i took off my coolant cap to check my fluid .. and now i have abouncing idle for a while, then it settles down .. how to fix this? i've heard u can take off the cap and then it will bubble... is it ok to just run the car w/o a cap on the radiator?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">is it ok to just run the car w/o a cap on the radiator?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Definitely not a good idea. Your car is designed to run with a certain amount of pressure (typically about 15 psi - i'd have to look up this car to be exact) in the radiator system. You can get away with removing the radiator cap at idle on a cool car, but if you leave it off, the car will start losing coolant as the system heats up and pressure increases. Is your reservoir ok?

The rest of your question, I'm not qualified to answer, sorry.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PerryRT &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Definitely not a good idea. Your car is designed to run with a certain amount of pressure (typically about 15 psi - i'd have to look up this car to be exact) in the radiator system. You can get away with removing the radiator cap at idle on a cool car, but if you leave it off, the car will start losing coolant as the system heats up and pressure increases. Is your reservoir ok?

The rest of your question, I'm not qualified to answer, sorry.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea i thought it sounded sketchy. my coolant is alrite .. its a little under min but now much. but this idle is just real annoying and i wanna fix it

 

your totally fine leaving the cap off aslong as you watch it and keep it full becasue it will start coming out.. but if you have a lil bit air in the system it will bubble out...

the bad

it very possibly can be a couple different things... hot idle valves like to go up and it sounds like yours is slowly going up.. thats wat happened to my car... it olny did it for a lil biut then hit normal idle. then after a while it did all the time...

the idle air control will dod this to if its starting to go up or if its clogged with grim and crap....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by A lil 2.3l action &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">your totally fine leaving the cap off aslong as you watch it and keep it full becasue it will start coming out..</TD></TR></TABLE>

You mean sitting there in the garage, right? I agree with that, but I wouldn't DRIVE that way....I think that would lead to an overheat.

And yeah, I was thinking IAC too, but wasn't sure how the coolant interacted with that system (I'm not really a Honda guy yet.) Is it possible that the OP dislodged something that wound up in the IAC when he opened the cap?

I shudder to recommend a coolant backflush (I've had nothing but problems with them over the years), but maybe just flushing the IAC loop?

 

i just reset my idle today bc i was having problems. the iacv is completely clean and i reset the backup fuse and everything.

and to avoid confusion .. i never intended to drive the car w/ the cap off. i was just talkinb about running it, letting it sit and then putting it back on after it bubbled

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i just reset my idle today bc i was having problems. the iacv is completely clean and i reset the backup fuse and everything.

and to avoid confusion .. i never intended to drive the car w/ the cap off. i was just talkinb about running it, letting it sit and then putting it back on after it bubbled</TD></TR></TABLE>

its highly pressurized so runnign without the cap would just spray coolant everywhere once ur warmed up. theres a bleeder valve on top of the black where the top hose goes in, you need to runn your car till its warm and open the valve to let it bleed.

and yes air in your coolant lines can (and usually will) make ur idle bounce

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by obuhmyuh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">its highly pressurized so runnign without the cap would just spray coolant everywhere once ur warmed up. theres a bleeder valve on top of the black where the top hose goes in, you need to runn your car till its warm and open the valve to let it bleed.</TD></TR></TABLE>

5th gen civics have the bleeder valve, 6th gens don't though, and I have no idea why. You can even see where it looks like there should be one, but it isn't there.

 

what should i do then? btw my idle dropped back to where it was originally .. kinda pissed, do u think uberdate would overide my p28 ecu for the idle?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what should i do then? btw my idle dropped back to where it was originally .. kinda pissed, do u think uberdate would overide my p28 ecu for the idle?</TD></TR></TABLE>

weren't you just telling someone in a different thread how reputable phearable.net is?

if you think its ecu-related call em up and see what they think the problem is.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by obuhmyuh &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

weren't you just telling someone in a different thread how reputable phearable.net is?

if you think its ecu-related call em up and see what they think the problem is. </TD></TR></TABLE>

naw i've never used phearable.net .. i got my car tuned by a local tuner w/ uberdata

 

i want do get this fixed, i just want to make sure i do it right

-do i just need to buy coolant
-fill up the res
-take off the rad cap
-let it run with the cap off till it stops bubbling
-put the cap on
-then check idle and turn off the car

 

Me, I would fill the radiator on the car (cold).

Put cap on.

Fill reservoir to full mark.

Run car for a while (at least until the rad fan cycles a couple of times) keeping an eye on the reservoir level (add fluid as needed to resevoir.)

Turn off car, let cool.

Add fluid to resevoir if needed,

open rad cap and add there too if needed.

 

Buy a haynes manual and follow the instructions. It's worth the cash. Use the bleeder valve, it's there for a reason.

 

In order to get air out of the system it is necessary to run the car with the radiator cap AT IDLE. Don't go driving around without it on Watch and wait for it to bubble up a bit. Have rags ready and wait 10 minutes after the last bubble you see. Top it off then put the cap on and your ready to go. All the air should be out of the system.

 

buy coolant
fill up res a little under half way, doesn't matter, it just needs something to suck back in when pressure drops.
take off rad cap
top the radiator off with coolant
let it run and when it bubbles, keep topping it off.
do this for i think 2-3 fan cycles, more or less it doesn't really matter.

or if you dont have the patience to do it all at once.

Top off your radiator, go to work. when you get off fill it up, because you don't want the radiator to explode gushing water in your face, thats why you don't do it before hand. then drive home and then top it off again. and keep doing that until the coolant consistently stays at the top. and make sure to fill up your reservoir if its not up to halfway ish.

 

should i always take the radiator cap off when the car is cold? .. my uncle works at honda and had a rad cap bust off and burn the **** out of him, so i definatley am tryin to not have that happen haha.

and to fill the coolant i use my radiator to fill it up and not the resevoir? .. i have a helms i'll have to check it out

btw i was told i dont have a bleeder valve on 96-00

 

yeah, just top off your radiator. and this is what i do to see if its boiling alot under the cap. If the cap is not safe to the touch, then usually its still unsafe. But if it is, get a rag and turn it open, holding the cap down while turning of course. and then just let it open just a big, if no water comes out then let it open some more. and yeah...

 

do i need to flush out all the coollant? and do i also need to mix it with water? i was reading helms and it was freakin me out b/c it was sayin u need the right mixture or else i could *** up my engine

 

Absolutely you need to mix it with water. Don't use pure coolant. There's a long drawn-out chemical reason for this, but the short version is that pure coolant works like c**p. 50/50 is typical, although it can vary depending on your climate (check the bottle, but if you're not living in Alaska or Death Valley, shouldn't be a problem.)

Standard Prestone should work OK, but I've never actually proved that to myself - Honda, of course, recommends OEM. Your wallet.

If the physical process of mixing bothers you, you can buy it premixed (will say so on bottle.) Not a bad idea if you're going to carry some in the car for "side-of-the-road-limp-home" use - that way you don't have to worry about finding a source of water. Other than that, I wouldn't bother - they actually charge you more to dilute their own product (ain't America grand?)

Or if you don't have time to pre-mix, do what I used to do in the shop - look up the quantity of the system, add pure coolant for 1/2 of that value, then fill to top with water from a hose. By the time your motor's up to temp, it will have mixed ok.

Oh, and two safety notes - when working with coolant, keep it off the paint. Also, dispose of any coolant appropriately. This isn't some sort of super-Earth-hippy-enviro-rant. If you leave it out or let it spill - pets love the stuff, but it will kill them. This will seriously p-o Ms. Magruder down the street, so it's not wise