When I first got my 240 saturday, it ran fine all the way home which was about 25 miles from where I bought it. Later that evening, I drove it around my po dunk town and I noticed the temp guage was pegged on hot. After a minute or 2 it went down to about half, then back up to hot so I went home. It did it again sunday on my way to my father-n-law's so I figured the thermostat was sticking a little. After a couple hours, I opened the radiator cap and it looked empty so I added a couple glasses of water to fill it and it has been fine every since. The weird part is, the overflow tank was right at the max line the whole time. It didn't fill up or drain into the radiator at all and it wasn't bubbling or anything. I assumed just like every other car if it was low it would've sucked the water out of the overflow to compensate for the lack of fluid in the radiator. Any idea's as to why it didn't drain into the radiator? I've driven it to work for 2 days now (25 miles each way) and it's been fine every since I filled it and I haven't changed the thermostat yet.

 

it could just be the temp gauge sensor. they tend to go bad an do this kind of things.

 

thermo......
OR
you should take out your radiator, clean, flush, whatever floats your boat.......add coolant and water take it round town and see......most likely the thermo.......had that problem quite a few times......

 

could also have had air int the system too ive seen that casue this. another thing ive seen do this is when the water pump starts to go out.

 

I was thinking thermostat, but actually it was just low on water. I put almost a gallon in it Monday morning and it's been fine every since. Now if my clutch would only fix itself.

 

yup sometimes funny things happen like that...the simplest thing can frustrate you, i had a wire that had a little tear and was touching the intake manifold and kept getting a "check engine" but couldnt figure it out until I asked a real mechanic....LOL....

 

The tank on the 240 acts like a puke tank not a surge tank. The tank only collects excess fluid that bubbles out of the radiator if pressure starts to get to high. Get a high pressure radiator cap and ditch the tank. Weight reduction.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Everything happens to me like that. It's always something simple.

 

I have physically seen my car suck fluid back out of the surge tank.

 

on my old 240 i would put coolant in and a few days later i would be putting more in, car never got hot, no signs of leaking or head gasket leak or anything....hmmm....