My 2001 Toyota Avalon XLS 248,000 miles overheating when idling
I have a 2001 Toyota Avalon XLS with 248,000
miles on it. Check engine light has been on for evap
system, but we thought it was just the gas cap
since we got a cheap non-Toyota one. Noticed it
comes back on (after the code has been cleared by
our code reader) whenever I get gas. Everything
has been checked out, coolant system pressurized,
no leak. We had an issue with my coolant
disappearing. It would leak out of my car I’m
assuming out of the overflow when my dad would
accidentally put more in after I had also filled it to
the max line already. Sometimes there’s no puddle,
coolant just gone. Used K seal. Problem fixed.
Coolant reservoir is completely full, past max line
now....HELP here is the issue: car overheats when
it’s idling. When it’s driving, completely fine. Temp
sits a little below the middle line. I’ve had the car for
two years, that’s it’s normal place. When it sits,
even for five minutes, it begins to overheat. It does
NOT do this everytime. Sometimes it idles for
fifteen minutes and is completely fine on temp, so
I’m assuming it’s something just starting to go out.
No white foam on oil cap, so it’s not my head
gasket, which k seal would have sealed anyways.
Oil smells slightly like fuel fumes, so we’re thinking
my EGR valve is dirty and needs to be cleaned,
because it produces that weird “old car smell” they
start to make when they’re dirty. Any ideas on what
could be causing it to overheat? It overheats pretty
fast, within minutes climbs up to the red. I always
have noticed and turned off the key when it does
this. I have also noticed that if I catch it before it’s
too high and I can accelerate, if I press on the gas, I
hear liquid move and then my fan kicks on and the
temp drops almost immediately back to normal??
So we were thinking it could be my engine fan or a
motivator or fuse on the fan, but what could be
causing this? And why would accelerating put it
back to normal? Besides that and my lack of back
struts and need for a new wheel drives fine haha.