Eyewitness

OK 99b16a2 overheating about 2-20mns after start up

1.fan works fine
2.water pump is cycling and not leaking(i thought it was not cycling but it is)...in fact there are no leaks whatsoever on my car of any kind
3.coolant is at correct level 50/50 mix
4.no white smoke coming from exhaust and oil is not milky at all...
5.thermostat has been checked removed checked and removed again with no results...(right now it is out of the car)

sooo i am basically at a dead end after a few threads, mad searches, reading, and some troubleshooting to the ride....what should i try next this is not cool.. any help is appreciated...


Modified by Eyewitness at 3:08 PM 8/19/2003

tominos

just throwing ideas out.

radiator clogged/inefficient?
grab lower radiator hose after startup to make sure thermo is opening.

Eyewitness

Thermo is out of car and both upper and lower radiator hoses are getting hot...the coolant/water mix also appears to be cycling through the radiator at a pretty decent rate...im not how sure how to tell if its partially clogged or not...its definetly not all the way clogged so..???

tominos

so how do you know its overheating? gauge reads hot? is gauge or sending unit malfunctioning?

Eyewitness

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tominos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so how do you know its overheating? gauge reads hot? is gauge or sending unit malfunctioning?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

yes gauge steadily climbs to the top and doesnt go down...the reason i think the gauge IS working is that is takes longer to heat up at night because of course its cooler...and i live in az so days are hella hot and it heats up quick....i thought i smelled the car overheating also...when i look into the bay nothing is like glowing red or anything but its pretty damn hot...i was thinking maybe the rad cap but would that allow it to heat up so quickly if its just losing pressure through the cap


Oh yeah and the coolant hasnt boiled over into my overflow valve...and if it did theres none left when i checked because its bone dry


Modified by Eyewitness at 12:13 AM 8/19/2003

mycivicstoo(s)low

Shouldn't there be some extra in the overflow thingy?

Ziggie

Have a similar problem. Maybe a bad O2 sensor? I have a bad O2 and sometimes my car thinks it's overheating when it's not.

Eyewitness

thats what im thinking unless my rad cap is not allowing it to flow through...but that would mean i have a good seal with the rad cap so that cancels out the loss of pressure idea....how can i test the temp of the hot engine or coolant...besides trying to take th cap of while its hot...i need to know if its a sensor or a real problem this sucks... and if i dont have extra would that cause it to overheat so quick


Modified by Eyewitness at 12:43 AM 8/19/2003

Eyewitness

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ziggie &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have a similar problem. Maybe a bad O2 sensor? I have a bad O2 and sometimes my car thinks it's overheating when it's not.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Maybe but it happens ALL the time...im thinking of tearing off my radiator emptying the coolant again and checking for cloggs...even though its like 12:15am...i already filled the coolant up after losing some during the thermostat troubleshooting

Eyewitness

im gonna check my radiator in the morning and buy a new cap and ill see if that help...other wise should i check my temp sensors??? from what i understand theres 3 of em...i know one is on the thermo housing..but the other 2???

LSpimpTEC

when you say that the needle rises, does it fluctuate at all? the same thing happened to me and it turned out to be electrical(grounds werent secured) just throwin out ideas cuz youve tried other options. good luck

Tofurky

just a possibility...

have you checked your timing? if it is too far advanced or retarded your car will overheat.
i had this problem when my hybrid was repeatedly overheating. Bought a timing gun... "hey whoa that's way off"


But also it is still possible that your headgasket is blown. My car did not leak at all. Coolant was clean, and oil was coolant free. And I indeed had a blown headgasket. Probably as a result of my hideous timing problem.

Red CiViC Hatch

air bubbles in coolant system?

hatchdrvr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Red CiViC Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">air bubbles in coolant system?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

My thought exactly

hondasleeper

If there was air in the cooling system wouldn't the temp gauge just bounce around like made.

I was in a similar situation with my cooling system, check your ECT sensor or switch, one of them could be bad. Go over to Showcase Honda on 16th St and Camelback and go ask one of the service advisers or go to the parts counter and explain your problem they'll be more than happy to help you out, just tell him what you have done already and they'll tell you what else to look for.

I don't know if you have enough gas to make it over there with the current gas crissis in AZ.

Viorent Grip! EG

i had a similar problem with mine..it was that my head gasket was going ...
exhuast gases were getting mixed in wiht the coolant...and wasnt getting cooled down enough when it came back through, this would only happen to me when i was driving for a long time..and came to a stop ...then it would over heat. i had the same symptoms as you..and the head gasket fixed everything..good luck

92sleepR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Eyewitness &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thermo is out of car and both upper and lower radiator hoses are getting hot...the coolant/water mix also appears to be cycling through the radiator at a pretty decent rate...im not how sure how to tell if its partially clogged or not...its definetly not all the way clogged so..???</TD></TR></TABLE>

FYI, The thermostat needs to be in place to slow down the water flow otherwise it doesn't spend enough time in the radiator to cool down properly. You might also consider replacing the radiator itself. Scale and deposits can build up in there that dramatically reduce its effectiveness. It's the most common problem I see and its the last one anybody thinks of for some reason.

Mike

Evs-One

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Red CiViC Hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">air bubbles in coolant system?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

more than likely this is the problem.

take off the upper radiator hose and lower hose.

Stick the garden hose into the lower hose WITH the t-stat taken out. tun on the garden house and let the water cycle through the engine while it's on. Do this for about 5 minutes and flush the system really good.

Then connect the hoses again, top her off, and fire her up

Eyewitness

took off the rad last night and flushed it good...i did not flush the engine like emerika said so i am doin that in a minute....i never get overflow in my tank...im wondering if my car is actually overheating or not....going to put the therm back in if this doesnt work with it out and flush it AGAIN.....this sucks....i guess i dont think its the headgasket bc its only like 15,000 miles old and no mixing of anykind or smoke in the exhaust...internals aer nice and oily like they should be....im gonna check the timing in a minute also....thx guys anymore suggestions??

degooser

dont know if you thought of this already, but is your fan working??? if ur car overheats like 20 mins later might be ur fan...

Eyewitness

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by degooser &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dont know if you thought of this already, but is your fan working??? if ur car overheats like 20 mins later might be ur fan...</TD></TR></TABLE>

yup fan works fine...and i have it hard wired now so its on all the time just to make sure....i just bleed the coolant and now it is heating up a lot slower...am i on to something??? should i bleed it again and see if that helps...i just dont see how a little air can make it overheat so fast if thats the case

degooser

one more tip to get the air bubbles out is to run the car with the radiator cap off..

u should see air bubbles coming out...

let it run for like 5 - 10 mins until there are no more bubbles coming out...

hondasleeper

Have you checked the ECT(Engine Coolant Temperature) sensor/switch yet?

ImportechPerformance

Hmm your in AZ I see there is a good friend of mine that has his own Radiator shop here in town. Ill see if he could log on to see if he can help you out.

Also can some one tell me where the ECT sensor is at? Cuz for the life of me i couldnt figure out why my fan wouldnt turn on. I had bought a new Thermo Switch and Thermostat but to no avail. So i just hard wired the fan to stay on with a switch.

hondasleeper

The ECT,I believe, should be located on or near the thermostat housing, it has a gray 2 wire plugged into that. I think if you jump the pins it shoulswitch the fan on.

Did you check on the fan relay? Sometimes those can go bad too.