Basically my problem is the opposite of this thread: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1567094

Car is a 1993 Del Sol Si with a D16Z6 with intake and exhaust (daily driver).

I was driving home today and everything was going fine. The car took quite a while to read in the middle of the gauge, which is optimum for me. About 3/4 of the way home it was finally in the right spot, but at the next stoplight I checked it again and it went down to nearly 2 lines above cold. Ummm wtf!?

So this has be thinking that the thermostat is hosed. Does that sound about right, or is it a more serious problem? I tried searching but couldn't find any diagrams of where it is located. I am a n00b to mechanics, but I learn a lot from those little diagrams so if someone has one or can point it out it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm hoping it is just a thermostat since those sound fairly easy to replace.

 

Have you recently added coolant or did a antifreeze change?

Burped it correctly?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SkoundrelUSA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you recently added coolant or did a antifreeze change?

Burped it correctly?</TD></TR></TABLE>Never burped it before so I wouldn't know about that. I had added coolant about a week ago a couple of days before a trip from Tucson to Phoenix (125miles or so). The coolant resevoir is at the top line and the radiator seems to be full.

 

There might be a air bubble. Try this:

Let the car cool down to completely cold. Take off the radiator cap. Turn the car on with the defroster on full blast. Let the coolant "bubble/burp" out. Pour more coolant into the radiator as the coolant level should go down.
And continue to do this until there are no more bubbles and the car has completely warmed up to normal temperature.

 

Yeah, burped the system and it still has the weird thermostat so I will probably pick one up later this week. I know I will need a torque wrench, which I will also pick up, but does anyone have any times on draining the coolant? Can I just undo the bottom hose and let it drain into a container or is it more involved than that?

 

buy a haynes manual, or oif you plan on doing a lot of work on car, spend the 60.00 and get the oem honda manual. you dont need a torque wrench for this. there is a drain **** on the bottom of the radiator(usually the hole in the splashguard under radiator leads to this.) good luck. the haynes manual is @17.00.

 

Well the hayne's manual I have in .pdf format suggests a torque wrench to put some fastener back in at something like 85lbs...

I'm not worried so much about this right now though since I have emissions in like two hours and don't want to fail XD

 

it starts to warm up, you drive it and it goes cold.. havn't added coolant (It was never low in the radiator)..

Sounds like a Thermostat that failed in the open position.. if you let it run long enough in one spot (A couple hours depending on outside temp) the fan will eventually come on and the car will go cold again, or start to..

Replace the thermostat..