dhn

during a long trip i started overheating...replaced the coolant..things were fine..then eventually i lsot coolant..every few days id have to replace the coolant..it recicrulated into the coolant resevoir after while and that filled up and there was no coolant in the radiator..my oil looked fine when i drained it..there was nothing in the coolant..no white smoke...so could it just be my thermostat?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

no your thermostat would not cause you to lose coolant.

When you refilled your coolant, did you burp your system? If there was trapped air, the air will travel out eventually to the reservior. The reservior will empty..and the radiator will suck in more air. It's a viscious cycle.

Your owner's manual can tell you how to burp/bleed the coolant system from air.

You can also just open the radiator cap WHEN THE ENGINE IS COLD.

Fill up the radiator all the way. Fill up the reserve tank to the MAX level.

Then put it back the cap back on and twist to the first stop. NOT THE SECOND STOP.

Turn the car on.

Let it run for a while till the cooling fan comes on. Leave a pan underneath it so it catches the run off.

Turn off the car.

Take the cap off and pour in more coolant in the radiator till it completely fills and drips out.

Close the cap fully.

Start the car and let it run again till the fan comes on.

Fill up the reservior a LITTLE past the MAX mark.

You're done.

Watch the level. It may go down a little bit as maybe some remaining air comes out. Refill and watch it.


Also, are you sure it's not just leaking out? Did you close everything up properly?

philosofy1

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dhn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">during a long trip i started overheating...replaced the coolant..things were fine..then eventually i lsot coolant..every few days id have to replace the coolant..it recicrulated into the coolant resevoir after while and that filled up and there was no coolant in the radiator..my oil looked fine when i drained it..there was nothing in the coolant..no white smoke...so could it just be my thermostat?</TD></TR></TABLE>

sounds like when you dumped out the old coolant, you didn't fill up enough coolant.
this is why you continue to add coolant and overheat.

before you start buying parts and taking expensive guesses. let the car cool, open the radiator cap, start the car, fill up until the radiator is full to capacity. install the cap back on and see what happens.

dhn

i will try all that tomorrow

i say ehadgasket cause..i just had the water pump replaced..and out of nowhere on the trip it overheats..i checked it..and coolant spewed out the radiator cap when i took off the cap..and the resevoir was past max..idk what would cause that besides a HG leak..

bpkmrtoes

bad cap? the cap is supposed to open a valve to the overflow tank when the coolant gets hot and builds too much pressure then after it cools down, vacuum causes the coolant to get sucked back into the radiator. This is to prevent air bubbles.

edit:: you would be surprised how much people is driving around with bad caps.

dhn

nah i changed the cap recently...but i didnt do the stuff the guys above told me to do..i just replaced it..lost coolant still tho..there is no coolant loss on the ground..i never see any stains on the ground..

bpkmrtoes

so you're saying that your car overheats, the coolant from the radiator goes into the reservoir and not back in?

dhn

it only overheated on my trip..which was around 7-8 hrs...i had to change the coolant every 2 days or so..cause when i checked the level..the radiator was empty

Transpoquick

Sounds to me like your not building pressure in the cooling system. Could be alot of things I.E. bad rad., blown head gasket, leaking hose or split hose. You need to do a pressure check. If you don't build pressure your antifreeze boils forcing it into the overflow bottle. No pressure means lower boiling point. The non sealing/pressurizing cooling system will also not suck the antifreeze back from the overflow. A blown head gasket/cracked block would be a worse case scenario.

dhn

i also forgot to add...when i was looking in my bay..my tranny is pretty dirty...like sludgy/sandy..i cantr explain it..its not oil..has no smell or anything but..it does lead me to belive theres some sort of leak in that area..but theres nothing on the ground..all hoses are connected..no leaks from them..so idk

dhn

also driveability has never changed...car never felt sluggish..or felt like it was losing power

bpkmrtoes

do a pressure test. if coolant is leaking from a hose it will be obvious during the test. test your cap too. Caps can come out of the factory faulty.

TurboEK9Coupe

This one is long. Im having a simular issue with my 94 Ex. The car is bone stock with 166,000 miles on it. I purchased the car from my aunt cause she was having trouble with her cooling system. She was told she needed a new head gasket and a bunch of other things to fix the problem. She refused the work expect for fixing the thermostat. I have had the car for 4+ months now and have put over 6,000 miles on it since I bought the car from her and twice now I have just been crusing aroud and the guage will start to climb and as soon as I start to move the guage drops back down to the normal level. Well on friday I was on my way to Florida from Georgia where I llive and about 330 ish miles into the trip the coolant guage starts to rise up and down when not in motion and like I said before, once I start to move it drops back down to the normal level. Well I stoped to check the level and the top of the radiator was hot and when I moved my hand down the radiator, it was cold. The first two inches of the radiator was hot. I opened the cap slowly to release the pressure and to check/add more coolant as I have had to do once before, just air rushed oout of the cooling system. On Thursday, the day before I left, I had purged the cooling system to make sure that everything was ok and it was. I have a special funnel that attaches to the top of the radiator to get all of the air bubbles out of the system and I had spent about 30 mins doing this. And also the coolant that was in the radiator was foamy. I don't think that it is a head gasket problem cause the coolant is green as ever and when I drained the oil on Thursday it was just the normal black oil. I'm stumped with this problem. Its like no coolant is being circulated through the system. I'm tempted to just remove the thermostat all together. The cap is good cause their is pressure in the system when I feel the hoses. Any input would be great. My 2000 EX had the same problem too. But the engine took a dump when I was going on to the highway and about 8 psi of boost was introduced. So I never got to solve the problem.

