I started noticing a coolant problem wwhen I was checking my oil one day and noticed coolant res. was empty. I popped cap off and sure enough i could see no coolant was present in the top of the radiator. I fill it up, bleed out air bubbles, fill res. and drive away. I check in a couple of days, and res. has dropped a significant amount. I figured it was just burping out some air bubbles that were trapped and using res to fill coolant system back up. Trouble shooting begins.

Run car around town till hot. Get home and check for leaks. NONE.

Then I felt both hoses at the radiator itself. Top one is hot, bottom one is cold. I think its the thermostat at this point and go buy myself another one. Install. Drive around till motor is hot, go home and check hoses. Top one is still hot, bottom one is STILL cold. Give bottom hose a squeeze or two, and it 'feels' empty. Logical since if there was any in there the hose would be hot at this point.

So then I figure that the new thermostat is malfunctioning. To avoid going and buying another one, I just pulled it and ran the car without one around town til motor was hot, and got same thing, top hot, bottom cold.

Water Pump failure?

Things I have done:
1. Exhaust smells normal, it does not seem to be burning it off.
2. There are NO leaks.
3. Car runs great, no power loss, no nothing.
4. Oil in pan seems normal, no milky color, no foreign substances in the res. itself.

If it is the water pump, how difficult to replce? Do i need to redo timing etc, or can I slip old out, slip new in?

Doubt it makes a diff., but its a GSR motor in the CRX.

 

Are you overheating in any way???

fs

 

The hose temps are normal, the water goes in at the top hot, gets cooled off down the radiator, and that's why the bottom one should be cold. I would definitely think you have a leak somewhere, they're hard to spot. I have one in my radiator and you can never see it, but you can see small puddles left on my radiator fan after driving around.

 

it could be the head gasket and when you install the new pump you dont have to change any timing as long as you dont change the timing while your installing,uninstalling..good luck

 

Radiator doesn't cool the coolant off that much. Bottom hose should be warm.

 

at least a little warm anyway.... that is strange it is just vanishing?

 

thanks for the responses... I guess it's time for a leakdown test at local car shop... thanks again HT

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sporkcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The hose temps are normal, the water goes in at the top hot, gets cooled off down the radiator, and that's why the bottom one should be cold.</TD></TR></TABLE>

wrong, under normal circumstances, the top hose is hot and the bottom hose is WARM.

i had the exact same problem as you, except for the disappearing coolant. top hose hot, bottom hose cool. replaced thermostat with an autozone one, same problem. replaced with a factory thermostat, same problem. replaced radiator, same problem. turns out, the MORON that owned my car before me neglected the **** outta the car. ran straight water for god knows how long and corroded the whole cooling system and the impellers on the water pump broke off. so i replaced the waterpump with a lifetime autozone one, impellers are made of cast iron, fixed my problem. as far as how hard it is to change a water pump, it can be done in a couple hours with handtools and moderate knowledge. get yourself a helms manual, best investment ever. as far as the disappearing coolant, if theres no leaks, then the coolant is getting consumed somehow. if your oil is a nice dark chocolate brown, and theres no white smoke coming out the tailpipe when you get on it, your headgasket is probably fine. i recommend you get the cooling problem fixed first and then see if youre still consuming coolant.

HTH

 

wwwhhhaaattteeevvveerrr, warm, cool, cold

 

leakdown proved to be fine... no pressure drop... water pump install this week... cool man