Toyota RAV4 overheating?

[KrazzyKevin]

My mom's car is a 1996(?) toyota RAV4, with the four cylinder engine. I don't really know much about it, as it is after all her vehicle, not mine, but anyway, it smelled sort of weird yesterday, I'm not really sure how to describe the way it smelled, just, not normal. She swore she smelled gasoline while we were driving, but I didn't smell gas, so, I don't really know.

 

And then, last night, with the hood open I started the engine and let it idle at around 1000 RPM and within five minutes the temp gauge went from cold to the middle of the gauge. That seems far to hot, far to fast to me. My 720 doesn't hardly come above cold on the fifteen minute drive to school.

 

I changed the oil in it about a month ago, and just filled up the coolant the other day, so I have no idea what the problem is, or even if there is a problem at all.

 

What do you guys think?

[datzenmike]

Check the coolant, has it gone down?

Does it have a gas smell or have oil floating in it?

 

Check the oil. If cloudy or milky water may be getting in from the cooling system.

 

The above may mean a head gasket has blown.

 

 

 

Fan belt tight around water pump?

Does it run the same performance wise?

Pull the plugs. Is one or more have different color deposits?

[KrazzyKevin]

Check the coolant, has it gone down?

Does it have a gas smell or have oil floating in it?

 

Check the oil. If cloudy or milky water may be getting in from the cooling system.

 

The above may mean a head gasket has blown.

 

 

 

Fan belt tight around water pump?

Does it run the same performance wise?

Pull the plugs. Is one or more have different color deposits?

 

Thanks for the advice. I already checked the oil. It smells/looks/feels like normal oil.

 

And yes, the coolant has gone down. It seems to very rapidly go down to about the half way point when I fill it up. Is that normal? Also, it looked like there might have been some stuff in the coolant, but I wasn't sure. I'll take a better look tonight.

 

Performance is the same as best as I can tell.

 

I'll check the pugs and belt when she gets home from work tonight.

Edited September 25, 2009 by KrazzyKevin

[datzenmike]

Fill it up and let idle... is there white smoke/steam coming out the exhaust? Do you have an rad overflow can? Does it fill up and overflow when hot?

 

IF, the gasket is blown into the water jacket the compression will escape into the cooling system and over pressurize it. The rad cap will vent it into the overflow can which will overflow. When it cools down the rad will suck what's in the overflow can back in, but will be down slightly. Next time it will do it again and push more out. The rad being low will speed up the over heating.

[KrazzyKevin]

It's idling the driveway right now, no smoke/steam in the exhaust.

 

And I see no overflow can, and nothing is overflowing, BUT, I topped off the coolant when I was looking at it yesterday, and it was already back down to just below half when she came home today.

 

And the check engine light is on...

 

*update after watching it idol a bit*

 

I noticed that the coolant sloshed/splashed around a lot inside the reservoir. I realize that a car vibrates at idol of course, but it seemed to me that the coolant moved quite a bit more than other visible fluids under the hood. Could this mean anything?

Edited September 26, 2009 by KrazzyKevin