Overheating And Misc Broken Sensor Bits...

[Darcangel]

Hi Guys,

Relatively new to the mechanical side of things, so please bare with me here

I have an auto 87 MKIII Supra and lately she's been heating up on me.

I had the top tank in the radiator replaced about 2-3 months ago and it was cleaned out and when it did overheat recently I checked it and the radiator and overflow tank were fine, all topped up with water and coolant etc, no leaks and pressure seemed fine in the radiator, so I'm thinking it's not that.

From what I've read in the forums, it may have something to do with either the notorious head gasket on the 7M engines, the temperature sender or possibly the thermostat.

My limited experience with overheating has only been to do with the radiator and nothing so far has been anything like what happened last time it was playing up. Basically a lil while ago my temp guage decided to crank itself all the way up and flickered there for a sec and then returned to normal - when it did that it was a normal day (not hot) and under normal driving conditions. That hasn't happened for a while, but now everytime I drive, it starts off normal and then after a few mins of normal driving it goes way up in the red.

I dont want to get the mechanic out if it's something simple I can check/do myself - are there any simple ways to test the head, thermostat or temp sender before I call in the mechanic?

UPDATE

I was just trying to weed out which things might be causing it, I have purchased a cheapo temperature guage to double check if my guage is a dud (which I suspect it is). But I have run into a few problems while installing it.

It's not the actual installation that is a problem, I'm pretty sure I've sorted out which is the temperature sensor, but I found a few broken or corroded ones as well.

If anybody can help me identify what these are/do I would greatly appreciate it.

http://www.geocities.com/rockinsandman/sensors.JPG

Now I'm pretty certain the yellow circle is the temperature sensor as it appears to be the only single wire connection.

The one above it (in red) - what is that one. I went to remove it and the whole damned thing popped off leaving two soldered bits of copper and it was all corroded and is now not overly soldered and my car now displays an engine problem light when I start it up. Please help me out...

The following photo I have no idea what that is. There was a hose attached to a plastic bit but that broke off so the hose is now disconnected.

http://www.geocities.com/rockinsandman/sensor2.JPG

So now I have all these broken bits and still no idea why the car overheats! Bummer...

Sorry for long post, frustrating as all hell

Thanks in advance for your time and responses!

Cheers, Darcangel

[adi]

well, you have a car which is notorious for blowing headgaskets.. and you're showing headgasket symptoms.. so start off by eliminating that first...

Get a sniff test done..dead easy job and cheap. If its positive then you have your answer.

If not, Then double check for airlocks.. run the car with the rad cap off and the front of the car on jack stands until up to temp...

after that, replace thermostat...

etc etc...

[Darcangel]

Hey, thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I was hoping it wasn't the head gasket, but I think I might have a test done on it like you said and at least potentially eliminate that as a possibility. Thanks again for you advice, much appreciated.

Cheers, Darcangel

[adi]

ps are you in the UK? head on over to the owners club at www.forum.mkiiisupra.net