04 R50
Started overheating only in drive thru's or long lights, now also happens when driving at slow speeds (parking lots, school zones). Fan does turn on but the red indicator still comes on. Fan does turn on when the a/c is turned on, and stays on a minute or so after the car is off. Car does not overheat when driving 35+ mph. When it would begin to overheat I would turn on the a/c and that would lower the temp, now sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't. Have recently noticed a small, slow drip coming off the underside of the front bumper (just to the right of the midline of the bumper towards driver side). After car has cooled would need about 5 ozs of water to top off coolant level. Have not been able to locate any wet or dry coolant leaks.
Thanks for any help of what this could be.

 

From this diagram can you tell the area near the radiator where its leaking? Down by #9 ?





Thanks

 

Is that the AC drip or a coolant leak?. Any color or odor to it? Easy way to find a coolant leak is get the car to just about that Overheat temp and turn it off with the hood up... See if you can hear hissing or see coolant spray while still under pressure. Make sure level is full before trying. If its 5oz of leak it might not be enough to leave residue in the engine bay and may just evaporate too rapidly.

 

It's a coolant drip, it drips without the a/c being on. Slight green color.
Yesterday my friend brought over a gauge/pump to test the pressure of the cooling system, said it was holding pressure, and the dripping stopped when he had it pressurized. Not sure what to make of this, he mentioned that I should try replacing the radiator cap, so picked one up this morning and will swap it out later today.

 

That would be the only factor left after a pressure test. Let us knkw how it goes !

 

Lets look at this logically...
The drip/leak IS an issue..it SHOULD be fixed, but unless the car is low on coolant, it is not the reason the car is overheating. And adding
is not very low....
I would fix the leak, and keep on looking. the leak is a symptom, not a cause.
On a Just-a-cooper, I would look at the waterpump, the trhermostat, and even the radiator.....could be plugged if somebody put stop-leak in it....

 

Also on top of the leak, it sounds like the sensor on the fan is not working.

Would be good to check other locations such as the water pump and thermostat.

Let me know how it goes.

 

It's been about a week now and my car isn't overheating anymore or leaking. After my friend pressurized the cooling system and determined it was holding pressure we flushed out the system, put about a quarter of a bottle of stop leak, and replaced the radiator cap & overflow tank. Thanks for the suggestions!