I had pulled into work yesterday (20 minute interstate drive) and noticed my tstat was above 3/4 near the H. When I pulled into the parking spot temp went back down. I waited for about an hour a went to check coolant levels in the radiator and is was bone dry. So, i added some water. Went to lunch a few hours later. After 10 minutes of driving the tstat temp was bouncing all over the place. And the problem continued on the way home hitting the H many times. didn't drive the rest of the night.

Today on my way to work it was a little chilly out and when i would come to a stop i would here some sort of clinking from the engine. Almost as if the piston was hitting the valve. Same overheating issue again this morning. I have heard this noise a couple of times during the winter and asked the dealership during an oil change and they said it was nothing to worry about. On the way home from work overheating and when i came to a stop the RPM's dipped down to almost 0. This happened twice.

I have no clue what the problem is. This almost sounds like when i had to rebuild my 94 Honda Accord engine. Can anybody help? Please.

 

Doesn't sound very good. Did you put water in the radiator and make sure it was filled up? Doesn't sound like it.

Clinking sound? Could be a lot of things. Don't you have any friends who know a little bit about cars that can look at it? I wouldn't trust a mechanic, sounds like they love to take advantage of you.

You didn't give us the important info like:

What year?
How many miles?
Automatic or manual?
What service have you had done?
Is there a check engine light?

 

2004 Elantra with 65000 miles Automatic trans. No check engine light. I just do the regular oil change every three thousand. I had the transmission serviced last month but not much else. Is there any other usual maintenance steps i should be taking?

I put water in the radiator when i checked it. Unfortunately not too many car savvy friends. I Plan on dropping it off at a different dealer on Monday to see what they can do. I guess I am not to good at dealing with mechanics because of my lack of knowledge. So any ideas of what steps to take? Thanks

 

Did you buy the car new? If so, the motor should be under warranty if you followed the maintainenece schedule.

It's impossible to give you an intelligent answer based on you just saying it's a "clinking" sound. It could be nothing to worry about, or it could mean a new motor.

Maybe you could take a video and post it on youtube?

 

Hi there.. that happened to my accord also before.. had to buy new honda accord parts just to keep it running. Geesh. but it also happened to my hyundai.. what i did was i checked the valves (if there are any worn out ones..), checked on the bearings too as well as the piston parts.. Then a friend told me to put half a quart of transmission fluid in the engine oil. He said that it could clean out then after that I changed the filters and the oil..