95 Escort overheating

I have this little 95 escort - 5sp, 120K, 1.9L. This morning I was driving it on my paper route with the AC on, and I noticed that it was making an odd noise when I shifted - similar to the whining you hear from a manual when you're in reverse. I soon saw a little smoke and smelled something similar too, but not quite like burning rubber. It took me a minute, but I realized that the noise, smoke, and smell went away when I turned off the AC. I drove it a little bit to have a friend look at it, and it put some (too much) water in it. I then went back to my route, and it quickly overheated. I tried cooling it down a little several times - I was getting into a panic by that point because I was a half an hour late getting finished. Finally I got the papers done and sat for a half hour or so to let it really cool off. I was then able to drive it 8 miles back home without incident and the temp gauge in the low-normal range. Any ideas about this? I don't think I can fix it myself - whatever it is - but I'm wondering if I can hope that it will be ok as long as I leave off the AC. Right this moment I can't take it anywhere - when this all happened I was wondering how I was going to pay for enough gas in it to do my route over the weekend.

Reply to
Crap Master
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I would suspect that the A/C compressor is either dragging heavily or seized, and the noise, smoke, etc. was the belt slipping against the stopped pulley..

Reply to
Robert Hancock

Unfortunately it's still overheating - but only when it has to idle excessively, which is why I didn't have a problem getting home yesterday. Getting my route done was another story - but not too bad. When it started heating up I would drive it about a mile and that would cool it right back down again. I eventually noticed that the cooling fan is not turning on, so I guess that's where the problem lies. It also reminded me that last week I was hearing a noise that sounded connected to that fan - almost like something stuck in it.

Can anyone tell me what exactly might need to be replaced, how to figure that out, and how complicated it might be? I'll head to the library later....

Reply to
Crap Master

First off, I would put 12 volts to the fan to see if it is the problem or just a symptom.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Crap Master wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

And if the fan does respond when voltage is applied you could hard wire it in to run all the time or put a dsh switch in. You could do this quickly and prevent overheating until you can fix the original problem.

Reply to
WasteNotWantNot

If the fan is OK I would be looking at the Coolant Temperature sensor(s) and fan Relay(s).

If yours is an LX the Coolant temperature sensor is the same one that goes to your computer, so if your car is running peoperly and ho high idle, etc then look at the fan itself, then relays. If your car is idleing high then it's the Coolant Temperature Sensor. Mine had slightly dirty contacts on it once causing a high idle (computer thought engine was colder than it really was) and poor gas mileage. I cleaned the sensor and wiring harness piece at least three times and the problem has been resolved for several months now.

Dirty Coolant Temperature Sensor contacts are a fairly common problem. Just get some contact cleaner and dielectric grease and some Q-tips, etc.

Reply to
Childfree Scott

has the timing belt ever been replaced? the belt drives the waterpump and i had the same symptoms as far as the smoke and screech and thought it was the ac compressor. well it wasnt. it was the timing belt tensioner that was sqeeling and smoking. it never got hot but when i changed the belt i also put a waterpump on it and the tensioner is included with the new pump. the old one was fried. really easy to change both. if the belt has been changed was the tensioner/ pump changed also? good luck

Reply to
skidflap

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