My daughters both own sunfires, and both have started having same problems not that summer is here. When driving on highway, both A/Cs work great, and engine temp is fine. When idling in hot weather, both overheatrapidly and A/C blows hot air, of course. Both started having this problem just recently. Any suggested fix. Am I just jinxed or it this common problem for older Sunfires?

 

First thing I would do is check the coolant level, coolant temp, and make sure the fans run when the car is on.

If the fans are not running, it could be the fans themselves, or just the thermostat. I would try to replace the thermostat with a lower temperature one and hope that works. (It's only a $7 part and takes 10 mins to fix. Just make sure you get a 180 degree or 170 degree.)

This does sound simply like an engine overheating problem though, it does not sound like an AC issue. If you check the site on my sig, there's a couple of mechanics and almost unlimited resources to troubleshoot these problems.

It will almost always seem find when the car is in motion because the ambient air will run into the engine bay and help to cool it down. When you are at an idle, there is nothin cooling it down.

If you know someone with a scanner, I would run the LS1M program on it and check the temps of these items and check if it runs too hot. If you were close to me, I'd do it for you, but I'm up in Canada.