Overheating and temperature gauge problems
Hello. I asked about this before but have done several things since.
My car was in an accident awhile ago. When I finally got it back, I was having problems with the engine temperature gauge fluctuating from regular to the point of the car almost overheating when driving. When the cars idling in the driveway, it'll stay at normal. I installed a new aluminum radiator using the existing cap, thermostat, and silicon hoses. I was told to check the fan and sometimes it'll run, sometimes it won't. If I keep my blower temperature inside of the car at hot, I could drive without the blower turned on and the engine temperature would stay at regular. It would fluctuate sometimes, not often, in which case, I would run the heat for a few minutes and it'll go back to normal. If I turn the blower temperature inside my car to cold though, the temperature gauge would shoot right up to hot almost to the point where it would overheat. Today, I was putting in some r-134a refrigerant with oil because my car had none. I turned my blower temperature to cold, blower at max, and a/c on. When I was installing the refrigerant, the fan didn't come on and the car was about to overheat. I had to turn it off. Luckily, I had a valve where I could seal the can for a few seconds. The car, when I put it on a/c still blows hot air despite putting the refrigerant in and the engine temperature gauge keeps going up. I now keep the blower temperature at hot until I figure out what's going on because the engine maintains proper temperature mostly at that setting.
When I was getting my alarm installed due to recent robberies in my area, I asked the mechanic to check the problem and described to him all the symptoms with the exception of the a/c, which I didn't try putting in at that point. When he checked it, he said everything was working fine and he didn't find anything wrong. I told him he had to drive the car and put the blower temperature into cool because if kept in idle, it'll stay at normal temperature. He wouldn't do that though.
I then went to a pep boys for a second opinion and had them perform a cooling system diagnosis. I told them the same thing I told my last mechanic before they even touched the car. They said they saw nothing wrong and said they drove it, however, my mileage was the same which made me think they didn't drive it.
I was starting to wonder if the problem is with my temperature sending unit. When I checked my book, I understand there's one under the distributor and when I went to the store, the guy asked if it was the one in my thermostat housing. I wasn't too sure so I held off on the idea. Could the TSU be the problem and if so, which one?
If not, could anybody offer any advice? Thanks!
