Quik89Si

Okay, my car had been overheating off and on for a while, so I finally took out the old coolant, flushed the system real well, replaced the thermostat and filled'er back up.

I drove it for the first time after bleeding the system, then I let the car sit for a while. When I came back, the reservoir was almost empty and the coolant in the rad was a little bit low. Okay, so I filled it back up. Could have been due to air in the system, no?

Since then, I have driven the car a few times, hasn't overheated, but the coolant in the reservoir has dipped down below the min line, even though it was at the max line the last time I put any coolant in it.

Could this be caused by even more air in the system that's bleeding itself out? Or something else? Would it matter if it were filled up when the car was hot vs. when the car was cold?

Thanks in advance -

Alex

*EDIT* I haven't seen coolant leaking under the car OR under the hood, ever, at any time that I have had the car, either.


[Modified by Quik89Si, 2:25 PM 1/6/2003]

elmerfudd

Do you see any white smoke at all from your exhaust? I know mine had the same situation. when you first start the car from cold, take your rad. cap off and watch for bubbles. if you have bubbles, then you probably have a leaky head gasket.
good luck with it. Elmerfudd

Quik89Si

No white smoke as far as I can tell...no bubbles coming from the rad cap, I left it off while idling for about 10 minutes when I first changed the coolant, and the bubbles stopped coming out eventually. I think next time I can, I'll check that out again. Maybe rev it while the cap is off - I've heard that if the HG is bad, revving the engine will make more bubbles come out or will sometimes make coolant shoot out.

Alex

Outsane

may want to check your hoses..

I had a small leak in my heater hose and gave me disapearing coolant syndrome.

The coolant gettin sucked in is pretty normal.

Does your exhaust smell sweet?

Quik89Si

The exhaust smells just like exhaust, kind of a gasoline smell - I would imagine that's how it should smell. I haven't seen any leaks in the engine bay or under the car at all.

I'm thinking that next time I take a look at it, I'll fill the reservoir back up to the max line, take the cap off, watch for bubbles, rev it a bit, keep watching for bubbles, etc.

If I don't see bubbles, I'll go for a drive, come back, let it cool down, and see if the level in the reservoir drops again.

Alex

E-AT_me

depending on where the leak is, because there IS a leak, it could be burning off by touching the block.. get the car idling and warm, reach your hand down and squeeze all the hoses, you may get some steam to come out. this is how i check for leaks..works for me!

Quik89Si

I actually did that the first time, right after I changed the coolant. I let the car idle for about 5 or 6 minutes, it was warmed up, got under the hood and squeezed and tapped the upper and lower hoses. More bubbles came out when I did that, but no steam - and the hoses were warm, as was the engine.

I'm still thinking that there could have been air pockets in the system even after I bled it - now that I think about it, right after I first changed the coolant, it DID overheat - I was going up a long hill, and it would overheat when I was in 5th, so I'd downshift to 4th, and it would cool back down, this happened off and on for a while, then it stopped. On my way back home, and since then, it hasn't overheated again.

Alex

EL Vap133

Something similar was happening to my girl's car. The reservoir would always be low on fluid, every so often. Finally I jacked the car up, turned the car on and as soon as the car got warm, I saw that it had a slow coolant leak. It would only leak with the car on. So I traced the leak to a small hose that goes from the head to the firewall, so now that hose will be replaced as soon as I buy the new part... good luck to you, it might be something similar...

elmerfudd

good post with good info; check it out:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=377851
cut and paste

elmerfudd

Quik89Si

Did you mean to put that there? Because that's a link to this thread.

Anyway, yeah I got under the car, looked for anything hitting the ground; nothing.

Looked at all connections and routes for coolant in the engine bay; nothing.

Went and drove it some more, pretty hard, for around 25 minutes. Came back, coolant at same level that it was at after it warmed up in the driveway.

I'm thinking that it WAS just air pockets. Is that possible?

Alex

E-AT_me

um, it could've been air, BUT there is more than 2 coolant hoses on your car. there is like 12 or so total.

Vinceg99

OK I was having the same problem for awhile and then it kind of like somewhat fixed itself. OK when you flushed it did you install one of those flushing tee's?? OK my problem was that it was leaking from my water pump after my coolant was flushed. I then changed the thermostat and rebled the hell out of my system. I bled it through both the bleeding valve and the flushing tee. Well now the water pump no longer leaks and I have heat again. I would say that yes it is possible that it was just air in the system but I would definatley look everywhere for leaks. Also I never noticed coolant from my water pump.

BERT-O

sorry, I just wanna to do that