Raffobaghdo

So this is "my car" that I bought for 400. Granted it was a risk but so far the car was good when I bought it. I put new shocks, battery cables, radiator, fan relay, nice stereo, hubcaps lol, new muffler etc.. So back in June when I got it I went to NYC with my father which is 300 miles away. The car ran great and it felt like I was in a brand new car. So jump forward 2 months later I was on the highway and the car was hesitating and like wanting to die. Gas pedal was down all the way and the car did not want to move. Then I turned the heater on and bam the car started going fine. I'm thinking it could be the cat converter or the leak I found on the rear right on the exhaust. Does anyone have any suggestions?

jnicewan

I dont see how the heater was involved with an engine problem, was it running hot?

Loss of power, could be low fuel pressure ( restricted fuel filter or fuel pump issue) restricted exhaust-most muffler shops can do a backpressure test BTW. Could be ignition system components but you will usually have misfire concerns ( coil, plugs wires etc)

lynskynbnd

Turning on the heater will cool a hot running engine.

You may have a restricted radiator, or something else causing it to run hot.

A coolant temp sensor could have a problem at a certain temp and cooling the engine could get it back "in range"

When you were on the hwy, were you in traffic or cruising at speed?
If you were in traffic and the electric cooling fan doesn't work, it'll run hot. and turning on the heater will cool it down.

Just a couple ideas to look at.

Good Luck!

Raffobaghdo

Mechanic put a new coolant temp sensor and a new fan inline fuse. I guess my radiator fan was not running. Was on a highway with my father going 55mph and i tried going a bit faster and the car started to feel like it wanted to die by just cruising at a normal speed. I just tried to see if the fan would run and then after 40 minutes the car started to get hotter and hotter on the temp gauge and no fan spinning. It was working fine last week. I think there's a short blowing my radiator fan. Thank you

jnicewan

I would tend to think that traveling highway speed there should not be much need for a cooling fan, but a lot of cars still might need a little help with air so maybe... Even with the assumption that turning the heater on helped, you said it was an instant change? If the engine was running hot, turning the heater on should not make a "instant" change in cooling an engine off. You still need to have that fan checked out though, if the fuse is blown again I would prob think the fan motor is bad. An overheating engine can cause a loss of power, and if it got to that point I would think you would have been puking coolant out of the overflow. These engines are pretty reliable but none of them will appreciate running hot for too long.


How does the engine run at lower vehicle speeds under high RPM/heavy accel? Does it bog down or lose power?

Raffobaghdo

Actually yes I turned the heater on and then the fan started spinning and then I guess the car went perfectly fine. I'm guessing it could be the fan motor although I hope it isn't. At low speeds it's fairly decent. Don't see any issues there. I'm gonna check the fuse and see how it is.

jnicewan

The fan is activated two ways, either by an A/C signal, or when engine reaches an approximate temperature. A/C compressor will operate in DEF mode and if there is a Floor/DEF blend. It sounds like you might not be getting a fan request through the temp sensor. The PCM (I think) is what controls the cooling fan relay and the cooling fan relay only controls the fan operation when the engine is hot, the A/C clutch relay turns the fan on when the A/C compressor comes on, so its two different relays.

Basically it sounds like you might need to check the cooling fan relay, it is mounted on the LH fender in front of the strut tower, the A/C relay and cooling fan relay are mounted to the same bracket on the fender and the cooling fan relay is the rear one of the two (closest to strut tower) You might be able to swap relays to verify if the relay is working.

Raffobaghdo

how do you know so much about plymouth acclaims? thank you very much i didnt even know that. gonna check it now