kingpen

Well I bought two premixed bottles of antifreeze to change out mine because it mysteriously vanished. My car is begining to over heat and the idle is going up and down
Ok well my question is, what should I do when i change it?
Is there anything I do besides draining it and putting in new antifreeze? Anything I can do to maybe prevent it from draing out again?
thanks

careawholelot

if your car is starting to overheat u should change the thermostat and waterpump,

B18C5-EH2

First of all antifreeze/coolant doesn't just disappear. It must be leaking from somewhere. I suggest you find that leak before you cook the motor.

As far as the drain/fill goes, it's easy.

Make sure the car is pretty cool when you do this to avoid getting burned.

1. Take off the cap.

2. Loosen the white plastic **** on the bottom tank for the radiator and drain the fluid into an enviromentally safe conatiner and dispose of it properly ().

3. Tighten the plastic ****.

4. Depending on your car you might have to loosen a bleeder valve on the upper waterneck leading into the head on your motor when refilling with coolant.

If you have the 10mm bleeder, fill the radiator until coolant oozes from the bleeder valve.

If no bleeder (newer cars) fill and squeeze the top hose and continue filling and squeezing until you see no bubbles.

That's about it.

B18C5-EH2

Not necessarily.

It could just be a minor leak that is emptying his radiator.

When dealing with a problem don't start at the more difficult problems - start with the easiest ones.

I have never seen a waterpump just **** out unless it was way overdue for a change, which is 90,000 miles.

Thermostats?

Yes. But you can have a 100% functional thermostat but if the cooling system has a leak the good thermostat won't help.

kingpen

the radiator is nearly brand new. and i have noticed it leaking oncee, but the fluid was under the a/c not the radiator

B18C5-EH2

Check the hoses, especially the lower rad. hose.

Kamin

DONT FORGET #3!!
when i filled mine last night i forgot to put the plug back in and let about 1/4 gallon of coolant and water go all over my garage..

this is so true...

good work tom.

kingpen

ABOUT the tube connetcet to the top of the radiator
can i spray water through it to drain the system of all antyifreeze

Patron

hey, i have had the exact problem before, blew a headgasket, smoke everywhere, DO NOT LET IT OVERHEAT!!!.....unless you're looking to do an engine swap, which is what i ended up doing. If the radiator's new, check both upper and lower radiator hoses. ADDITIONALLY there are heater hoses connected from your block to your firewall that also have coolant in them. if you're leaving fluid on the ground it's definately a problem.

Hatchy-Ownzjo0

Roflmfao Kamin..

If its leakin then i would look for the leak and see if you cant find it.. dont change **** till you find out just what the prob is..

kingpen

i just took it out and fiulled with water
found no leaks
i fully cleaned that sucker and put in premiexd coolant (as opposed to zntifreeze mixed with dirty water.) If this fails... i take it out again buy new hoses etc. Hopefully the problem is solved

poo flinger

This happened to me and I thought I had a huge leak. I turned out to be air pockets. Most likely you have air pockets in your system. Did you pour in the coolant, the leave the radiator cap off and start the car? You need to do this until you don't see any bubbles coming up from the radiator. Then add more if needed. Fill the overflow tank and you should be good to go.

BlackDeuceCoupe

A couple of thoughts:

First, a Honda CiViC runs on a gallon (1-gallon) of coolant. It doesn't take much of a leak for it to disappear and overheat. A single unnoticed pin-hole leak will do the job nicely!

Secondly, water pumps DO wear out, especially when you use sh!tty antifreeze which have borates and silicates (which is just a fancy way of saying fine-particled sand) in them. A water pump is actually nothing more than a impeller spinning at high-speed. Antifreeze with borates and silicates will, over time, 'sand' the impeller down to nothing, and the water WILL quit circulating, causing overheating.

Anyway, carry on...

shawnhayes

I will guaradamntee if he's seeing antifreeze on the timing belt side of the motor, then antifreeze is coming out of the weep hole of the water pump after he turns the the car off.

Common problem for Hondas. Happened to mine at 70,000 miles, and incidentally, I was using non-Honda coolant for most of the life of the car.

Shawn

B18C5-EH2

Butting heads are we?

I'm sure it might *seem* like a common problem to some of you, but I assure you that in all my years of working in dealers (3 dealers, and the shop I'm at now) I've not ever seen a single premature waterpump failure.

Perhaps incorrect install or way overdue for a change? Yes, but to say it's a "common problem" for the waterpump to leak from the "weep hole" isn't really true.

Maybe it's just everywhere but Georgia?

976

A/C leaks. Water is dropped from a/c. You need honda typee 2 coolent. And drain block aswell. Remeber to use bleed screw when filling. Removal of air bubbles is a must. BOO YEAH.

shawnhayes

People who bring their car to dealers aren't likely to see this. The Honda pundits who I circulated with when I bought the car new (mostly econoheads and reliability nuts) told me that if I didn't fill the car with Honda antifreeze the water pump would fail. This went against their ususal cheap nature, and I should have noticed that and listened, but nooooooo. I told them "bullcrap" and bought el cheapo Prestone, and changed it once a year. Given, I owned the car for six years before any REAL problem, but from years 3 to year six I had to replace some antifreeze almost every month. I once found antifreeze near the radiator cap, and Honda replaced the cap under warranty.

It still "lost" antifreeze unexplainedly. Very slow loss, almost negligible.

