Engine Coolant Hot/Engine Hot/ messages
 

I will really appreciate your help trying to figure out what is the cause of these messages. I don't know if they are related or what is causing the problem. I have been getting an "engine coolant hot" message lately. It sometimes comes on after driving 2 blocks and other times after 10 miles or anywhere in between. It stays on for about 10 - 20 seconds or so. It may come back on again during same drive or may not. Sometimes it won't come on at all. This happens both city and highway driving with no air conditioning or heater on.

Other times when I turn on the air conditioning or heater or defog, I get an "Engine Hot" not the coolant message. Then I get an "air conditioning compressor off" these message alternate ubtil I turn off the air/heat/defog, which is pretty quickly.

Any ideas will be really appreciated.

Thanks.

pull codes and post them,

is the engine overheating?



.

Codes
 

Sorry. It does not over heat. When I pull the codes I get 052 History and 091 History. Nothing else.

It is a '93 DeVille with 90+ thousand miles.

Thanks.

hot coolant
 

Still can't find the problem. Trying again for some help.

Are these S codes, P codes, T codes...?

And have you found the meaning to these codes as well?

Also, have you tried to hard reset the codes that are stored in your car's memory? these may be old issues that are still displaying because the codes may not have been reset.

lastly, has your car ever shut down on you after saying engine hot or any of the messages it gives you? I had a bad leak in my water pump on my concours before and was getting these messages and kept driving on them for awhile not knowing what was going on. One time it got so hot that it just shut the whole engine down so not to blow the motor... i know you said it isnt overheating, but is the engine going through the precautionary measures as if it was?

oh, and what about leaks, any of those?

New development
 

As I mentioned in the original post, I have been getting "Engine Coolant Hot" message on dash. Would get the message after a couple miles, the message would go off after after 15-30 seconds and maybe come back on after afew miles and go off after 15-30 seconds. Also, when running the air conditioner or heater I would get the "Engine Hot" message not just coolant hot.

I was planning to put in a new thermostat to see if that was the problem. HOWEVER, tonight while running an errand about a 10 mile drive, the engine coolant hot message came on and didn't go off. When I parked the car steam/smoke was pouring out. I could hear the sound of liquid gurgling, but no liquid on the ground.

The car has been towed to a mechanic. What should I expect to hear from him?

Well Mags, the engine when heating up will first say enigne coolant hot as the temp of the coolant reaches the upper levels of what is acceptable to continue to drive on. It also gives this warning out when the level of fluid in the engine is getting to be too low to operate on. Next, the engine will say Engine Hot as the lack of coolant starts to be too much for the engine to be able to handle. At this point there is very little fluid able to cirulate through your engine and cool it to the point that a temp sensor is tryin to scream at you that something serious needs to be done about it.

running the air conditioner or heater is gonna do you no good at either of these points really because what is happening is that the fluid in your engine is so hot that is it evaporating and steaming out of wherever it can... so if theres no liquid to cool anything then moving the heat will only do absolutely minimal efforts to help cool your engine.

and sorry to say it, but something is f*ed on your car or else this wouldnt be happening. As i said before, my concours had a similar issue that i let detiorate to the point of the engine getting so hot once that it shut itself off and wouldnt start again for like 2 hours. my issue was that the water pump had gone out and i had no idea what a weep hole was... so i had a tiny leak in my enigne block( this is what i thought) and it would never seal with the stop-leak stuff. eventually it came to the point that i had to replace everything from the water pump up to the lower outflow of the radiator...

but anyways, expect to hear back that there is some leak somewhere in your car, if not that the water pump and thermostat need to be replaced. this is an easy job to do, it just takes a $20-$35 tool to remove the water pump you have now. thats if your lucky...

you could also hear back that since you let it get this far that you may ahve blown your head gasket man... then you'll be SOL unless you know a mechanic personally, and even then its gonna be a few hundred bucks to compensate for their time...

But concerning the steam and smoke, what color was this smoke your talking about, and could it all have just been steam? also, where did it appear it was coming from? the middle of the engine block, the side, out of the overflow line on your coolant resevoir, the radiator, someplace else entirely?
what probably happened is that you overheated your engine to the point that everything was boiling, which is why you heard bubbling coming from your engine. do you have any antifreeze in there or just plain water? but when the fluid was boiling it would all just come out of the easiest escape route, and there is no noticable fluid leaking at this point because it is all steam in your engine block, or boiling and so moving rapidly. you would have had to wait until the engine cooled down and moved it to a place where you could note where the water was appearing and leaking...

i hope you the best of luck man, and let us know what your mechanic tells you. just remember, if its anything other than replacing the head gasket or radiator you could most likely do the fix yourself for much cheaper than what a mechanic is gonna quote you for...