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2004 Impala Overheating

13K views 34 replies 6 participants last post by  Big Buford 
#1 ·
Hey members. I have a question about my 2004 9c1 which has just over 176k. It seems to be overheating significantly. I replaced my water pump, thermostat(twice) I replaced the coolant elbows that go into the block with aluminum elbows which are stronger. I also have replaced my fuel pump and fuel filters and upper radiator hose. I have also changed the oil and recently added 2 gallons of Dex-Cool (which I hear is a get over, but still used the OE stuff). It seems my auxiliary fans are working correctly as well as they are blowing cool air. One thing I have noticed though is the lower radiator hose is only slightly warm compared to the upper radiator hose that gets almost too hot to touch. I have also noticed that the steam is concentrated mainly directly behind my driver side headlight. Could this possibly be a crack in one of the radiator lines that sits behind the headlight? Sometimes the car itself will display a HOT COOLANT TEMP light but before I can even pull over, the engine temperature will decrease enough to turn the light off and it will sit around the red zone for the rest of the drive but sometimes it doesn't overheat whatsoever and runs just fine! My heater doesn't seem to work unless my car overheats and then as the temp is sitting around the red zone, my heater works amazing (like how it should after replacing it twice now). What do you think guys? Radiator possibly? heater core? I don't seem to notice any coolant leaking like it would be a head gasket or intake manifold vacuum leak. But why would the steam be mainly concentrated behind my driver side headlight? Any ideas would be awesome. Thanks guys, this is driving me crazy!
 
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#30 ·
Also sometimes the aluminum can get corroded with time a good cleaning up with a wire wheel to bring back the shine and smoothness to the surfaces and the seal groove is a great idea wile your in there.
 
#31 ·
#32 ·
no, you don't need one. The same neck/housing was used on other vehicles that needed the gasket because the thermostat didn't have one on it. The impala has one on the thermostat and you just need to make sure the housing is clean. The one on the thermostat is all that is needed.
 
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