92 Prelude Si w/ 182k or so on engine. Car sat for about 3 months til I got insurance and replace the brake m/c bb. So now that I'm finally able to drive it around, the car won't really warm up. I would see it go up to one bar, then drop back down to no bars. I remember seeing the car warm up to 2 bars before but it doesn't do that anymore. So anyways, it idles around 900rpm or so and the car shakes as if the idle is too low. Once I give the car some gas its fine, but at idle its shaky. I've only drivin the car about 300 miles since I purchased it. What can it be? My exhaust does smoke white smoke, so thats burning coolant? My resevoir still has coolant in it though. I think i've read that its a thermostat that's stuck open?

 

thermostat

 

a thermostat is not that expensive, change it and see, i had that similar problem on my hatchback, change the thermostat and problem went away, make sure you bleed the bubbles out of the coolant

 

how do i bleed the bubbles out of the coolant?

 

there is a little bleeder bolt you need to open up. I believe its on near the thermostat housing. You have to turn the heat on and let the car warm up until the radiator fan kicks on. Then you open the bolt and wait until the stream pisses out steady.

Sometimes you may have a problem getting the car to warm up until the point where the fans will kick on.

If thats the case what you can do is go for a drive and put the car under load.

Driving the car will also "shake up" some of the air in the system so the coolant level may appear lower. Just top it off.

 

make sure you dont buy an aftermarket thermostat...after you bleed the air, open the radiator cap and watch to see if there are bubbles still coming out cuz you said it was puting out white smoke and if thats the case your burning it most likely thru the head gasket. replacing the thremostat wont make the engine stop burning coolant