Troubleshooting overheating problem

I'm just seeing this. I will work on it.

 

The Aisin water pump was definitely faulty...but figuring out how to get ahold of Aisin to replace the part is proving really challenging. Think I will be going with whatever Napa has next.

 

It at least seems like I am working on this before it is a complete disaster though.

I've got the head back from the shop and starting to get all the details lined up to put this car back together again.

 

Hmm. Looking at the oil catch can threads now. Think I need to do that as well.

 

Putting all this back together again is nervewracking as hell. The gasket masters guys make it seem so easy, but there's a lot of "and then just put it back together again" wordage that doesn't fit with the parts I have laid on the table.

But, one step at a time. I took decent notes coming apart, so I think as long as I match a reassembly step to the notes of dissassembly (it isn't quite the same order exactly), it'll be fine.

 

Got the car reassembled.

Initially looked good. Got the temp above 200 and the fans kicked on and temp stabilized. Drove a couple miles to the gas station, and it seemed fine at first, but then started throwing p261b code. Looked and the coolant was empty.

Put some in, got it back home but started getting hybrid system errors and the car just shut down. Found that the clamp on one of the hoses for the EGR hadn't been slid into place, and that was the cause of my coolant loss. Fixed that, put coolant in, and started the burping process. Car is now overheating and showing the check hybrid system warning light, but no new code from Torque.

I'm guessing I may have fried the water pump again when the coolant drained out? Letting the car sit unplugged from aux battery overnight and going to take a look tomorrow. If it is still being funky, I'll pull it apart and take a look at the water pump and thermostat. I think the temp may have spiked into the 230/240 range before I got it shut down.

On the other hand, I'm not getting any misfire engine codes, which I was getting before. So I think the head gasket replacement was a success.

Back to the first problem, the overheating issue.

 

Adding some links for reference as I move forward with figuring out what's next.

The very next thing I'm going to do is pull off the water pump and see if it looks like has seized in some way [seeing if the spinning part of the pump moves easily), and test the thermostat (boiling water test.)

Keeps blowing water pumps, 3rd water pump, code p261b | PriusChat

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Just pulled the water pump off. It definitely has a stiffness to it. Not completely locked up, but it doesn't really spin well either.

 

p261b code.

From some previous posts, at least one of the meanings of that is the water pump is not spinning as fast as the car wants it to.

I'm going to take this pump back to Napa and try another.

I'm worried that there's a reason beyond the car overheating that this would be my 4th pump. Though, it may be reasonable that my screw up with the hose on top of the EGR could have stressed the water pump out, maybe. So it might be if I get a pump back on there without overheating the car (or having the pump run full blast with no coolant in the car) that it could take care of the problem.

I do need to test the thermostat, given my last overheat. Though I may just get a replacement. They are relatively inexpensive.

 

What is great and worth celebrating is I'm not getting any codes relating to cylinder misfires, which I was getting before the head gasket replacement. So, yay. I think if I'm patient, I'll figure out why things are going kablooey and have a decent car.

 

I've been focusing on the ?main? water pump, not the inverter pump, and watching the coolant temperatures spike there. I haven't really looked at the inverter pump.

 

Awesome, I hadn't seen the excerpt before, though that was the process I've followed.

Really crossing my fingers that the problem was the pump just blowing air 'cause of that pipe. Some of the other threads I'm reading have some rather confusing looking processes for what else might be implicated in that p261b and why a pump might not be running well.

I did look at the clip, and it seems to be fairly clear. The car did appear to do okay in the driveway in maintenance mode when the temp finally got up, the fans kicked on and cooled the engine off as expected. Wasn't until I got onto the road (which is granted a higher stress test on all fronts) that the pipe blew off the egr cooler that I had problems.

 

Dammit. Got the replacement parts, but I can't get the bolt on the bottom engine side of the thermostat to thread. I don't know if it got overtightened last time so now after getting it off I can't get it back on or what. But damn, that's pretty bizarre and annoying and perplexing.

 

Looks like it is messed up at the entrance of the bolt hole