Rep Power: 0

I have a problem similar to what someone else posted here, but a little different. Early this week I was in the middle of a 60 mile drive home, and my temperature gauge was shooting way up, and just before it would redline the temp would drop back down. It kept doing this on and off all the way home, but it never got to the critical level. Once I got home I popped open my hood and saw steam coming out of my radiator. It turned out that it had a crack in it.

I bought a new radiator and put it in today. I had never done a radiator before, but it seemed to go OK. I filled it with coolant and fired the engine up, and let it warm up for a while. The engine seemed slow to heat up, but once I started driving it the temp gauge shot up near redline. If I held my foot on the gas the needle would stay high, but if I eased off it would quickly go down again. I probably should point out that I live in Minnesota and it was 20 degrees out at the time. Even though my engine was red hot, the heater would never put out any warm air. I KNOW the heater was working before all this happened.

After I took my test run I popped the hood and felt the hoses. The top hose was very hot to the touch, but the lower hose was still ice cold. Does this sound like a thermostat problem?

Thanks, Please respond to my email at Brian2MN@Hotmail.com

Brian

 
Rep Power: 310

Sounds like water pump. After the engine is fully warmed up the hoses should be similar in temp with the bottom being slightly cooler. If theres a big difference in temp it could water pump. The thermostat from what you mention sounds like its working since it let hot water travel to the top of the radiator. If it was stuck closed then you wouldnt feel any hot water. But from your description the water isnt being pushed through the radiator which could mean you had a defective water pump or some sort of blockage. This might explain why you have no heat coming from the heater since no water is being pushed through the heater core either. At first I kinda thought it might be the fans not coming on, but that wouldnt explain why your heater isnt working.

Get a second opinion on this before you start to replace the pump. I would hate for you to take my advice if I'm wrong. Let us know what it ends up being, thanks.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks. I'm going to put a new thermostat in it today and see if that does anything. The thermostat was cheap, so I may as well replace it. I agree that the water pump may be a suspect, but the strange thing about that is that I did have a new one put in about 1.5 years ago. I put heavy mileage on that car though, so that was probably about 30,000 miles ago.

I already spent $130 for the radiator and would hate to replace the water pump too until I've elminated the thermostat as a possibilty. I'll let you know what happens with it.

 
Rep Power: 310

Sheesh you had to replace the water pump on brand new car? That sucks! Yes please reply back and let me know if it was the thermostat nce you test it out. Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 0

Did you bleed the air from the system after the new rad was installed? An air lock would keep the coolant from circulating properly.
Craig.,

 
Rep Power: 0

My Honda is actually a 90 with 266,000 miles on it, so it's far from new. I'm just posing in here because it looked like a good place to get feedback.

I pulled the thermostat out and tested it in boiling water. It seemed to be OK, but it opened slowly and not completely so maybe that was the original problem. The gasket is in pretty bad shape, so I can't put the new thermostat in yet. I ordered the radiator, thermostat, and gaskets from carparts.com and I got everything pretty quick except for the gasket, so it's kind of weird that I'd still be waiting on that. I'm going to go to the auto parts store today and see if I can get one.

What's the best way to bleed the cooling system? I'm thinking that you fill the radiator until it can't take any more, and start the car with the radiator cap off and let it run to warm up, and then shut off the engine and try to add more, and keep repeating this until the overflow container starts to get fluid in it after shut off, and then fill the overflow to the fill line? correct me if this isn't the best way to do it.

 
Rep Power: 0

OK, I'm changing my icon from a mad face to a happy face. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] So far so good, I got the gasket and put the thermostat in and bled the radiator. I ran the car for about 20 minutes and the heat level was acceptable, so I drove it around the block at high RPMs a few times and it only heated up to where it should be and there must be flow because both hoses got warm and the heater is working great. Now for a longer test drive..........

 
Rep Power: 0

thats my prob to the T!!!! I posted my issue earlier and that is exactly what my car is doing but mine is a 2001 with 50,000 miles!!