Hey guys,

So I'm sorta lost here. I bought a 98 Accord 4cyl a couple of months ago but I'll be honest never thought to check out the radiator so I don't know if it was topped off to begin with.

Anyways, I pulled into my driveway a couple of days ago and noticed that there was just a little bit of smoke coming from under the hood. Popped it and it seemed to be coming from the area between the radiator and the exhaust manifold. NO signs of overheating whatsoever though, the gauge was at medium so all was normal when it came to temperate. (Side note: I live in Montreal so it's like, between -20 and -30 outside lately).

So I waited for the car to cool off and then opened up the radiator and the coolant was lower than should be but not empty, probably missing a litre or so. Also, I do actually remember not seeing any coolant in the reservoir one time a month or so ago and forgot to add some.

At this point I decided to do a flush of the radiator but didn't bother with the engine block because the coolant didn't look that bad. Did the flush and added simply only water (in a heated garage, no worries) then waited for the thermostat to open when the car reached operating temperature while I kept the rad cap off. It opened up and I saw the water level in the rad decrease so then I topped off the rad and took her for a spin.

Got back and I noticed the issue with the smoke coming from the rad, but there's not a single leak in sight. Even the frame underneath the rad was clean as a whistle. The hoses were fine as well, not a leak in sight.

So I just flushed the water out and put 60-40/70-30ish mix back into my radiator instead of only water and verified the mix with a tester (since it's freezing up here). No leaks but still smoke coming from the radiator.

One thing I DID notice though... was that the radiator fans hadn't turned on once in the two flushes I did and the two spins I took around the block. Not once did I hear them come on BUT my car's not overheating, it seems as though only the radiator is smoking without a leak? Any thoughts? It's confusing the **** out of me lol.

 

Radiator cap could be weak.

 

try turning your ac on and check to see if your fans come on, if not replace your radiator fan motor

 

also check the temp sending unit

 

Most likely faulty rad cap.