So this is what happened.. My car was leaking antifreeze for a bit over the winter, dont really know how long, probably a month and a 1/2 before I swapped the radiator out.

Put in a brand spanking new radiator. Everything is dandy, cars running great, no leaks, hadn't overheated at all until today.

Things I did today: long road trip, about 75 miles @ 80MPH for roughly 1.5 hours straight. Some stop and go traffic. End of the trip I noticed my cars temp was creeping up after I got off the highway. I did run the AC for a few minutes before the cars temp jumped up.

Got to where I was going, did my thing for about an hour, then left (bouncing from job to job for work). I get in the car, alls good for about 15 mins then I notice things heating up again. So I pull over and check the fluid, all good.... relize my hood latch is fucked up (thats another story), fix the latch and close the hood and drive this bitch. Still heating up..........

I finally get to my next location, do my **** and leave. Start drive home.

Car is fine on the highway pretty much, temps did creep a tad but went back down. If I'm idling in traffic the temps go up. IF I REV THE ENGINE the temps will drop back down, probably because the water pump is circulating the coolant better.

Now, since I changed the radiator, what else could it be? One thing I didnt do, which I should have, was bleed the system. I'm going to go do that in a few moments. But would that even cause the problem I'm having? I'm thinking it might.

My other options I guess are my thermostat, which I bought already incase I need it, and the water pump. I'm hoping its not the pump cause I dont wanna change that ****..... lol. What would you guys think it is? What else is common to go on these cars that could cause this issue? I read that the thermostat is fairly common, could the fact I was running the car a bit hot accelerate its failure? I'm assuming its possible.....

Thanks for any insight guys. Cars a 1993 Acura GS.

 

my guess is the thermostat

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboPandaRFL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">my guess is the thermostat</TD></TR></TABLE>
could be or u maybe need to bleed the system cuz there are probly air bubbles in the hoses

 

it's definitely either air in the system or the thermostat. You ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have to bleed the system whenever you drain coolant and refill. An air bubble can get stuck in the water pump and keep coolant from flowing, or the thermostat can stick shut and keep coolant from flowing. Either way will starve the engine for coolant, which makes it very likely to overheat, which can warp heads and blocks.

 

Well I dunno about when I bled the system... This is how I filled up my car.

I topped off the radiator with the cap off. And let the thing run for like 20 mins. The coolant never really drained away from the top of radiator. Seemed like the thermo never opened even, and I waited a while...... The fans never came on either, but it did go down a tad, but not much. So I splashed in some more coolant and topped up the coolant container on the driver side and let it be. Car has been FINE for about a week. I've put some decent miles on it too. Gotta be more than 300 miles, some road trips for more than 40 miles (I drive alot for work, I'm a field tech for a computer company).

So does my method for the coolant system bleeding seem ok? If not, then what should I do to verify the coolant is in fact bled properly? Thanks.

 

open the radator cap n start your car. let it run for 10-15 min u will see it bubble up and then go bak down. after all the bubbles stop coming out then add fluid if needed then put cap back on. Dont open the cap when ur engine is warm it will get everywhere. If that doesnt help it could be your thermostat.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by whiteboy4life74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">open the radator cap n start your car. let it run for 10-15 min u will see it bubble up and then go bak down. after all the bubbles stop coming out then add fluid if needed then put cap back on. Dont open the cap when ur engine is warm it will get everywhere. If that doesnt help it could be your thermostat.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats basically what I did, started the car with the heat on, it didnt really bubble that much though, if at all........ I let it sit for like 20mins too, revved the engine a bit, the water did go down a bit when I revved the engine, but it came right back up once I got off the throttle.

 

Isn't there a place to bleed it on the block as well? When I owned my legend you could bleed the actual coolant in the block by turning this lil 10mm bolt and air/coolant would squirt out, and when it was spitting only coolant, you closed it again. Not sure though, as that was a v6 and I've never looked that close at my integra's cooling system.

 

This is the proper procedure for flushing and bleeding the coolant. If you left out any of these steps, you didn't do it right:

https://honda-tech.com/zero...42540

On my car it takes me almost an hour to go through the bleeding process after changing and/or flushing the coolant.