I have a 1992 Honda Prelude with an H23 swap in it, and I am expieriencing several problems...

1) The car starts to overheat when it is idleing for a while. But once I begin to move again. It will go back down. Would this be a problem with the thermostat? But I have also noticed that the radiator eats up the coolant very quickly. Could this be that I need to replace my radiator? Also, are these the only two options that could be causing this?

2)There is like a rubbing sound coming from my front left wheel. I though maybe the brake pads were wearing down, so I changed them. They were fine, then I thought maybe the rotor was sticking, so I cahnged that, and the noise is still there. Is it like a rubbing sound that happens mostly when I am on the freeway, when I push on the brake it usually stops after a second of braking. And whats peculiar is that the noise doesnt happen all the time. Could this be the whell bearing?

Thanks for all suggestions...

 

So you swapped an H23 into your Prelude??

Best thing to do is let your car idle and see if any coolant leaks out onto the ground.

I JUST got my new radiator today. Mine old one leaks where the rad. fan connects to the rad. I broke it.

 

bump

 

First and foremost, run your car until both of your radiator fans come on without your radiator cap on. Idle it around 2500-3000 every few minutes until normal operating temperature is achieved. Observe to see if your thermostat opens and you should see the coolant flow through in the radiator. If the fans turn on and you still overheat but you dont see the coolant flow, try replacing your thermostat then repeat the procedure. If you start to overheat BEFORE your fans come on, then you have a problem with the fans

First, check your fuse to make sure it did not burn out. If the fuse is ok, test to make sure they work, get a 12volt battery from a cordless drill and hotwire them to your fans to make sure they kick on.

hotwire= get 2 wires hold it to the neg and pos sides of the battery then connect 2 wires to fan harness. Also, if you hotwired your fans and don't use the stock connectors make sure you did not wire them backwards. If you did, the fans will push air from the engine bay working against the air trying to flow into the engine bay.

Since you mentioned that you loose coolant quickly it could be possible you have a bad headgasket or a leak in your coolant lines as stated earlier. Do this: Go to autozone and get a pressure tester for your coolant system. All you do is hook it up to your radiator and pump pump pump. If you have a loose fitting, you should see the coolant seep from it. If its a bad headgasket, remove your plugs prior to the test. Once you have pressure inside the radiator observe if the pressure decreases after X amount of time. Crank your car and the cylinder that is bad should shoot up water. Thus telling you exactly where the headgasket failure is at.

 

Thanks, can anyone tell me what the rubbing noise might be?

 

Most likely gremlins. Have you checked to see if the plastic fender-wall lining is loose or not?

 

^^LOL

It sounds like you're missing some hardware. Make sure you have all the pad retainers and springs. Also, clean the hell out of your calipers. It could also be that your pads or caliper piston is sticking.