So I was on my way to work this morning. Everything seemed fine until I finally got off the highway. As I was waiting at the light for about a minute I noticed the car started acting a little funny. The RPMs were dipping a little bit to about 500rpms even though I had the a/c off at the time.

I drove it to the next light and noticed that it started doing the same thing....both when I came to a stop and when I was waiting at the light. Then I started smelling something coming through the vents....coolant. . Right then I took a glance at the temperature gauge and the thing was skyrocketing....fast.

Luckily that was the light to turn into the dealership I work at. And just as the light turned green I took another glance at my gauges and that's when the CEL decided to say hello.

****!

Pulled it into the shop, shut the car off right away and pulled out the CEL diagnostic tool and it popped up for low coolant. I take a look at the hoses and sure enough the coolant hose came completely disconnected at the bottom of the radiator next to the drain plug...spilling all of the coolant out and making a rather nasty mess all over the bottom framework and rear bumper of the car.

So I went across the street and decided to go ahead and purchase some new coolant as well as a new thermostat....$35 for the thermostat and $22 for 2 gallons of coolant. At the time I wasn't entirely positive the thermostat is what caused the coolant hose to get disconnected....but it was certainly a possibility with a stuck thermostat so I decided to just replace it just to be safe.

Apparently it did the trick cause the car is back to normal now......so far. Did some test driving and let it idle for a little while a few times throughout the day and the thermostat was kicking on just fine and the temperature was remaining normal. No smoke coming from the exhaust and no more idle fluctuations.

But I still have no idea why or how this happened. And so suddenly to! Any ideas?

** Moral of the story.....always check ur gauges...especially if you think your car is acting just a little funny. Even though they're right in front of you it's actually pretty easy to overlook the temperature gauge since it's something that almost never fluctuates.

It just might save you from almost deep-frying your engine like what almost happened to me if I hadn't taken a glance at it and if that CEL had not come on prompting a red flag.

*P.S. - Changing the thermostat is actually quite easy to do. There are only three small bolts on the thermostat itself. The Honda dealership quoted me two hours of labor time on it at $90 bucks an hour. I did everything including changing the thermostat and re-filling the coolant in about 45 minutes....including the idle time for the car to "burp" out all the air in the system. I also replaced the squeeze clamp with a better one...the same type found on the aftermarket intakes that tighten with the turn of the attached bolt.

 

bump...because i almost got caught quite a few times with that

 

Good to hear that everything worked out. How warm is it in San Antonio right now?

 

It's been in the low 90s already for the past few days.

 

Scary story :O Glad to hear you were able to take care of it so expediently.

 

f*ck it already went over 100 over here.
i honestly think my area is hotter than san antonio

 

San Antonio gets really humid so it could read to be 90 degrees out, but the humidity can add another 15-20 degrees. The desert gets really hot yes, but at least it's a dry heat.

 

its good to check all the hoses everything few months make sure they are on snug and at proper locations. one of my smaller hoses had a blow out..that go on the tb few months back.

 

The one thing that puzzles me is that I had just had the coolant changed just a couple weeks prior. I was on the clock so I didn't have time to do it myself so I had one of the techs do it. A very seasoned tech who has been there for 15 years.

Whether he did something wrong or not I can't say....but I'm pretty sure if he had not gotten all the air out of the coolant system (burping the system)....then my car probably would have started overheating almost right away....not a couple weeks down the road.

So I don't know if it's the weather change or just sheer coincidence, but I'm still a little confused as to how this happened.

 

glad to hear it wasn't more serious ! though now I'm puzzled as to what happened too, I can't imagine how that could've happened so randomly.

 

good thing you caught it in time... that could have been costly. glad it worked out for you

 

Sometimes it doesnt matter how seasoned the mechanic is...especially on newer cars...had my uncle( seasoned as well) work on my engine for 2 freakin months cuz the oil filter had a microscopic puncture and leaked out oil...and yes...never noticed it...but anyways he fixed the mechanical part about it but he didnt know jack about the electric part!

 

oh yea how often are you supposed to change the coolant?

 

Maybe.....but everytime an RX-8 or Mazda 6 needs a new engine he's the guy that does them. And he averages about 6 or 7 a month. You'd think someone seasoned with that kind of mechanical experience would know how to do a simple coolant change. I think he just rushed it and missed something.

 

Amazing, Hondas can take so much abuse! ( dont take advantage of that and yes always check your gauges!) lol!