My sister took her car to the house recently complaining about overheating.
I ran the car for almost an hour in the parking lot BUT it never overheated.
Decide to take it out for a test drive and next thing you know about 30 mins
into the drive then it overheated. What can be causing the problem. The fan both
turns on so thats out of the problems and no leaks at all not even a drip on the parking
lot because the hoses are new and also the radiator. Please help she needs this car for
school.

 

I'd bet it's the thermostat. It might be on its way out which explains why it's intermittent. Buy a new one from HONDA dealership and put it in. Honda thermostats have a failsafe so that they don't fail closed. It's best to use OEM thermostats.

To be sure it's the thermostat you can always take it out and run without it and if it doesn't overheat you know the thermostat is bad. They are only 20 dollar parts so it's best to just replace it.

 

nice! thanks for the fast reply. I was thinking its either thermostat OR water pump. Is there a way to check if either or is working or not. The wierd thing is why wouldnt it overheat when its just sitting but I have to drive it around. I can verify if a/c was running or not because I was using a/c the whole time and never seem to have it turned off haha.

 

It could be the water pump but that's the hardest to check since you gotta take off the timing belt to get to it. They are, however, designed to leak when they start to fail. Look under the timing belt side and see if you see any coolant dripping down.

 

theres no leak what so ever.

 

I had some time to take a look at the car yesterday and found out that the old owner has removed the thermostat. So that leaves that out and only the water pump can be causing the overheat. I cant do timing so I got a quotation and is it normal to be charged 170 for labor and 155 for parts thats a total of 320 plus or minus a couple.

 

I don't really understand why you're paying 155 for parts, but the 170 for labor is a great deal. You might as well have them replace both belts while you're at it but for 155 it appears you already are.

 

No, its not repaired yet. It was just a quotation that was given. So for 170 its a deal. Hmm I wish I learned how to time thats the only part I dont get. Thanks for the help. Im thinking it waterpump because thermostat is removed, fans work and relay turns the fans on when needed. There could be no other culprit unless there is let me know.

 

That's why I was saying there might be a clog somewhere. Another possibility is the radiator. I'm assuming your car doesn't leak coolant and it's always full.

 

as it syas right here. theres no leaks at all. Radiator is new not even a year old
also all hoses upper and lower about a month old.

 

Don't forget he second part of holmesnmanny's question:

You never have to add coolant?

 

Radiators, over time, wind up corroding, if the coolant system isn't taken care of properly and wind up with clogs developing. Do research on "rodding a radiator". If you used water instead of coolant or a bad balance it could be corroded especially if you used tap water since tap water has all kinds of minerals that rapidly corrode metal. But if it's only a year old it should be fine.

 

I know this maybe out of place, I assume this is a 4cyl. You did look in the lower hose for the t-stat. Car cold,on start up the coolant should be flowing.

How many miles on this, do you know when the last t-belt was replaced?

Yes WP do fail, usually leak. Rare that the impeller on the pump would be "loose" on the shaft or worn down to the point of not flowing enough.

 

I've seen some really nasty ones on youtube where the propellers were almost completely eaten away.