1999 Dodge Intrepid running hot
Asked by Shane Jul 25, 2013 at 11:15 PM about the 1999 Dodge Intrepid FWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
It runs fine until it warms up to a little
above 1/4 Cool. It has coolant, hoses
all good, but had a leak last year. Put
in a stop leak. (That's the history)
got an oil change a few days ago,
maybe unrelated, but its a full 1 inch
above max on the dipstick. Draining
tomorrow. Anyway, it runs hot, oil
light, and starts knocking and losing
power after it warms up. Even with
the heat on high it still gets hot and
knocks. If it sits, no knock. Clueless
on dodge here :/ could the oil cause
this? It's not an "actual" over
heat....no steam. 3.7 engine 130k
miles.
10 Answers
If I had to guess, your thermostat may be stuck in the closed position. This may be caused by stop leak remedy. Yes, you should definitely get the oil back to a normal level. Running on too much oil can be as damaging as running with too little oil.
Inspect oil color. Is it milky looking? Have you noticed any white smoke coming out the tail pipe? Also just for future reference the use of any remedy in a can (stop leak) product is a big mistake. It might stop your leak for the time being but in the long run it will cost you tons more than original problem would have cost to fix just to fix the issues it causes. IMO anyways.
No white smoke. No milky oil. Not a head gasket. It's not a "true overheat." It's like the engine gets hot at just above cool on the gauge. The oil fill cap is almost too hot to touch, and oil says overmax by about an inch. Wondering if maybe the extra oil is causing the engine to be too hot. I also have an oil light. Error code for the battery.
Not sure that would cause an over heat issue. But definitely not a good thing. Get oil back into normal range and see it makes any change. All because its hot to the touch does not really mean that is an issue. Most cars operated at 195 or so to 215 or so. That would be hot to the touch.
It's reaches that temp in about 5 mins. I'm going to try another proper oil change.
I once had a Mustang with a warped head that was dumping coolant into the oil. When you change the oil, look to see if there's water in the oil.
No issues in the oil. Rad reserve cap was bad...changing it didn't help. Had oil changed yesterday, oil light came back on and it was hot in 2 miles. Mechanic said new oil pump is needed, but no leaks, no oil loss, and engine only has issue when it gets to a certain temp.
Dang sorry to hear that. Hope you get it back on the road soon. Drive safe
