hey everyone,
I have gotten on a couple times asking about my overheating problem, and though I thought I had it fixed when it went a whole week without overheating. But last night it all came back. I have replaced the water pump, radiator and thermostat. I am hoping that it is an easy fix but here is what it is doing.
At random times it will start to heat up and either immediatly cool back down or stay just a little warm for a long period of time. Like I said earlier, it was fine for a week after I replaced the radiator, but last night it was being diffuicult again. I had trouble starting it the last couple nights when it the car is warm and was having trouble excelerating until shifted out of first gear.
Today is the warmest day in Portland since I bought the car, so it is difficult knowing that even when I thought I had it fixed, I still have a long summer to go.

someone help me??

 

Man, if you replaced all that, then it is not going to be an easy fix...... .....I was going to say that sounds just like a thermostat going south, but sheesh.....

 

Is the rad fan kicking on? Might also want to check your temp sending unit, maybe its not reading the temp right and giving your cluster a faulty reading...

I also assume youve flushed the coolant and bled all of the air out of the system.

 

yes I flushed it and bled the air out, but we are wondering about a leak letting air in and im just catching air bubbles. It started over heating yesturday again before I went to work, and after I got off it was fine, still is fine.

Noob question. where is the temp sending unit? I have looked but dont really know what I am looking for...

the fan kicks on, when it wants to. The larger fan never kicked on, but the smaller one was always on, even with AC off. So we wired them together and now they both turn on when they feel like it.
Everyone is telling me to sell it and if this keeps going I cant afford to have my car not working... anything helps!

 

this may sound kind of obvious, but have you checked all of your hoses to make sure you don't have a slow leak somewhere? any smoke in the exhaust that might indicate a head gasket leak?

i agree though that it sounds like it might be a temp. sensor issue.

 

Try replacing the hoses. Might be collapsing and causing low flow. Get a new radiator cap too.

 

Where did you get the thermostat? Is it an OEM Honda thermostat, or did you buy it somewhere else?

Are you losing any coolant? Does the cooling system blow boiling coolant into the overflow? When you replaced the rad, did you replace the cap with one rated for the correct pressure?

At this point, I'm thinking you either bought a junk thermostat or have a bad head gasket.

You may want to have someone test the coolant for presence of combustion gases.

 

I got the thermostat through a Honda dealership. The Radiator cap is new, and is the correct pressure, and was tested recently. I am not leaking any coolant and there is no sign of oil in the coolant or visversa. There is also no smoke in the exhaust.

It is still having a little trouble starting when it is warm, making it really hard to leave work on hot days like today.

Thanks for all the input, how do I find and replace the temp. sensor??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kitteekate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">there is no sign of oil in the coolant or visversa.</TD></TR></TABLE>
I didn't say to check for oil in the coolant.

I said to test the coolant for presence of combustion gases.

Just because oil and coolant aren't mixing doesn't mean the head gasket isn't bad.

You're throwing a lot of parts at this car without actually looking for the source of the problem. That's rather wasteful of both time and money.