My hybrid *suddenly* started going wacky today...

1. First it starts idleing all f*'d up. The idle is jumping from 1000 to 2500 RPMs. It sux. People think I'm some riceboy revving on them.

2. THEN...it starts to overheat. I parked it and I'm going to look at it tomorrow on my day off. I can't figure out if it really overheated...or the gauge is just messed up. It jumped all the way up in about 5 min of driving!

So...now it's like 20 degrees outside with a good chance of snow tomorrow. I had to drive the R today...and if I can't figure out what's wrong with my hybrid AND get it fixed I'm going to have to buy some snow tires and drive my R in the shitty Midwest winters we experience here (did I mention they drop sand, chlorine, AND salt on our roads here...AND don't give a **** about the countless potholes created throughout the winter UNTIL summertime).

This sucks bad...


[Modified by Yellow Dragon, 12:01 AM 11/28/2001]

 

Sounds like you have air pockets in your cooling system. Check your coolant level and bleed it.

Just a guess.

 

Do you think it *could* be the FAST IDLE THERMOVALVE?? I'm looking at my Helms for my '94 B18C1 and I don't know WTF that controls.

How do I bleed and it? I've never done that.

 

Its a bleeder valve on the top front left of the block. Get the engine up to temperature, then open the bleeder screw until there is only fluid coming out, no bubbles.

Remember, this is a wild *** guess. It happened to a friend's b18c once.

 

I'll have to look that one up in the Helms.

Thanks for the advice!

 

YD,

All your symptoms point to air in the coolant system. There's a real easy way to bleed it out.

Make sure the car is totally cold.
Remove radiator cap
Start car
let idle (don't rev, water will spray out of Rad)
Idle unitl radiator fan kicks on twice, occasionally adding water/coolant)
after fan kicks on second time, turn of car
top of coolant and re-install radiator cap
Coolant system is now bled. (this is in the 98 Helms, BTW)

If that doesn't fix it, it's the FITV. It has a wax piston type thing inside of it which often get's stuck on older ones (causing fluctuating idle) You can untick it, or just replace it . . .

It's expensive from the dealer though . . .

 

SNOW SUX!! Especially when you only have one car.... ITR

 

if you wanna check the eacv (thermo-start valve or whatever) pull off the intake hose on the tb and look inside there , you see two holes on the left side , put your finger over the bottom of the two and plug it tightly , if the problem stops then the eacv is not working properly and from what it sounds if your coolant system is not cycling properly its not gettin the correct temp reading to adjust the air fuel accordingly, also check you r t-stat and make sure both of your coolant hoses and the two that go in and out of the eacv are all gettin farm and have fluid passing through them - good luck

 

I just want to thank everyone (Andrew, Jeff, and Quasimoto) for your help.

I worked on the hybrid tonight in my garage (heated...thank God!). I went ahead and tried Jeff's suggestion on bleeding the coolant system... AND IT WORKED! Thanks again Jeff! The system was bubbling like crazy!!! I think all the air that was trapped inside is gone now after running it out til it stopped bubbling completely.

The idle is great and it's running just under 1/2 temp at warmup.

Oh yeah, I thought I'd point out I have 9967 miles on my R just before I go to store it for winter after today. Dont' get me wrong...those are HARD earned low miles.


[Modified by Yellow Dragon, 3:23 AM 11/29/2001]

 

Glad you got your problem figured out, as I would hate to see your R on the streets during our horrible winters

I hope the snow holds off, as I was suppose to take my car in to see if they could re-route my A/C lines for the Moo-Gen intake, and then see if they can't find a way to get brake ducts in there.

I just looked outside, and I see flurries

 

Awesome!! Glad to hear that did the trick!

;-)
Jeff

 

BAD news...it worked, but only temporarily. I went to drive my hybrid to work this morning and backed up ONLY to see a puddle of coolant where it was parked overnight.

I just got back from work and now I'm going to have to find out where the leak is coming from. Wish me luck.

-Todd

 

Good luck!