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Temp gauge spikes and car stalls?

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#1
New to the forum here and looking for some insight to a problem my 2014 St is having. When the car runs it runs great but all of a sudden it begins to bog down and the temp gauge shoots to the highest point. I will pull over shut off the car and wait about a minute or two and restart the car and it will usually go away. Sometimes i have to restart it a second time to get it to "reset" for lack of a better word. Details on the car are: 100% stock with 59k miles.

hoping someone can chime in....
 


Rocketst

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#2
Check to see if you have puddles under the car. Your water pump could possibly be going out and if not your thermostat may need to be replaced. If you see large amount of coolant near the water pump it's most likely a failed or failing water pump.

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M-Sport fan

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#3
I would have a dealer check to see whether or not the whole cooling system 'fix' recall/TSB was done on this car.
But then again, IF it was actually overheating, and going into limp mode, it would take a lot longer than 1 minute to be back to 'normal'.
 


Rocketst

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#4
Your car is bogging down because it's going into limp mode and restricting the car due to overheating.

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Rocketst

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#5
If you take it to a dealer I highly recommend a tow. Head gaskets are very expensive to have done if you don't already know and you could potentially warp the head. If the head need to be resurfaced that is even more expensive plus machine time. Your looking at a worst possible 2500-3k repair bill if you damage it further. Hopefully you havent. Water pump is fairly easy to get to.

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Rocketst

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#6
Also, I'm totally not trying to worry you. It sounds very likely your thermostat is just reading the temp incorrectly which happens as it starts to fail. This also is even more suspect because it's intermittent and as msport says it should take way longer than a minute to cool. Expect the worst hope for the best and try to do the best you can to limit driving it.

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OP
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Thread Starter #7
wow, thanks for all the quick replies. I will def check for those puddles and or leaks. i dont think its overheated yet, this usually happens really quickly into a drive.
 


Rocketst

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#8
No problem man. If you need any more help on troubleshooting the system or fixing it once you figure it out just feel free to either pm me or respond again to the thread and I'll see if I can help you out. And if I don't know it someone here does. There's a wealth of knowledge here.

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OP
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Thread Starter #9
one more question....if i am changing the thermostat would it be wise to change the water pump as well or is that not recommended? i'd rather not have to but if its something that will prevent me from having to do all the work a second time just seems logical.
 


Rocketst

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#10
They are in the same general area and your gonna have to lose some coolant... It really is up to you man. Generally OEM pumps last 100k miles and the OEM ones usually are the only ones that do. Cheap pumps can last as little as 30k (ones from AutoZone) so it's gonna be fairly expensive to get one from Ford. But if you did replace it and with a good quality pump you'd have a good cooling system to almost 160k miles.

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OP
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Thread Starter #11
No problem man. If you need any more help on troubleshooting the system or fixing it once you figure it out just feel free to either pm me or respond again to the thread and I'll see if I can help you out. And if I don't know it someone here does. There's a wealth of knowledge here.

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Thanks for the offer. Just saw a video on the water pump replacement, what an overly involved job. i'm a pretty good wrench hand and that just seems like a bad a bad design by Ford.
 


Rocketst

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#14
Ask the dealer if there is a recall for the cooling system before you buy any parts though. There were a bad batch of fiesta and focuses I believe that got recalled.

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OP
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Thread Starter #15
Ask the dealer if there is a recall for the cooling system before you buy any parts though. There were a bad batch of fiesta and focuses I believe that got recalled.

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will give it a try....
 


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#16
Cooling system is designed to run hotter than the boiling point of water in a standard atmosphere, and this is done by allowing the system to pressurize. If thereā€™s a leak releasing the pressure or if thereā€™s too much air in the system, it will overheat pretty quickly as steam/air will not provide any meaningful cooling. Likely sources are the filler cap, plastic reservoir, plastic lines, plastic radiator tanks, water pump seal, and cylinder head cracking on earlier year models is a problem. Some cars are susceptible to stone strikes on the radiator tubes/fins that cause a pinhole but probably not as likely on the FiST

if your car has a weak cooling system (pressure releasing) itā€™s vulnerable to overheating and engine failure.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #17
Cooling system is designed to run hotter than the boiling point of water in a standard atmosphere, and this is done by allowing the system to pressurize. If thereā€™s a leak releasing the pressure or if thereā€™s too much air in the system, it will overheat pretty quickly as steam/air will not provide any meaningful cooling. Likely sources are the filler cap, plastic reservoir, plastic lines, plastic radiator tanks, water pump seal, and cylinder head cracking on earlier year models is a problem. Some cars are susceptible to stone strikes on the radiator tubes/fins that cause a pinhole but probably not as likely on the FiST

if your car has a weak cooling system (pressure releasing) itā€™s vulnerable to overheating and engine failure.
Thanks for that detailed reply. The shop that I contacted advised to run that pressure test. I forgot to mention that a trip to the local parts store to run a check when my CEL came on was p1299. Currently doing a search on that code.
 


SteveS

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#18
Possible Causes
There are many possible causes for this error code to arise. Some of the most common causes are:


  • Defective thermostat
  • Low engine coolant
  • Defective cylinder head temperature sensor
  • Open or shorted cylinder head temperature sensor
  • Poor electrical connection in the cylinder head temperature sensor circuit

So basically it's either real overheating, or sensor problems.
 


OP
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Thread Starter #19
Possible Causes
There are many possible causes for this error code to arise. Some of the most common causes are:


  • Defective thermostat
  • Low engine coolant
  • Defective cylinder head temperature sensor
  • Open or shorted cylinder head temperature sensor
  • Poor electrical connection in the cylinder head temperature sensor circuit

So basically it's either real overheating, or sensor problems.
read exactly that on this site. Hoping its a bad sensor/thermostat. The good thing is (if there is one) is that after sitting for just a minute or two it "resets" so im hoping its a sensor.
 




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