Car overheating when Idle

Asked by Jorti099 Apr 08, 2019 at 03:53 PM about the 2011 Mazda MAZDA6 i Touring

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

My Mazda 6 started overheating during a heavy
traffic day. Ever since, I noticed it would only start
over heating only when the car is idle at a light,
traffic, or parked for about 5 minutes and then
slowly start creeping up. If I give it some rpm, the
gauge comes back to normal reading.

*Additional info
- Heater only works when riding
- I have to add a bit of coolant everyday
- Changed thermostat, fan control module and
fans work well.

My suspicion is the water pump has gone bad.

Help!!

8 Answers

38,915

my suspicion is that the head gasket is bad . Is the exhaust white , Is there goop under the oil fill cap ? A compression test will tell

2 people found this helpful.
20

I had the same problem on my 2009 Mazda 6. It was due to a faulty cooling fan control module. It actually eventually caused my car to overheat and destroy my engine. You should get it checked out ASAP. There is a technical service bulletin released by Mazda about this issue. Unfortunately my dealership ignored this bulletin and my car, and my wallet, suffered because of this. Also if you have this issue PLEASE REPORT this to the NHTSA. If enough reports are made it increases the chance of a recall, which would help protect consumers and owners like us and allow reimbursement. https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls

2 people found this helpful.
40

I have a 2009 mazda 6 v6 3.7L my radiator fans do NOT turn off, but my car starts to over heat at idle/traffic. A/c air becomes warm air As soon as i start driving it goes back to normal and a/c air is cold again. Changed thermostat, also did radiator flush. Also change my oil and never see any coolant in oil. And no missing coolant . Still havent found the problem.

4 people found this helpful.
10

My 2010 Mazda 6 3.7 liter dies the same thing too. Don’t really know but it had no problem regarding overheating in the winter. It just whenever the environment start to get warmer, the temperature gauge start acting up. Did a pressure test on coolant, no leak, then flush out my coolant and my car have heat and ac blow cold but at idle and only in traffic where it’s hot then it started acting up and about the same time, my ac start blowing not do cold air, more like warm air. Fan blow as well so I’m thinking maybe it might be control fan module and if not then might be the radiator itself. I doubt it’s the fan because I change it 2 year ago for a brand new oem one. But yeah still haven’t figure it out too.

1 people found this helpful.

Did you ever find the fix for this? I have a 2010 Mazda 6 v6 with the same issue. My shop told me it's the control module, but that this car doesn't have a separate control module. $600 to remove/replace the entire cooling fan unit...

10

Same issue on 2009 3.7l V6 engine. Fans do not come on, but when I power them directly they work, so I know they are good. I am not spending $600 for the fan assembly kit, but have chosen to try an aftermarket electric fan control kit from Hayden. https://www.haydenauto.com/en/ecatalog?year=2009 I may get brave and try to wire it directly to the Mazda temperature sensor instead of the one supplied with the kit.

1 people found this helpful.

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