gauge since then. My temperature gauge goes over 210 but not on the red area (close but not on it). It runs very hot and my vehicle drives as if the engine or transmission is about to drop. There is no steam or leakage from where I can see. I took it back days later. They didn’t SEE anything wrong. I was instructed to get a diagnostic test done. After I had someone else to check my vehicle and after the diagnostic test, I was recommended to replace the thermostat and cooling flush, that my vehicle does run A BIT WARM. I believe it’s more serious than this. HELP ME WITH THE HEAT & SMOKE!!! I can’t drive no more that 10 miles before it starts operating like this.
Did I just miss the part about My car is a XXXX model TTTTT year 1999?
My first thought is a vacuum hose that was knocked off during the work.
Excessive heat coming out from under he car is USUALLY an overheated catalytic converter. This is often caused by poor maintenance such as not replacing spark plugs on time, not servicing the fuel system as required, etc. The converter could be partially plugged, further cauing overheating.
The smoke could be oil leaking on an overheated exhaust system.
The heating could take place with the engine at normal operating temperature; the garage may haver “fixed” the wrong thing. Your iginition system and fuel delivery system need to be analyzed. Also the PVC system need to be checked; you could have oil blowing out and landing on the exhaust pipe.
It is also possible that previous failures that have now been repaired melted the catalytic converter ceramic matrix and so the CC is plugged. This will cause the exhaust system to overheat and the engine to run hot. Have the mechanic put a pressure gauge on the exhaust system and see what the pressure reads at high engine speed and load.
An idea I thought should be investigated