Typical - back home (sunny England) I had a '99 Passat for a while, it lost water through the tiniest hole in the radiator (but never got so far as to overheat). Five hundred quid that cost to repair before I sold it! Now resident in the US of A, I have a '94 Accord - doing pretty much the same thing but losing water at a faster rate. I'm assuming its got a bigger hole than the Passat had or maybe just a loose hose? I've recently moved to a new city and will be taking the car into the shop tomorrow to get it oressure tested and repaired, I don't know these guys but they've been recommended to me - all the same I would appreciate some advice before I take the car in.

So here's what happened...

I was in a bit of hurry this morning and forgot to refill the water. When I got into work the radiator was steaming a little. Prone to paranoia I started thinking 'gah! Head Gasket!' HOWEVER, the temperature gauge did not rise above normal... so can anyone tell me how likely it is that I damaged the head gasket? Re water in the oil and all the usual diagnostics... I've done those (practised on the Passat) there is no signs of head gasket problems - but would it be too soon to tell?


Also ... there's a few other annoying things...

air conditioning - not very cool and worse since the water problem - are they related (forgive my naiveté this is my 1st car with a/c - its not common in the UK for obvious reasons)

drivers window - dropped into the door - I fished it out and repositioned it but am too worried to use it again - is this a common occurence with the 94-97 accords - if so can anyone recommend what needs replacing before I take the door apart.

That's all for now ... I'll save the rest for another post,
Ta!

 

your head gasket is fine

 

You need a new charge in your A/C. It shouldnt cost that much at all.
I've heard of the window dropping before it's nothing to worry about. I'm sure someone that has had it happen before will tell you that you need a new motor or something but it shouldnt be bad.

And you don't need 500 quid to fix that here. If it's just your radiator, you can buy a radiator from H-T sponsors. Koyo aluminum racing radiators for 289 or so, and they keep it cooler and run more efficiently

 

1.) Your head gasket is fine, you'd know it if it went. Temp stayed at Normal, no damage.

2.) The A/C is directly related to the cars cooling system. If the cooling system is not functioning correctly, the A/C system will not function correctly. It depends on the radiator, air flow, and cooling fans to cool the condensor mounted just in front of the radiator. If the radiator is staying at a high temp due to a leak or blockage, the temp of the condensor will remain high and the system ceases to work correctly.

3.) Either you have had a track/guide come lose, a guide insert fail, or a guide wheel fail. You'll need to take the door apart to see which it is.

 

Thank you! thank you! Hondaman56, accordselux and fleetmack! I have a certain paranoia about head gaskets (and big ends... the two biggest things I ever broke!) I feel so much better now.

I told the nice man at the garage about the Koyo aluminium -sorry aluminum rad. and he's going to get a price for me. Things are soooo much cheaper here!....

(Like gas for example - its 80p a litre over there - thats $1.40 a litre or around $5.30 a gallon... ouch!)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Caiti &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">$5.30 a gallon... ouch!) </TD></TR></TABLE>

HOLY S&#%

 

If it works out you wont be paranoid about a radiator anymore! They go here around 300 dollars from sponsers on this site, and theyre all aluminum as opposed to the OEMs which are plastic... Just make sure it's not just a hose or something first so you dont waste the money! And an old trick to cool it down is put a drop of hand soap (just a drop) in the radiator and it should lower the operating temp. by about 10 degrees

Props to hondaman for the correct response to my guessing


Modified by accordselux at 6:23 PM 10/28/2004

 

the drivers side window fell down in my door on my 94 accord and i needed another window regulator.

 

More thanks to tbrindle82 and accordselux again - I'm very grateful for your advice and very pleased I bought a Honda 'cos it seems that Honda drivers are most helpful people ever! Its a great car too even at 10 years old!

I'm intrigued about the dishwashing soap trick (I guess this is the same as washing up liquid...)

 

Yes, it works. Its basically the same as Red Line Water Wetter except you can do it for free- you just have to be careful and put only that small amount in. Too much and it bubbles over and you get air in your fluid- just a very small amount. You can do a search on Water Wetter here and the results will be the same- just use liquid hand soap.


Modified by accordselux at 6:23 PM 10/28/2004

 

hmm, might have to try the soap trick

as long as it doesn't become a repeat of what my sister did, she but dish soap in the dishwasher...it made six inches of bubbles across the entire floor!

 

Here we go:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=972930

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=714162

 

i don't wanna threadjack, but it's kinda related to this topic...

well, wife bought this from an auction; under the hood looks like a flood car.
corrosion everywhere (rust on bolts, white rust on aluminum parts/block).

I changed out the radiator as well since it had a minor leak where the plastic meets the aluminum; bought a replacement online w/ a lifetime warranty for only $90~~~ flushed the system 3x & put 50/50 distilled water/prestone.

A/C system; no cold air...used to be cold but not anymore. I bought a gauge to check/refill the system but when i hooked it up, says it's full.

chiltons doesn't help; do i have to evacuate the whole system & recharge it?

side note: the wheels are rusted on the vehicle, but i'm gonna go use pepboys/strauss auto's free brake check service to see if they can get them off...

thanx in advance for your help

 

Well that was successful! New rad and they fixed the window to boot - it turns out all the window needed was to be glued back into place - they didn't chare me for that :0). The a/c is still out though so I guess I might be needing that new charge you mention accordselux - or could I have fried the condensor when the radiator got too hot that time ? :0( So along with ricebike I'm kinda threadjacking too on my thread!

So how can we fix our a/c? is it easy enough for this mechanically-challenged female? Any advice most welcome !!!

 

It's trial and error. Does anyone know what the 5th gen accord uses? They switched over to a new chemical at some point. Anyways, you can buy a charging kit at a car parts store and do it yourself, it should have instructions. I'd ask someone that has a 5th gen, i have a 2000 accord. If the charge doesnt work you need something else....

 

i have a 5th gen (94-97), my last recharge all i needed was 2 bottles of frion from any autozone/pepboys/napa/strauss all together with the connection hose cost me less than 20$'s, if i remember right each bottle cost like 4$ and the hose cost 9$ and change.

and its very simple to use male/female its a simple evap/recharge procedure that takes less than 30 mins if you even need a evap... all i did was recharge it and it works perfectly fine for me took the most 3-5 mins...