Ok here's the story...

I have a 1992 Honda Accord EX, and I just recently started having engine problems. I turn on my car and I drive and after about 5 mins the RPMs start dropping and raising, I think that's because of air bubbles going into the coolant system, so I think I need a coolant flush. Here's another problem, the engine starts to overheat "supposedly" after about 10 mins, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is because I'll raise my hood and check my engine and it's still pretty cool. I mean... it's not cold or hot... but it's cool. Anyway, I heard that might be a problem from the leak because hot air might be escaping the radiator or something like that lol. I don't know, I'm really trying to get my **** fixed cause yeah. My heater also doesn't kick in for about... 20-30 minutes, and it's ****ing cold in VA. The other night on Black Friday, my car overheated and the rpms dropped so my car stalled out in the middle of the road, I pulled over let the car cool down, and popped the coolant cap and a **** load of smoke came out, then I put some coolant in to try to pop some of the bubbles and like... it looked like world war 3 coming out of my car. Anyways, I really need help, like what can I do to fix this problem ASAP. If I need to bleed the radiator, is there another way... like aka, free that I can do it, or do I have to take it to a shop?

THANKS FOR THE HELP!

 

So on the one hand, the car is overheating but on the other hand it isn't... It's funny how you worded your post because when you wrote it, you wrote it in such a way that it gives a clue as to where you were going with your theory about what the problem is. I've never done work on a car to this extent before but let's see if I can help and if I can, that'll be sweet.

Ok, first of all, do you have a service manual? Secondly, it sounds like you could have multiple problems with one of them being an electrical issue. Anyway, I'd try to find out if you're leaking coolant as it seems strange that you're adding coolant. If you're not leaking coolant, either check if you've got a blown head gasket or check to see if the thermostat is working. If the thermostat is not working, it will not let coolant go into the radiator and therefore cool the engine. After that or before looking for a blown head gasket (?) I'd do a cooling system pressure test. This seems a little odd but it feels like it's possible you've got a clog in your coolant system at the worst case and best case a leak which let air in which now means you've got an air pocket somewhere inside of the engine...

If you had a service manual, you could check the sensors that involve the engine's temperature to ensure the efficacy of it. I don't know about your car, but in a friend's there are two sensors that speak of the engine's temperature, one goes directly to the idiot light/gauge cluster while the other sensor goes directly to the ECU. Since they're mutually exclusive, I'd imagine that it could make the prognosis of a bad temp sensor a bit more difficult since you wouldn't know if the ECU is getting a good temperature reading unless you specifically checked for that.

 

I can download the manual online can't I? Lol, anyways yeah my friend had a problem with his 95' civic hatchback. He had a problem with the heating in his car and it's pretty similar to mine, he thinks it might be a fuse in my thermostat (?) well that wouldn't solve the problem of the huge overheating lol, but his head gasket wasn't blown. Thanks for the tips though, I'm off tomorrow so I'm going to get that **** checked out.

 

You just reminded me of something.. Maybe you have a leak in your heater core or near the heater core!

Check this page out:http://www.aa1car.com/library/coolant_leaks.htm

 

There's quite a few threads on how to bleed your coolant, if you're going to do a flush though you may want to have a shop do it.

- make sure your fans are working
- check the coolant levels and check for visible leaks
- try bleeding the coolant
- do a search for the roaming/revving idle and read their fixes (related to coolant system mostly)

 

yo man check your water pump

 

p.s check you intake idle control unit