Alright so this is a strange overheating problem that the search function can't solve.

I have only been driving my 96 accord ex once a week for the past 6 months or so. I decided to take it out for a longer drive and everything was fine, the temp guage was exactly where it should be the entire time. I park it in my driveway and let it idle for about 15 min and then I notice a puddle of coolant under the left side of the car.

I open the hood and all I see is the coolant overflow tank spraying coolant all over the place and steaming like crazy. The coolant in the tank was literally boiling. I go to shut the car off and the temp gauge was in the red. The radiator cap was also leaking coolant as if there was so much pressure that it forced the coolant out of that cap.

6 months ago I changed the thermostat, radiator cap, lower radiator hose, and did a radiator flush. Is it possible the thermostat is stuck closed or is it that my water pump is going?

 

Do you warm your car up till it goes past the C? Alot of people dont understand that warming up your car means alot in the long run. It could be a bad head gasket if your coolant is boiling. Take it to the honda dealer and get a sniff test done. Replacing the head gasket shouldn't be more than 400-500 dollars.

 

Blown head gasket means my coolant is discolored. And if I wanted to give the stealership my hard earned money then I wouldnt bother getting help on this site. I'm just trying to see if anybody else has had the same problem and found out that it was the water pump.

 

Do the fans run?

 

only one of them runs when off

 

A sniff test does not cost much and if the person is cool they might not charge a thing. Im just saying it could be your head gasket going doesn't have to be blown. same thing happened to me and my coolant didn't turn gray either. im just saying it could be your head gasket if you checked everything else then that is the last thing that could be going.

 

You need to confirm what's happening with fans while the engine is idling like when it overheated.

 

my ac fan doesn't come on because I don't put the ac on. but the other fan goes on when its warmed up and idling it takes more than 10 min for the temp to start rising when its idling. the cars temp stays fine when traveling on the high way, but starts climbing when in stop and go traffic. exhaust is clean, coolant is clean, oil is clean, and there is no rough idle.

 

both fans should come on without the a/c. check the radiator hoses when op temp reached see if both is warm meaning theromstat open. not sure if your car has a bleeder but if it does try bleeding it again. if not could be your water pump or a hose aint on good try a pessure test too. hopefully i helped later.