25 below and my car is over heating.

[knx2]

I have not had any problems with my car overheating until today. It is below zero today and a short 5 min drive my car's temp rose to overheating. I felt both the hoses on my car and both were hot. I was not able to see if I were leaking anything. I am at work so I started my car and left it idle for 15 min with the heat blasting and no warm air was coming out after 15min.. Could this be the water pump or thermostat?

[pmkls2]

By overheating do you mean that the temp gauge rose high or did you actually witness the coolant boiling over ? The gauge can be wrong so I would first make sure your engine is actually overheating. If it was overheating for sure and you have no heat then I would suspect the thermostat. It takes my car 10 min or so to get the heat going with the temp in the 30's so a 15 min wait alone isnt too far of a stretch if it is melow 0 there. Anyhow, I would check the thermostat operation first as it is a cheap and easy item to replace and is more common than more serious problems.

[karmakaze]

By overheating do you mean that the temp gauge rose high or did you actually witness the coolant boiling over ? The gauge can be wrong so I would first make sure your engine is actually overheating. If it was overheating for sure and you have no heat then I would suspect the thermostat. It takes my car 10 min or so to get the heat going with the temp in the 30's so a 15 min wait alone isnt too far of a stretch if it is melow 0 there. Anyhow, I would check the thermostat operation first as it is a cheap and easy item to replace and is more common than more serious problems.

i would check your freeze plugs as well

[knx2]

Thanks for the responses. Everything seems to be ok today. Although now it is snowing like crazy out my car did not over heat on the way to work at all. I just suspect the gauge was wrong.