Dakheel

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice

JimR

With cast iron blocks and steel parts on old American V8 engined cars, you'd get some corrosion "gunk" in the radiator, that you could flush out to improved cooling system performance.

Do you think trying something similar might help?

Dakheel and Bvarghese - have you guys ever changed your coolant?

Dakheel

Of course I didn't take it to a specialist (flushing machine) but I changed it myself by draining the coolant via the radiator's drain plug on the driver's side. I kept draining the coolant and adding distilled water till there was no more coolant. Then I added a gallon of coolant to have a 70 (water) and 30 (coolant) mixture. Yet it still overheats while idling and in heavy traffic. By the way, it only overheats when the weather reaches 100 F and above. Here in Saudi, it usually reaches 130 F in the summer time.

gondar

If you can stand it, turn the heater on full while the car is overheating, the heater core acts like a little extra radiator and you should see the temp needle drop a bit.

If the electrical fan and mechanical fans work correctly and the coolant is circulating correctly
--thermostat full open, hoses OK then the rad is not transferring enough heat to the air. It might be slimed or partially blocked.

Unless it boils over, running a bit hot won't hurt it. It sure won't help it, though. Is the temp gauge reading right?