mc670

yes i seached... just not getting the answers im looking for.

A month or two ago i sold my brother my old 2005 dx coupe after buying my new car. Never once out of the 2 years owning it did i have a hitch of trouble with it up until now.

There's been a few slight overheating issues lately, not always consistant which is strange because there are sometimes he can drive the car nearly 3 or 4 hours in a day and not have any trouble.. Today i took the car for a drive myself and within a half hour the temperature gauge starts rising, i pull over.. the gauge drops back to normal... i drive it back to my garage and rev the car slightly and the gauge slowly rises nearly to the top. so i shut the car off to let it cool..

So far to try fix this, the water pump/timing belt was replaced.. followed by the thermostat, and radiator cap.. both of which were honda parts. After looking into it today both fans cut in perfectly fine.. no white smoke that i can really notice, no milky colored oil, heat works fine and i cant notice any sweet smell.

So i would think that all thats left to do is the head gasket? but i cant see that happening really on a car with 180,000 km's.. are there any other possible things it could be?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

what about the coolant level, is the reserve tank overflowing? burning coolant? if you max the heater and fan, does the temp needle start to drop? are you getting hot air from heater? have you checked the actual coolant temp to make sure its not a broken temp gauge? air in the system? bad ECT sensor (if its bad, the thermistor can start reading a few degrees temp increase as being 20 degrees increase)?

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

when was the last time u had a coolant flush? ur coolant could be getting old and its heat transfer properties are diminishing.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

when u replaced the thermostat, did you replace the inner gasket as well along with the thermostat (a coil looking like thing)

mc670

coolant probably havent been flushed since the car was new... havent tried blasting the heat to see if that does anything but i'll try it after supper.

mc670

apparently coolant was flushed when the timing belt and water pump was replaced on the car... temp gauge spiked again tonight and after cranking the heat.. no hot air blew from the vents? i dunno if there's air in the system or what could be goin on? help anyone?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

did you bleed air out after the coolant flush? otherwise no heat and the temp gauge will not work right. and you can actually overheat since there are air pockets in the system.

mc670

gonna try bleed the system after dinner, just wondering the proper procedure for this and how do i know how much coolant the car needs?

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

Start with the car cold. Jack up the front of the car or park uphill. Remove the rad cap, start the car, turn the heat on full blast. Watch the level in the radiator drop and as it does fill it up with coolant. It's that easy You basically go until the radiator is not losing any more coolant. However, if you find this is taking a very long time chances are something else is wrong. It shouldn't take longer than a half hour or hour.

A flush is pretty similar. You drain the coolant out of the radiator and open up the block drain. Then you can opt to run distilled water through the system to clean out all the crap. Refill the radiator and the overflow to where it's supposed to and continue with the bleed procedure. It will take a little longer because there will be a lot of air in the system.

More or less the head gasket has failed unless it stops after the bleeding

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the car needs to be warmed up for this procedure otherwise the thermostat will be closed. i think turning the a/c on opens it but im not completely sure. i find its easier to drive the car first, turn it off, then put some towels around the rad cap to catch the coolant spray and then start the car and let it idle with the cap off and heater on full. actually you prolly dont need the fan to be on more than one notch. the idea is to open the heater hose passages to the core so air comes out of that area too.

mc670

i read in another thread to fill up the coolant with the car cool, put the cap back on, blast the heat, and run the car till the fans kick in twice... however while doing this the car idled for a half hour.. and the fans never kicked in unless the dial in the car was set on defrost... is that supposed to be normal?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if the outside temp is not hot enough, the fan doesnt turn on (and that means the thermostat is not fully open). it needs to be at least 80F outside or you need to drive the car fairly hard before opening the cap to bleed it. in winter this is very difficult to do. defrost turns the a/c on, thats why the fans came on. it is not possible to bleed air with the cap on.

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

I start with the car cold... it still sucks up coolant but make sure you do it long enough for the car to reach optimal temperature and then some (hence the 1/2 hour - hour). It's worked very well for me. There are a bunch of different ways to do it. I'm not totally sure how you would open your rad cap safetly with the car hot? Yes, it is hard in the winter if your outside.

mc670

car overheated today again after my brother was on the highway home for trade school... im stumped, and going away for work again tomorrow. got the car at the garage now so hopefully somethings gonna be figured out this week...

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

It's the head gasket

mc670

i'll know for sure today, their saying the head is fine so i'll be keeping that in mind in case something screws up again any time soon... the car should be finished in the garage this evening so i'll see how it goes from there.

army12bc

air vac is great for bleeding. coolant flushes coming in shop left and right. had an em2 spc ed today that needed bled twice. seems like a block in heater core. we did have a daytona come in on two cylinders, never seen a head that the two cyliner had a passage warn between the cylinders on the head. stupid ppl took factory intercooler off cause they blew radiator and put the dodge aries rad in.

Civic04

iTrader: (1)

Agreed



If it makes you feel any better Mc670 I have my 03 in my garage now and my 04 on deck for head gaskets. Thats right both cars blew on me. Huzza.