This afternoon whilst driving my normal 3 miles home from work my car got very very hot, checked oil, it was low, so filled up (also gave mini service of windscreen wipers and air in tires) checked to see if overheating problem is solved and well its not. Just leaving the car to idle and it overheats. The fan kicks in but it doesnt cool down.

Being a girl im not too good at this car thing... one of my old cars had to have the thermostat taken out and the last one needed to be bled when i topped it up with water not to get air bubbles in it. Does the 323 need the same thing doing to it? as I filled it up with coolant about 2 months ago

 

Justine, what year is your 323? (You didn't say.) Also, what do you mean by "overheating"? Do you mean the temperature gauge went WAY up into the very hot range, or do you mean that the radiator boiled over/released a lot of steam? Or was it both?

Here's why I ask: I have a 1990 323 that had the first problem (temp gauge showing VERY HOT) several years ago. The problem was a bad coolant temperature sensor. Replacing it was easy and solved the problem immediately and completely.

It could be, however, that your thermostat is stuck in the closed position. Replacing a thermostat is a little harder than replacing the coolant temp sensor, but it's not terribly hard--or terribly expensive if you just want to pay someone else to do it.

Those are, I think, the most likely causes of your overheating. There may even be others. But I'm far from an expert (I can only tell you what's happened to me), and radiator stuff always confuses me too, even though it's often very simple. So I'm hoping someone else will chime in with a more definitive answer for you. :-) Meantime, see http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question248.htm for a simple description of how thermostats work. Hope this all helps.