Transpoquick

166,000 mi is alot. It all gets back to the not being able to build pressure thing, but it sounds to me like your motor is only having this problem when hot. Drive the car get it hot, (Real hot!, IE bang on it) do a pressure check. if the pressure check is good........I'm stumped, if not your still hurtin because with that kinda mileage I would replace everything that has to do with the cooling system, Head gasket, water pump, hoses, thermostat housing gasket all the little hoses on the intake on and on and on, bet it makes you wish you did'nt buy the car. Another thing is with that kinda mileage after you do all that work........you might as well do a whole rebuild, unless your fast enough to do it all in a reasonable amount of time. And I'm not bashing you buy saying "unless your fast enough", it's just that it won't be cost effective otherwise.

The Si

If you are overheating it might be your thermostat.
Blown head gasket will cause white smoke coming from your exhaust.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Transpoquick &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">166,000 mi is alot. It all gets back to the not being able to build pressure thing, but it sounds to me like your motor is only having this problem when hot. Drive the car get it hot, (Real hot!, IE bang on it) do a pressure check. if the pressure check is good........I'm stumped, if not your still hurtin because with that kinda mileage I would replace everything that has to do with the cooling system, Head gasket, water pump, hoses, thermostat housing gasket all the little hoses on the intake on and on and on, bet it makes you wish you did'nt buy the car. Another thing is with that kinda mileage after you do all that work........you might as well do a whole rebuild, unless your fast enough to do it all in a reasonable amount of time. And I'm not bashing you buy saying "unless your fast enough", it's just that it won't be cost effective otherwise. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Wait...so you're saying that 166k is a lot, but that he should beat on it to make it overheat...then pressure test it? Pressure test what? How?

166k is NOT a lot of miles if the car was taken care of. It does not need nessacarily need a rebuild just because of the miles. That doesn't make sense. My GSR has 154k ....no smoke, still gets 35mpg, still pulls all the way to 8k, and is as fast as my friend's 06 Si. It also did 130mph and got 30mpg on the same tank. It just depends on how the car was driven. 166k is not a lot at all even if the car was driven by just your average person.

Transpoquick

Pressure test what? How?
The Tires, Duh

TurboEK9Coupe

Well I did discover a faulty radiator cap. I thought the cap that I had was good but after I drove the car for awhile, I was able to squeeze the hose and their was no pressure in the system. So I went to the dealer and bought a new cap and re-bleed the cooling system when I got home and it has been working perfect ever since. That still doesn't make since, cause I replaced the cap on my 2000 ex and the car would still over heat. Maybe the head gasket was going out slowly causing the overheating. I guess I should of never turboed the car with around 80,000k on it. I was getting 37+ mpg on my trip last weekend. The car runs perfect and I don't think I need to replace every coolant piece on the car. As the old saying goes "don't fix it if it ain't broken" and you can quote me on that.

Transpoquick

That's good to hear. However have you driven the car on a 300+ mile trip at highway speeds since you put the cap on?. Also I wanted to tell you it's normal for the top of the rad to be hot and for it to be cold as you move down to the bottom as hot water is being dumped into the top and cooling as it circulates down and back into the pump. I've seen the symptoms your describing before and chased it for awhile myself, sometimes its the result of air in the system(pretty easy to diagnose) foamy coolant is a good indicator as the pump cavitates and pushes air into the coolant thus foam. However I've also seen head gaskets do simular things on normal and boosted cars because cylinder pressure from compression finds it's way through the gap(s) in the head sealing surface and pushes air into the cooling system. Or you can have just the opposite intake stroke sucks coolant through the gaps burning coolant hence white smoke. Also oil can get sucked in the same way and cross contaminate the fluids, all of these circumstances depend on how and where the head gasket is blown. Pressure checks and compression checks are always the best way to nail down the cause, it's hard for anyone to diagnose a problem without being there as whats being explained and whats going on could and often are two different things, and I'm the last person you have to tell "if it ain't broke don't fix it", I was recommending doing all the hoses(etc) if you did a full rebuild, either way its all good and I hope everything is OK

TurboEK9Coupe

Its been a few days now and no more overheating problems. Don't over look the small things in your cooling system.

n4rk0

i have the same problem of "dhn" did u fix this problem ??

mouab18c1

iTrader: (5)

i recently changed my headgasket because supposedly it was blown do to white milky crap under oil cap and valve cover....after i got it done...turned it on for about ten minutes and i had that white stuff again...any help would be great..car drives fine...dont seem to be losing any coolant...but still getting that white stuff....had the head resurfaced...did compression check...and i still ran 180 across which is pretty good for a b20b4 with lower compression then a b20z...help me out guys...my head is hurting...

TurboEK9Coupe

The white stuff you are still seeing could be some residue left over from your milk shake you had. Is the coolant bright green still? Check your oil to see if its light brown from water in your oil. Thats all I can think of.

mouab18c1

iTrader: (5)

my coolant still looks the same.....and my oil...havent drained it...poored in new oil so looks kinda fresh when i got it running again....im hoping its leftovers...but i dont know...not loosing coolant for this pass week....im still praying!