Have a d5g heating up after about an hour. Power washed the radiator, checked the thermostat, and the fan blows great out the front. Uses little water. The quirkie thing is when it starts heating you can open the doors and it will cool down some and then later on heat up some more to the red line. Any ideas. Can a bad water pump cause this, if so I do I check that?
Welcome to the Forums NC! Glad to have you. I have a 2004 D5G that I bought new. The only heat related trouble we have had in 20 years was the thermostat. Are all the belts tight?
An IR temp gun will be invaluable for your troubleshooting if you don’t have one already. They don’t cost much. Have you checked the accuracy of the gauge? Checking the temp of the top and bottom radiator hoses with the IR gun while it is hot will be able to tell you a lot about how the cooling system is functioning and should point you in the right direction of your problem. The temp difference is what you need to know.
CM1995 You beat me too it posting, but you are absolutely correct the OP should check the belts first before going further with the temp checks.
Will be double checking the belts again, soon. Thks.
Will check belts, thanks.
gonna recheck the belts. Thanks.
Can you explain the IR temp gun, I am not familiar with that item.? What company sells them Thanks
How do I check the accuracy of the gauge? I have been afraid to run it deep into the red to see if it boils over.
It's just a temp. gun you point a red dot and pull the trigger to measure the temperature. Lots of places sell them.
If you google IR temp gun or Infrared Temp gun they should come up so you know what you are looking for. Then auto parts stores or tool shops usually have a few different options to purchase locally. Other wise you could get one online. In Australia you can get one for $50-$100 at a tool shop for example. There are more expensive options but in my experience that will get you one that should do the job. Then they work like Welder Dave said… point at what you want to measure (they are non contact), pull the trigger and it tells you the surface temperature. Because they measure surface temp they can be a bit off the actual coolant temp, but should be reasonably close. The temp of the top and bottom radiator hose will tell you how well the cooling system is working.
If you get an IR temp gun that will be able to give you a rough idea how accurate your gauge is. At this stage definitely continue to trust the gauge is correct till you prove it wrong! You certainly don’t want it boiling over. Did it just start getting hot all of a sudden or has it been getting worse? You will need to provide a serial number so people can give you more details on other ways to test the gauge and temp sender ect .
Ir Temp Gun For those who think it's easier to annoy you than to Google 'Ir temp gun' themselves. letmegooglethat.com
I think I read on the forum here somewhere to put some black electrical tape on the rad hoses and filter etc wherever you want to measure temps, to make the surfaces all the same. I like doing it because it reminds me where to aim at.
Check belts, and use an IR thermometer to check the top and bottom hoses of the radiator. You want to see less than a 10 degree difference. Your radiator could very well be internally clogged and that’s common on older machines. Extremely common on machines that don’t get coolant serviced and flushed properly or run straight water.
Shouldn’t that be “more than”.?
Depends if your talking metric of imperial… but I would think imperial would be the most appropriate for this particular thread. “The temperature of the water pump outlet must be approximately 4.5 °C (8 °F) to 11 °C (20 °F) below the temperature in the radiator top tank.” From the Cat publication “Know your cooling system”.
I haven’t heard that, but it makes a lot of sense I’ll have to try that. It absolutely makes a big difference what the surface is ie. painted, non painted, rusty, rubber ect. I usually try to find painted on both surfaces but like you say it would make things equal.