heh,
ok so my friends radiator died(rock hit it or some ****).
so we get a new radiator off ebay.
and installed it last night.

pretty easy install..
but we messed up somewhere..

basically.. the bitch is overheating! DOH!!!

We basically just followed the instructions in his honda owners manual for the coolant system to refill it.

and it looks like everything alright.
but if we drive it around for a while.. the temp. will slowly creep up.

SOOO, i'm thinking there was something more we needed to do.
like maybe flush the entire coolant system?

My question, is that do you guys think it'll be alright and work normally if we went ahead and flushed the system following instructions in a better manual(maybe hanes.. or if I can find the real mechanics manual online in pdf format).

what do you think?
thanks.

P.S. he has a 99 civic dx

 

let it run with the cap off, heat on. it may be air bound and have to burp. hope that helps.

 

make sure there is enough coolant in the radiator..

check it when its cool...

 

Yeah theres probably and air bubble in the line. I usually start the car and let it idle while I go over to the radiator, and uncap it. I then squeeze the big upper radiator hose repeatedly. When you squeeze the hose, somewhat fast like, youll notice that air bubbles will pop up. Just keep filling the radiator to the top and squeezing. I usually do this for a good 5 to 10 minutes just to make sure theres no more air bubbles.

 

ok I told him to try that!
hopefully it'll work.

but so you dont think it needs to be flushed?

 

ehh as long as the majority of the coolant is new it should be good.

 

Bleed the coolant. i will put money on that being the problem.

 

wuts bleeding the coolant do?

 

basically it is what you told him to do. get the air pocket out.

 

stupid thought but did you check to see if there was anything stuck inside the hose outlets, companies will stick something in there to prevent things from getting inside the radiator during shipping. but other than that you should have flushed and bled the system.

 

turn the heater vent inside the car to hot, but dont turn the fan on. Start up the car with the rad. cap off. let the car warm up and let the fan turn on. Keep squeezing the upper rad. hose to see if the thermostat opened. it should stay cold for a while 4-6 mins, but then heat up very quickly. Good Luck

[edit] turning the heater vent to hot opens the heater core under your dash. Chances are there is some air stuck in there. [edit]

 

uh there is a air bleed bolt that u loosen when filling coolant. get a haynes manual if u want to know where it is and what it looks like.

 

i let the car cycle 3 times with the cap off... (ie let the fan kick on 3 times) refilling it every time it goes low...