nonvtec92

hey everyone

my car has been through a SLEW of problems one after the other after the other.
replaced my starter today, and coming home from work, my car started overheating.


here's my situation

if my car is level... no overheating. if i sit and idle... no overheating. stays right in the middle between cold and hot.
i drive up and down two mountains going to work and back, and whenever i go UP the mountains, BOOM, temperature steadily rises.

- i have a new radiator just installed about 2 weeks ago
- my radiator cap is leaking. i can hear it hissing... bought a new one today, haven't put it on yet... could this do it?
- okay this is bad... i use synthetic oil, and i'm about 2000 miles overdue for an oil change. bad bad bad, i know. bad oil... could that be a symptom of a overheating problem?

what the hell is going on?

i even drove it HARD once i got to the top of my mountain, for about 20minutes the rest of my trip home. reved it way higher then i usually do, etc... etc... and nothing.

JUST when i'm going up hill??

RYNO48

I'm going to put money on your thermostat. Most likely its stuck open as its suppose to when it fails but closes when it cools down again. It causes overheading only when its under a load so it makes it hard to diagnose sometimes.

Once my civic only overheated when i turned on the air. Once i turned it off it was fine. Took me a while, did the cap and inspected everything and then went to the thermostat and it had a crack in it. Good luck.

92bubble

try replacing your thermostat since they are only like 10 bucks and even if its not bad its worth it to replace. do a coolant flush, make sure there are no air pockets, that will cause overheating. if none of that works it could be the early signs of a head gasket failure. when your motor is under load that is when things move around the most, since the most stress is happening during a uphill climb. also just check your coolant level. heck it could be something as easy as that.

Targa250R

What car and engine? You neglected to mention that important detail . . .

If your rad cap is leaking, then your cooling system is not holding pressure as it should. Replace the rad cap with one rated at the proper pressure. You may also want to replace your thermostat if you have never done so - they are inexpensive and easy to change. Make sure to refill and bleed out the cooling system properly.

However, if you have a D15B7 engine, chances are likely that you have a blown head gasket, so if that's the case, have the cooling system checked for presence of exhaust gases.

nonvtec92

thanks for all the replies...

i've got a stock cx
not too sure about the actual motor code...

92bubble

if its a cx its a d15b8

quix silver

return of the living thread... in case anyone is still having this issue, with d15z1, i was able to troubleshoot this issue down to a faulty radiator. i had used an aftermarket radiator *questionable* to replace a stock unit. after driving the car a lot longer than i should have, i spent the $80 at oreillys for the stocker and it resolved the issue. they come with new cap so no need to buy seperate.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

7 year old thread

So first off, I appreciate that you found a solution that worked for you, and you came and posted it here. That being said, please don't necrobump old, dead threads that aren't yours. Different problems will have different solutions, and different diagnostic procedures, and even if they seem like the same problems, 9 times out of 10 they aren't. You're trying to help, which is good, and we need more people around here who are looking to help, we just need you to approach it a slightly different way for the sake of the rules.

quix silver

apologies. i know this thread was old, hence the dead reference. i also noticed the OP's original question had not been answered. wont raise the dead again for the sake of answering someone. but just fyi, this is the first thread to come up on google.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

It happens more than you'd believe around here, someone comes in, asks questions, gets answers, and then never comes back to tell us which answer was actually the solution. You are right that a radiator could cause overheating under load, but there are other things that should be tested before blindly replacing the radiator. That's not to say that's what you did, I just don't want to see someone to throw parts at their problem.

Like I said, though, thank you for trying to help