I bought my daughter her first car, 2002 V6 35th anniversary. The ride is very clean. She drove it 4 blocks to a friends house and was idled in the street talking with her, at 200 degrees. The car began overheating and leaking coolant. She drove it home, about 2-3 minute drive and it tacked out at 260 degrees. I checked the radiator and there were no leaks around the radiator or hoses. I did see fluid at the front of the engine half way and lower down. The fluid appeared to be leaking under the front bottom portion of the engine. Need some help so I won't get ripped off by a mechanic when I take it in.

 

MY car was doing the same thing and the mechanic pressurized the radiator and We got no leaks.
But I was losing fluid fast somwhere?
So We put some bars coolant leak fix.
I haven't had a problem since.

 

There some good advice. If you want to sell your car next week other then that you will be screwing up your motor long term.

The best way to not get screwed by a mechanic is to find a good one and keep using him. Sounds like your water pump is going bad, thats could be causing the leak but you also need to figure out why its getting hot. Fan not kicking on? thermostat?

 

this is what I did when mine did the exact same thing...

1. replace thermostat (under 10 bucks)
2. make sure all the fans are working.
3. make sure you use antifreeze mix instead of straight water.
4. replace the radiator cap (under 10 bucks)
5. make sure to bleed the antifreeze to make sure there is no air in it.

all these things are real easy and mine quit overheating every time I idled for a few minutes.

 

I agree. I do not want to put a quick fix on this. This car is super clean for the year model with relative low miles. The fans seem to work. I do need to check for the air duct underneath the radiator to make sure it has not been removed. I do believe its my water pump. The car was running great at 200-220 degrees for two days even while idling then all of a sudden this. Going to have it replaced. I'm just concerned that the drive for two blocks at 260 degrees may have cracked the block. I certainly hope not. Should I change the thermostat to a 160 degree one?

 

What he said, except also try doing a super flush (Prestone has one) and install a flush kit (cheap at Wal Mart)...

 

When the water pump bearing goes out, it will leak slightly through a weap hole -- check to see if that is the case. That was my experience on my '95 3.4L...

As for the thermostat, if you make it low at 160 in a V6, you may not get the heat you want in cold weather if it comes out in the snow and such... You also need a tune to change when the fans go on to properly take advantage of a 160 thermostat. Alternate to a lower thermostat, you could install SLPs manual fan switch, which retains the stock functionality but also lets you flip on the fans on demand...

 

I didn't put a lower temp stat in mine... just used the recommended one. I live in Texas... almost been expecting it to overheat but its been pretty good and never goes over halfway up the temp gage.

 

There's a plastic coolant elbow that is notorious for having the o-ring go bad. I'll try to pull a pic of you don't know what I'm referring to.