Festiva wont stop overheating

[Miclo Verta]

Hi my festiva wont stop overheating i just put a new thermostat in it and the fan seems to be working fine water flows freely through the radiator and the engine i cant figure it out can anyone help me please i need this car its my daily driver and i dont have another car to drive Thanks

[Levitan]

Under what conditions does it overheat? For example, does it overheat if it is just at idle? Overheats every time you drive it over 55mph/kph?

Also, was curious where are you located?

[mattswabb]

Was it overheating before you put in the new thermostat? Or was that an attempt to fix the problem?


As stated above please add you location to your profile.

[Miclo Verta]

im located in kings mtn nc and i did put in the new thermostat in an atempt to fix the problem ive never tried just letting it idle for a while but i cant drive it for more than ten min city driving before i have to pull over for a half hour or so so that it wont go into the red on the temp guage and the thermostat i put in to try to fix the problem but it just made it worse now it overheats even faster than before

[festivaWES]

City driving?? Does your fan kick on?

[Miclo Verta]

It does but it doesnt seem to help

[25Horseplay]

Are you sure you got all the air out of the system when you changed the T stat?

[Miclo Verta]

I drive approx 15 to 20 miles to work before i replaced the thermostat i could make it to work before it got in the red now i cant even make it halfway there the only other thing i can think of is the water pump but you can see water circulating if the radiator cap is off so idk

[Miclo Verta]

Yes i made sure of that

[festivaWES]

Rust and water calcification??? If you didn't take the radiator off and clean it out good and flush it...maybe that's your problem. It's the same concept and rolling up a sock, shoving it your mouth and trying to run. Your car has to breath harder to circulate the coolant.

[ls1_se7en]

You may have gotten a bad thermostat. Take it out, boil some water, drop it in, if it opens, its ok. It may not be opening if you are overheating faster than before. This kinda goes against the whole water flowing in the radiator, but it's free to check this.

[Miclo Verta]

I also have a problem with rust in the water no matter how many times i flush the system the rusty water always comes back but i have to go for now i got called in early but i will check this as soon as i gt home around 6pm Thanks

[Levitan]

25Horseplay could be onto something. Did you "burp" the cooling system? I've never had to do it but some cars are finicky.

Nothing says you have a "good" new thermostat. Plus, if it is a Stant or other McAutoParts Store brand, it's not the right one. You need a 2 stage Motorcraft(I believe that's the brand) thermostat.

Is the car actually overheating...as in steam from under the hood....or is the temp gauge needle just going high? Could be a faulty temp gauge sensor(?) if it's just "overheating" at the gauge.

I'm asking to eliminate things.

Festy overheating seems kinda rare imo. More time is spent trying to diagnos why they won't get hot enough for the darn heaters to work in them.

FB71 will be on here some time and he'll have the answer or at least get you pointed in the right direction.

[Miclo Verta]

I will remember that i will do that tomorrow hopefully i will have the time if it doesnt work do you have any other suggestions? Thanks for all your help

[Miclo Verta]

it steems from under the hood out of the overflow tank and thanks for the info on the thermostat 2 stage motorcraft i will have to remember that and as for the heat you spoke about the heat doesnt work in my car even if its overheating