caseyliffick

So I was driving home last night and I noticed my temp guage was reading a little low. I'd say about 2/5 up or about halfway between the mid point and cold.

While on the way home I could smell anitfreeze. I get home and it's smoking a little from under the hood. Smells like burning antifreeze. So I pop the hood, and coolant is leaking around where my lower rad hose connects to the engine. I wait till it cools off the next day and check everything out.

I found my bleeder valve to be loose on the head for the coolant and it was probably where the coolant was coming out of. I tightened it and added more anitfreeze today and it seems to be running fine.







So my question is this: my temp gauge reads 2/5 (I have an aluminum radiator and high speed fan), but the radiator hoses and engine to the touch feel EXTREMELY hot. I drove around for 15 minutes then sat at idle for about 8-10 and the temp gauge never budged from 2/5 even while sitting, and the fan never kicked on.

Is it messed up or is the car really operating at that temperature and I'm being paranoid.

ferio252

Bump for someone elses expertise. Sounds fine to me, personally.

theBEST

bolts dont loosen themselves all of a sudden...did u previously "mess around" with ur cooling system anytime before this? and make sure ur still not leaking any coolant and just start ur car (with sufficient coolant in it) and dont drive it (prevent overheating) and let it idle until ur fans come on and be patient give it time (5 min. or so) and if ur fans still dont come on, jump the fan switch wich is also located on ur t-stat housing where ur lower rad. hose connects to and they should automatically come on wich indicates a bad fan switch and if so since the t-stat and ect sensor are all rite there i would mite as well replace those as well while im there for further assurance and a quality repair!!!

caseyliffick

^^^Thanks for the input, but my bolts do loosen by themselves. I put solid torque mounts on and my car rattles like a ****. So far, it's rattled a rear tranny mount bolt loose, which I lost on the highway and the coolant bleeder valve.


I drove it tonight with more coolant and it seems to be driving fine, I still am smelling a little burnt coolant smell (which may be residual) and my overflow resevoir seems to be sucking up all the coolant in the tank. It's empty, even though I fill the overflow tank in between the MIN line and the MAX line. I'm not sure what's going on.

Former User

I would think that the issues you describe are indicating that some air is trapped in the cooling system. You need to bleed it like this:

1) Park the car on an inclined driveway with the front end higher than the rear.

2) Push the dash heater lever/**** to MAX heat.

3) Follow the directions in the diagram below (hint: the bleed bolt is located where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine):

eaglewesman

What car do you drive? I'm driving an Integra 93 LS, and I seem to be having coolant temperature problems. I was wondering if I could maybe point in the right direction, but also find some solutions to my problem.

My research brought me to the ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) sensor. I want to know if this is the fan switch people are talking about? I can't find anything on it. Also, the part right next to it is the ECT Sending Gauge unit. What do these two parts do?

flyellow

I cannot remember my fan kicking on at all. Also, my temp gauge on the dash always reads cold when driving it lately. When idling, it does go up to about half way.

do I need to worry? Do I need to change my ECT sensor or sending unit? I have not checked my fan operation yet.

What does the sending unit do?

slomob18b

Was this issue ever solved? My friend's car is doing the same thing where the temperature goes as high as 2/5 just like the OP's.

Red_Army

mine did that then i changed my tstat it reads normal now but my fans are still fudged. i know why my fan doesnt work. but it did fix my temp gauge readings.

slomob18b

^^The thermostat was what we thought of first so we changed it out for a FailSafe one and its still the same. I checked the single wire under the distributor and it seemed fine. Its a 98 Civic LX by the way.