My car has been idling weird at start up. Stays up at 2k then cycles from 1.5-2k revs. eventually itll stop. Then, i discovered i had no heat and then my temp skyrocketed and the car overheated. Could my thermostat be stuck in the closed position? Would that explain no heat also? I didnt try feeling the heater hoses yet bc i dont wanna start my car until i figure out the overheating problem. Some coolant can be seen but i dont see any major leaks. I was thinking maybe just replace the rad, hoses and thermostat. Any ideas for any less expensive fixes? Thanks

 

just check and make sure your system is completely full.. then bleed it well..

next i'd hitch a ride to autozone or a similar place and buy/rent a pressure tester and pump the system to 16 psi (factory honda max cap pressure)... look for leaks or just a general loss of pressure.

may be linked to the idle because there is an extra iacv-sort-of valve which uses a thermostat to open and increase airflow into the engine when its cold. it also acts as the throttle heater to prevent icing... i ditched that **** a while ago

 

if its overheating and you are not gettin any heat then if i was you i would go out and get a new thermostat (its not that much probably around $6-$12) and if thats not it then do what he said ^^^^^

 

Ok so..I took out the rad and pulled the thermostat housing to realize I have no thermostat...Theres nothing the housing just goes right thru..so I guess its not the thermostat haha bc theres nothing restricting the coolant..so why the heck would my car overheat and would this mean Im getting no heat bc of a bad heater core? but that wouldnt cause the overheating or strange idle problems..and i mean the odds of it being a coincodence are pretty low..any ideas?

 

when does it heat up? at idle? drving around?

 

Well the temp got really high at idle..so then i figured when i started moving at highway speed at low revs it would cool...but it didnt cool at all it in fact got hotter I looked at the motor (right after it overheated) and i didnt see any coolant leaking out of the block maybe i didnt look hard enough but i didnt glance i got down in there and inspected. Also, I drained my system of coolant today and it didnt seem to be low at all.

 

idunno maybe you need a new water pump...

 

yea i didnt think of that..didnt hear it making any noises but it would account for the overheating..it wouldnt explain the fact that i dont blow hot air or that my cold idle is messed up tho right?

 

your overheating points to either a bad water pump or bad radiator.

 

Now ok let me ask a question that might be considered stupid: how would a bad radiator make my car overheat? is it unable to cool the coolant sufficiently therefore making the engine run hot? Bc it seems to me like..my motor overheated like instantly it was fast..so im thinking it seems more like lack of coolant rather than hot coolant..so i guess water pump? That sucks anyone ever do a waterpump before? is it tough?

 

waterpump isnt that hard to change, you should do timing belt too when you are changing your waterpump. when was the last time you changed the waterpump?

what i would do is find a pipe the same size as the upper radiator hose, take off the upper radiator hose and put the pipe in it and run the car. putting my hose in teh radiator to keep it full of water. is the water pump is no good then water wont come out but if it comes out alot then it looks like radiator.

but if you ahvent changed your waterpump in a while, it would be a good idea to change that and the timing belt and if it doesnt fix it. its good to get a fresh part in there.

 

headgasket....I had the same problem with coolent slowly leaking into my cylinders causing a rough idle. Then, no heat cause my coolent level went down.
Replaced the headgasket, problem solved!!!

 

hmm looks like i have some diag to do. my idle isnt rough so i dunno...thanks alot for the help guys i appreciate it

 

I would just install the thermostat and bleed thoroughly. It sounds like you were a little low on coolant and got an air pocket. I had something almost just like that happen. I however had a thermostat.......strange..... anyway good luck, it'll be hard to get the thermostat to open at idle with as cold as it is outside.

 

Like i said earlier, head gasket man. If it leaks, that would explain both the rough idle apon start up and the low coolent level, and the loss of heat in part to not having enough coolent to run through your heater core.

 

Yea if nothing else is visibly leaking he's probably right on about the head gasket. Something had to make the coolant go down.

 

still no idea what the deal is...my car idles fine..if the HG was bad youd think my idle would be pretty rough right?

 

well i put in a new rad, hoses, and thermostat cost me like 100 bucks filled up the whole system with coolant..now my car wont start..just cranks is this even related i have no idea what the problem is

 

any ideas? i havent dealt with a no start problem in this car before..although i dont hear my fuel pump go on i can smell fuel in the bay after it cranks..i dont hear the main relay clicking...my timing was fine as of friday..im getting spark..im stumped here and i need my car in about 1 hour! haha


Modified by Coltmorris at 10:17 AM 12/20/2005

 

I'm in the same boat. Heck, I'm even in the same state! LOL! Same thing happened to me last week except my heat slowly went away. Someone said this is due to slow coolant loss either through a leak or through a blown headgasket. As the coolant levels diminished, there was less coolant to go through the heater core and then subsequently, less coolant to cool the engine, resulting in my overheating. Upper rad hose gets hot but lower hose stays cold. It was suggested I may have air pockets/block in the coolant lines somewhere. It's been also suggested I do a complete bleed of the coolant system too. Water pump was changed late last summer with a new Honda one, thermostat was changed out last Friday so those shouldn't be factors here. Car ran for a bit then died and won't start up again. We're trying to determine why it died and now won't start. It has been suggested I may have a blown headgasket, faulty distributor, main relay or some other problem. Car is going to be towed to my dad's friend's garage. Thank God for all the CRX forums cuz now I have all sorts of potential solutions to throw his way so he can try to figure it all out!

 

damn..yea see i think my rad was bad and leaking so i may have solved my heating problem...but the fact that it wont start is beyond me..how do you do a complete bleed without running the car?

 

I don't think you can totally bleed it without the car running. As for why it won't start, are you certain you didn't unhook a sensor or possibly a ground whenever you changed your hoses and everything out? I'd also take a good look at all of the connections on the plugs for the distributor, I've seen the pins back out just enough to keep it from running right or starting. Oh and I'd double check your ECU fuse just because, I know it sounds stupid but it's always possible.

 

well i knew it was somthing to do with what i did...you were right! of course the tstat ground wasnt making proper contact therefore giving me no spark. I checked evverything and broke stuff in the process of fully diaging my car haha great..so far my heat is hot..and my temp seems to be a decent 175-185 thanks to everyone who helped me out!

 

Awesome, glad to help and glad hear it was something simple like that.

 

My 95 Accord is doing the exact same thing. It idled rough with the rpm's going from 1 - 2 by itself. It then overheated during a drive that was less than 2 miles. I thought it was my core leaking because I smelled antifreeze a few weeks earlier with the fogged up windows. I drained out what antifreeze was left in the radiator, put in some stop leak and some new antifreeze and it's still getting hot. Did you figure out what was wrong with yours?