At year six and 70,000 miles, I stopped the car at my apartment after a 30 mile run. I took out the garbage and noted coolant dripping from the left side of the engine. Ah HA, I thought, now I can find the leaking hose. NOPE. It was dripping down the left side of the timing cover. I took it to the dealer, and they told me the water pump was leaking, but I was nearly due for timing belt change anyway, so we did both.

Coolant loss stopped immediately and permanently. Never lost another drop until I swapped the motor at 100,000 miles.

The trick is that this problem seems to occur to a special group of people, of which I have belonged to for many years. CHEAP ASSES. The people who buy a Honda Civic CX because of the mileage, and think that the VX wasn't worth the extra money. Oil changes at 3,000 miles with the cheapest oil on sale that week, and yearly antifreeze changes with the el cheapo brand antifreeze. As a group, as well, most of these people have the technical skill to replace the water pump and timing belt by themselves, and when it does fail, they're not going to end up at any shop or dealer. This debate occurrs at least once a month on rec.autos.makers.honda, and you wouldn't believe the number of people who echo my experience on this. The Honda antifreeze formulation seems to be the best at preventing this problem.

Normal schmucks who go to dealers aren't going to experience this anyway, Why? Because the stock coolant stays in the car the whole life, until timing belt change time comes around, and then you replace the water pump as a matter of hassle reduction.

Tuners will also never see this problem. They also will replace the timing belt and water pump before it occurs, and they are probably either using Dex-cool, or Honda antifreeze, which is better than the cheap antifreeze at preventing this problem.

The giveaway for this case, I think, is that he is seeing coolant on the LEFT side of the motor, near the AC (at least I think that's what he's saying). It's awful hard for the radiator/heater hoses on the right side of the motor to drip all the way over there. The only other thing on the left side of the motor is the main hose on the back of the motor, and I guess that can leak that way, but I've never seen that leak before.

Opinions?

Shawn

B18C5-EH2

Once again thanks for your own personal testimony that proves to me that it happened to YOU.

I don't work at a dealer now, and since our labor rates are cheaper we get a lot of "cheap asses" as customers.

I don't want to argue any more about the probability of a waterpump leaking - it's straying too far off topic to actually help the guy with his problem.

Point?

For the guy who has a possible leak at least check the waterpump area on the timing cover side of your engine. It might not be a really common problem, but since we know it can at least happen once it's worth checking out.

shawnhayes

Understood, but I can link some newsgroup debates over antifreeze where the idiots like me who didn't RTFM or didn't believe it fell victim to their own stupidity as well tell how it happens when they didn't listen. I really am just highlighting my and others stupidity when we refuse to listen to the manufacturer.

True, but these are technically inept cheap asses. Hopefully, you and your other techs are insisting on the proper coolant for the car, rather than putting in basic antifreeze. I'm only speculating, but are you putting cheap silicate antifreeze in Hondas?

Agreed, and ONLY if he truly is seeing coolant on the left side of the motor near the timing belt cover.

Also, as you have pointed out, this problem isn't REALLY a common problem, but for morons like myself who put in incorrect antifreeze, it does seem to occur. Or maybe we're just very vocal, eh?

Shawn



[Modified by shawnhayes, 4:06 PM 11/9/2002]

kingpen

well after i turn the car off i see a little puddle of it and its antifreeze under the a/c....im going to get out all the air bubbles then see what happens

BlackDeuceCoupe

Honda OEM antifreeze is generally the best coolant for a Honda. If you don't mind me copy 'n' pasting something from one of my posts, this may shed some light on the subject.

Apologies, in advance, to those of you that have read this stuff a million times. This is for those that don't have a clue...

I cannot help it if you have a lack of imagination, Nexus. Besides anybody into debating knows this playground tactic to be an "appeal to ignorance" fallacy, e.g. Nexus242 can't imagine something is true, therefore it must be false. Please!!!

Let's play fair. I'll provide you with evidence and you dispute it. That way you can't plead ignorance or lack of imagination...

And, of course, here's the infamous Honda Corp letter written to its' Honda and Acura dealers:

BlackDeuceCoupe

LoL! Here's another copy 'n' paste...

Yeah, a lot of ppl substitute Texaco Havoline Dex-Cool for OEM coolant[s] in Jap cars. Ditto for Euro cars. However, it still isn't as good as Honda HP Coolant, IMO, which was designed by Honda R&D specifically for use in Honda cars, motorcycles, et cetera.

The problem I have with Dex-Cool is that they have simply substituted silicates and borates with another cutting-edge inhibitor technology. Texaco uses an inorganic salt-based carboxylate and organic acid technology [OAT] additive/inhibitor package to extend its' range of compatibility with other antifreezes. This is hardly a high-tech solution [no pun intended] to silicate antifreezes, as far as I'm concerned...

krazn

right when i think ur out of info...u amaze me w/ more. hehe

spoon-ej1

Dude,

I dunno about anyone else here, but that was a positive welath of info. I've had rad problems before and this expains alot. I'm speaking specifically about the coolant.

shawnhayes

Exactly. I have seen this info and debate on the honda newsgroups for years. I hadn't sought this information out, and had ignored the owners manual. Those who have done this and lost a water pump over it will never forget. Apparently, there aren't that many of us out there though, speaking for the reliability of Honda water pumps.

Shawn



[Modified by shawnhayes, 11:45 PM 11/11/2002]