My car keeps overheating

DANIEL PEREZ

MEMBER
2005 CHEVROLET IMPALA
AUTOMATIC
165,000 MILES

So yesterday I was driving to work in the morning and out of no where my car started showing the warning for “hot coolant temperature” and my car began to run extremely slow and the engine would make little to no noise even when flooring the gas pedal. It begins accelerating very very slow every time this happens. I’ve been having the same problem ever since but it only begins after driving my car for about 5 minutes. Around the same time this began the heater in my car stopped working as well. In addition to this when my car is in park and I floor the gas pedal it sounds as if I was pressing and releasing the pedal over and over very fast. Also when my car is in drive but I’m holding down the brakes it makes the entire dashboard shake as well as the steering wheel and when I turn my steering wheel the wheels make a weird noise. This all began as soon as the “hot coolant temp” showed up. Can anyone help me out here? I already went to an auto shop and they simply filled my car up with some anti freeze and released some air bubbles which only made my car work better for a couple hours.

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,452 POSTS

How much coolant did they add? Any white smoke from the exhaust? The description sounds a lot like a bad head gasket causing a misfire. The strange steering wheel feel could be a bad water pump that is dumping coolant onto it. Which engine do you have?
First thing I would do is check the coolant level, If they filled and purged it then and it is low again it has a leak somewhere, if it is still full then you have a different issue but I'm thinking it isn't. If it is low you can add a 50/50 mix of coolant and water to bring the level back up. Then start the car with the cap off and watch for bubbles. They should stop. Shut the engine off, top up if needed. Look at the end of the engine where the belt is, is it wet or sticky like something sprayed on it? If so it is likely the water pump has failed. Or there is a bad hose or fitting.
Could you take a picture or video of that area with the engine running and post it here? That may help to show if it's a leak.