ok so california has been experiencing some aweful heat, like 110 average around my house. I had the a/c on and all of a sudden it stopped blowing cold air. I checked the gauge and the temp. was at the highest level. I turned off the car and let the fan cool it for like 15 minutes til it turned off.

Later I turn the engine back on and all seemed fine, even with the a/c on. a few days later I parked my car with the a/c on and had to get a phone call and all of a sudden the same thing happened, the car overheated. After turning off and restarting I experimented and turned on the a/c while it was parked and sure enough the temp. started to rise again. Once turning off the a/c the temp. went back to normal. This just barely started happening like last week. Does anyone have an idea on why this would happen?

 

you will need to have the cooling fan checked to see if both the stages are working on it. theres 2 speeds for the fan one without a/c(slow) one with a/c on(fast) sounds like your second stage is not working.

 

Aren't British cars great? So much character!

 

Well the fast fan mode is on extremely loud when the car feels like it getting hot and stays for about 5 minutes after the engine is off.

 

Depending on the year of your car, you may be looking at the classic power steering fan failure. On early cars, the ps fan shared a circuit and fuse with the engine cooling fan, so when the ps fan jammed with debris or shorted out from a good dousing (not a water-proof unit!) it would blow the fuse and you'd lose engine cooling as well. Happened to me and many others with 02-03 cars. I believe the wiring was redesigned in 04. My 04 has yet to have the same failure after 70k miles.