JustDon Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 I have a 2014 Ford Fusion Energi Titanium with about 116,000 miles on it. This Saturday when I was driving on the freeway (conveniently around two hours from home, early in the drive to take my daughter to college...), I suddenly got an audible alarm and a red box saying "Engine Coolant Overheat." There were no other accompanying symptoms (engine running fine, no unusual noises, etc.). I pulled off the freeway as soon as I reasonably could and checked under the hood for anything unusual. Coolant level in the overflow tank was fine (right near max), no signs of leaking, fan running as I would expect. I tried restarting it to see if the warning icon had disappeared, but it was still there. I turned it off again and let it sit about 15 minutes, after which the icon had disappeared when I restarted. At this point I put a code reader on the OBDII port to see if there were any codes showing up, but there were not. However, I left the code reader on and connected to my phone via bluetooth so I could monitor the engine coolant temperature as I drove. The car ran fine, and showed coolant temperature fluctuating between about 88 degrees C and 95 degrees C (190-203 degrees F). Outside temperature was in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, so those don't seem like particularly high temperatures. After about 20 more minutes of driving, I got the same audible alert and the same red box, with coolant temperatures showing right where they had for the past 30 minutes of driving. I pulled over again (this time at a convenience store) and we grabbed a bite to eat while waiting for the car to cool down again. When we left, the warning had disappeared, and again, the coolant temperature was showing in the same range. I drove cautiously to the next town, where I rented a car to make the rest of the trip rather than risking another seven hours of driving with a warning I couldn't explain. When I picked the car up on my way home, I drove about a little more than an hour, and received the same message (with coolant temperatures showing mid-80s C). I again pulled over and waited 15 minutes, after which I drove the car home without the warning appearing again (another 90+ minutes), with the coolant temperature again staying in that same range. (The outside air temperature did drop probably 20 degrees, though, with me driving into a storm front. That, of course, may be why I didn't get the same warning again at the end of my drive.) Any suggestions on what may be causing this behavior? With no codes showing up to guide me, and with both the engine operation and engine coolant temperature appearing to be within perfectly normal ranges, I'm struggling to understand what might be going on. Any suggestions you might have will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamChuang Posted August 20, 2020 Share Posted August 20, 2020 Coolant temperature sensor might be broken. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustDon Posted August 20, 2020 Author Share Posted August 20, 2020 4 hours ago, WilliamChuang said: Coolant temperature sensor might be broken. If the coolant temperature sensor is broken, though, wouldn't that result in the displayed coolant temperature being clearly faulty (as opposed to acting like it seems it should)? In any case, is the coolant temperature sensor in a location that is relatively accessible, or is that a massive job to change? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamChuang Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 21 hours ago, JustDon said: If the coolant temperature sensor is broken, though, wouldn't that result in the displayed coolant temperature being clearly faulty (as opposed to acting like it seems it should)? In any case, is the coolant temperature sensor in a location that is relatively accessible, or is that a massive job to change? Looks like it's right there in the open. Not sure if it's what's wrong, though. Just guessing. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustDon Posted August 22, 2020 Author Share Posted August 22, 2020 On 8/21/2020 at 9:02 AM, WilliamChuang said: Looks like it's right there in the open. Not sure if it's what's wrong, though. Just guessing. I'm not *trying* to be dense here (I'm just gifted that way :D ), but... I'm not sure what I'm looking at with that second picture. Can you help me with context for that? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkys Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 I have a 2015 fusion energi and mine does this also. It is not the gas engine overheated it is the electric drive! I replaced electric pump but no improvement. Coolant in reservoir is not overheated but drive is. Not sure what to do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustDon Posted November 2, 2020 Author Share Posted November 2, 2020 10 minutes ago, Sparkys said: I have a 2015 fusion energi and mine does this also. It is not the gas engine overheated it is the electric drive! I replaced electric pump but no improvement. Coolant in reservoir is not overheated but drive is. Not sure what to do. Thanks for the reply. How did you determine that it was the electric drive overheating rather than the gas engine? (Mine hasn't repeated the problem recently as temperatures have cooled, but I'm sure it will so would like to get it figured out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Issac Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 I have a 2017 ford fusion that shows the engine overheat coolant warning. The coolant is full and It only shows the warning in super cold weather conditions, runs fine during the summer. When the warning shows, my engine stalls and the car stops but when I use a code reader to clear the code it runs fine until the warning comes back on then the engine stalls again. What can I do to fix this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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