Car over heated. Wife caught it soon enough. Did make steam. She was late to work. I came to the rescue. Water level was only a little bit down in the water neck. Took only 16 oz of water to fill it. Fan not running. Everything checked out ok. Drove the car to my shop at night and at 50 MPH. Stayed cool with the defroster running and heat on. Removed the fan unit and returned to auto parts store. Only a 30 day guarantee... ??? Wanted over $180.00 for a new one. Got on line.... Rockauto got a new assy for $65.00. Car ran fine afterwards.

Bought this car 2 days ago. Test drove it 1.5km. Checked under hood, no grey water in oil, rad bottle, thermostat housing or motor. Trans did not smell of burnt wiring, oil stick had no shavings on it. Paid cash & then drove it 2 km & hot water light came on. Took straight into shop, had rad bled for air as that's all that came out when cap removed (mind you I have rcpts from owner for thermostat & housing done amongst other items totaling $1700. in a shop)

So I will start by compression 16 lbs testing for leaks, if not that I will be checking thermostat for faulty opening & change temp sensor while at it, if not that next will be fan motor to see if working on low speed (it works on high), if not that then pull fan & rad(together is easier) to check for debris blockage. (while its out I'll flush it) If not that then I go for the bigger job of replacing the head gasket. (hmm what do you think of head gasket sealer in a bottle (not the kind that turns to glass)? ANYONE HAVE ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS (besides the scrap yard LOL) Maybe put a hemi in it Just kidding...

Update from Aug 13, 2015: By the way the top rad hose is hot & bottom one is cool.

My 2001 PT Cruiser has had a couple of problems, one being that the fan cuts out intermittently. I fixed it myself, ase master tech. I fixed the ground from the fan motor to the body ground. I purchased the car broken(timing belt), I guess I got more hidden issues than I planned on. 500.00 dollar car, timing belt $40.00, got lucky, no valve damage. 30 or 40 minutes tracking the fan fault. Cracked dash and intermittant door ajar light with tell tail dinger(possible L rear door), I'll investigate. I still need to update t-belt idler and tensioner, I wanted to see if valve damage had occured first. I have found out so much bad stuff about the pt since I purchased this one. The only redeeming factor is that I can get the parts at a jobber rate(a little less than list/20% off +/-), and fix it my self. I may join aaa to get free tows, or the pt may drive me to drink. In that case it's aa instead of aaa.

The cooling system fails like this:

Fresh start in the morning, drive the car 45-50mph with air conditioning on full blast down standard 4lane highway until it warms up. We then park the car, go inside a store for 10-15min. When we finished shopping, we got back into the car and drove it less than a block and it was heating up very quickly. Also, the air conditioning quits working as efficiently(still blows cool but not cold, give it is 100+ degrees out in south Florida) even though it's still on full blast. By the time we are at the next store, just by driving through the open large parking lot at under 15mph, the car is almost at the redline and there is NO air conditioning. Only happens when you drive it, turn it off, and then drive it under 45mph when you restart the car. Craazy