Ok, so ive got a CRX, bone stock. The last 2 days, ive been having a weird "overheating" problem. I drove the car to work yesterday, i was late so i was driving maybe 85mph down the highway, half an hour trip. When i got off the highway, theres a stop light, so i wait at it. When it turns green, i start to go, make a left hand turn, and all of a sudden my temperature gauge starts to rise. It made it almost to the redline, but i was only one block from work so i thought, at worst i can shut it off and coast. However, as soon as it got almost to the redline, it fell back down to normal operating temp. I was a little worried, so on the way home i drove more conservatively, got all the way home, no problems.

Then, today on the way to work, i did the same thing, drove conservatively, however, when i exited the highway, in the exact same spot, my temp gauge started to rise again, got to the redline, and then fell back down to normal. On my way home, i did the same thing, and it did not rise again.

So this is weird. 2 days in a row, the exact same place, one day pushing the car, second day taking it easy. It "overheats" (i say that because, im not sure if it did, and it never made it to redline or even hover near it). Neither time did i lose power or anything, car felt fine.

Anyone have any ideas as to what this is or whats causing it? The only difference i can think of is on the way to work, right before i get off the highway, theres a big hill, and i normally engine brake down it and then engine brake through the off ramp since the stoplight is right at the end. Thats really the only difference between my drive home and my drive to work... Other than that, im stumped.

TL:DR, why does my car overheat on the way to work 2 days in a row but not on the way home?

 

start off getting a HONDA thermostat from the dealer. sounds like your's needs to get too hot before it will open. If this doesn't fix it, it's cheap and easy and should be done anyways, but it is a good place to start. good luck, let us know how it goes

 

Going down the highway rams air into the radiator, getting off the highway lets it overheat, no more ram air, are you fans on, get out, open the hood and look please, are both radiator hoses about the same temp or is the outlet hose much cooler?

 

yea first try the thermostat cause its the cheap thing to test. If not i'd say with a good bit of certainty that your head gasket is blown. this exact same thing happened to my mustang and we thought it was a thermostat. it just overheated like that, no white smoke out the exhaust or anything leaking that would make it obvious. eventually from the coolant disappearing and hydrocarbon crud that built up in the radiator we were able to gather that the exhaust system was pressurizing the coolant system and causing it not to function properly.

 

good idea. let it idle in your driveway, when it starts to heat up shut it off and see if any of your engine is cold. lower hose, one side of the radiator, ect. Also check your coolant and oil and make sure don't have a milkshake!! Is there any smoke coming out of the exhaust?

 

Oil and coolant both look clean. No smoke. No weird smells to the exhaust.

And yeah, i would think driving on the highway would make it overheat, but like i said, it only happened on the way to work, not on the way home. I drive the highway both ways, both ways theres no traffic so im doing about the same speeds.

I was thinking thermostat but i would think it would think it would be more random if it was just dying, not in the same place both times...

Im going to see if it happens tonight on my way to work again... If it does im going to have to start checking it tomorrow.

 

if your car is overheating, don't drive it. nothing can kill an engine like heat. pray to god only you head gasket goes out and you don't warp your head or block. STOP DRIVING YOUR CAR!!!

is there traffic on the way to work?

why would you shoot down the cheap t-stat idea and drive it instead?

 

if your gasket recently went you probably wont see the crud in your radiator. Also my oil never got milkshakey in color and remained seperate from the coolant. you can have your coolant tested for the presence of hydrocarbons and that would tell you real quick. i forget now though who does that kinda thing but yea what he said dont drive the car with it overheating like that

 

Are you driving up hill both ways?

 

i had the same problem, it ended up being my gauge cluster haha. everytime i hit the right or left signal goin over 30 mph my gauge would rise rappidly to hot then when the signal turned off it went back to normal. try driving on a side street goin about 30 or so. when i suspected it was my cluster i took it off and i found a burn connection that grounded it self to the speedo circuit making it only act up at higher speeds.

 

Because i dont even think it IS really overheating. The gauge only spikes for maximum 1 second, and it takes a good 10 seconds to climb, maybe 3 seconds to fall. The engine doesnt even feel hot when i get out (2 minutes later when i pull into work). Dont get me wrong, if the gauge was sitting at redline, i would have shut the car off.

It did the same thing on the way to work tonight. Same exact spot. I narrowed it down to when i start accelerating away from the stop light after the highway, it starts to slowly rise, almost hits the peak temp, and then goes back to normal temp once i hit about 4th gear/40mph.

And if i blow the engine, its not a big deal. I have another car that should be done being fixed by monday (someone drove into me, tore off my front end). The CRX was supposed to be my fun weekend track car, but since my normal car has been getting repaired, its been relegated to daily driver status for the time being. The engine is being swapped first thing next spring, so having to replace my D series stock engine with almost 300k on it does not really worry me. If this was my only car, and my daily driver, then yes, of course, i would have had it in the shop first thing after work monday to figure out what was wrong with it so i could get back on the road.

And i didnt shoot down the T-stat idea, i just said it doesnt seem like a dying tstat, considering it happens 3 times in a row now, in the exact same place, driving the exact same way, but it DOESNT happen randomly and it DOESNT happen on my drive home.

Im actually thinking at this point maybe dying water pump? Im not sure when it was last replaced, but that seems to make sense, to me anyway. Revving at 4k for 30 minutes, and then slowing down to revving between 1-3k, the water pump might not be working as well. But again it seems weird because its only happened on the way to work, not cruising around, not on my way home. Im trying to narrow down the differences between the drives, but theyre pretty much the same... other than the big hill that i engine brake down, but i didnt today and same thing happened.