My 94 Accord has been having coolant woes. First it started leaking but I couldn't see where. Then it leaked into the passenger side interior. I pulled the dash apart and replaced a bad heater core. Stopped the interior leak, but not the exterior. Turned out to be the water pump, which is a pain. Now that's done and the upper hose and thermostat. No visible leaks but I smell coolant once in awhile. 2 nights ago my son brought it home with steam coming out and antifreeze all over the hose side of the engine, battery, radiator. Replaced the radiator cap and washed it all off. This morning when I got to work there was coolant under the car. On the way home the temp gauge went to hot and pinned. Can't see a leak, has coolant again around batt, air intake, radiator. With engine on and radiator cap off I can see the flow from the pump working, level is low but visible, to I topped it off. But the fan didn't come on and not much heat coming out of the heater. Gauge pinned above red line all the way home, drops to zero when shut off. Still can't see a leak, but I can see the puddles. Engine too hot but not too hot.

Do I need a mechanic or an exorcist?

 

put the car on ramps. fill it up with water, let it get to temperature. put on some googles to protect your eyes, get under it with a flashlight and start looking.

there are two other heater hoses in the back. there is also the coolant pipe behind the engine block. there is also small throttle body hoses near the back of the engine. check the freeze plugs. the coolant system is under pressure, its not rocket science, just process of elimination.

 

Another thing to think of as well is you don't mention your bleeding procedure, how'd you bleed it to get air out of the system?

 

thought about that too later, maybe you did bleed the system correctly, except you forgot to re tighten the bleed screw?

 

Quit driving the car, you may have blew the head gasket by allowing it to get to the red. When this happens there's a good chance you just blew your head gasket.

Open the bleeder valve with the car running and let the air out and quickly close it. Then let it idle and as it warms up see if the lower radiator hose gets warm before the car starts to overheat(ie. go above halfway on the gauge). If it doesn't get warm before this then the thermostat is sticking closed and will need to be replaced with a Honda OEM one.

If it gets warm see if the fans come on. If not then something is going on there. Report back.

 

Wow... got done with my reply, hit submit and it promptly erased it and said I wasn't logged in anymore. Maybe the website needs an exorcist too!?

I'll try to sum it up. Thanks all for the advice. Bleeding, got that covered. Leak turned out to be a heater hose behind the electrical harness under the thermostat, where it goes through a guide. Couldn't see it from above, and only runs and drips below. Replaced the hose. Leak fixed.

Now the heat. The thermostat was stuck open. Replaced it. The temp gauge went immediately to halfway at startup, then gradually up to red during warmup. I got what they told me were a temp sensor and a gauge sending unit. Sending unit says temp switch, so they rechecked and said it was definitely the right thing. Now comes the confusing part...

The manual says those parts go in the water pump housing on the other side of the engine. Several threads here say under the distributor. Others say elsewhere. Here's what I figured... the sensor in the thermostat housing is the fan switch. There are two under the distributor. Left is larger and two conductor. That's the temp (ECT Sensor). On the right is a smaller, one lead unit, which should be the gauge sending unit. Right of that there's another one in the block and one in the upper radiator hose housing. Don't know what they are. I put the temp sensor under the distributor in the left hole. The other part they gave me doesn't look at all like the one on the right. It's two lead and resembles the one over the thermostat. So either they gave me the wrong part or I don't know where it really goes.

To make a long story longer... now I have an extra part. No leak. The temp gauge goes to midway as soon as the key is turned and stays there, regardless of temperature. Heater air gets warm, but not hot, after normal warmup period, water pump works. No steam, smoke. hoses get hot. Fans work. So I gotta ask, anyone know definitively what goes where? Did I get the sensor in the right place? Is the gauge sending unit really a temp switch? Did they give me the wrong thing or does it go somewhere else? And what about Naomi? Stay tuned, same time, same channel, for more rambling, inane worries and kind folks who try hard to help the technically challenged.

 

Well I tried to help but you completely and totally ignored everything I said and went ahead and tried figuring it out yourself. It can surely get expensive and time consuming going that route but eventually you figure it out as I've done on a few occasions before. Good luck.

 

Sorry, buddy. I didn't see any of these posts before I sat down to look and respond. I had set the notifications for immediate, but when I hadn't seen any emails I checked. There they were, and the settings were now for weekly. Didn't mean to ignore anyone. Wait... I know... the dog ate my settings. Hey, that's sounds better!

I do appreciate the comments and advice. Thanks to each of you.

Other than stop driving, I had pretty much done what everyone suggested. It appeared to me that the gauge couldn't be trusted the way it was acting.

Sooo....... any sage advice on which sensor goes where?

 

I don't even know what parts you bought and you don't really appear to either want to tell us exactly what car you have nor what parts/part numbers you bought or where the hell you got the parts from.

We can't read minds.

http://www.hondapartscheap.com/parts...er-pump-sensor

I'm going to above the call of duty on this one simply because I'm in a good mood.

Part 4 is the thermostat

17 is the fan switch for when the key is on(in other words this is the main fan switch)
15 is the sending unit
19 is the ect sensor
18 is the fan switch for when the key is off

 

First, your list answers my question and makes sense. Thank you very much!

Second, the dance we did to get there was interesting, but not necessarily fun. I don't know what I did to pi&& in your coffee, and I'm sorry if you strained yourself going way over expectations of what any human should have to endure in extending a hand to another. Allow me to apologize profusely. You have been nothing but a ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak and dreary world. Have a spectacular day!