Early last fall, I was driving along - or rather, sitting still on the highway waiting for traffic to move, on a hot, humid day with the air conditioner running, when I suddenly heard this sputtering hiss and a puff of white smoke or steam coming from under the hood. I looked at my gauges, and the engine temperature was spiking - moving up very rapidly. I immediately turned the A/C off, the heater on full, and started looking for a place to pull over onto the shoulder. The temp immediately began dropping as quickly as it had risen. So I drove it to the shop. The temp had gone up so fast, and had come back down again, so fast, that all I could figure was that the coolant had stopped circulating entirely, then started again. So I wasn't at all surprised that the shop told me I needed to replace my water pump and belts. Turned out that that was the last hot spell of the year, and I never ran my A/C again, after getting the car out of the shop, until this spring. As it got warm again, I turned on the A/C again, and again, on occasion, I've been getting the hiss and spurt of white smoke or steam. when it's hot outside, when the engine has been running long enough to reach full temperature, when the A/C is running, and when the car is stationary. The difference between this spring and last fall is that the engine temperature isn't moving at all - it's staying exactly where it should be. So it appears that the water pump was the cause of the temperature spike, and that the his and puff of smoke is something else that just happened to happen at the same time. Any ideas as to what it is? I hadn't connected it to the A/C, last year, because I couldn't see how the A/C could have anything to do with engine temperature - aside from being an additional load on the engine. But the incidents this spring have happened only when the A/C was running and the car wasn't moving. I'm at a loss. Help would be appreciated.
- posted
16 years ago