MY ENGINE IS OVERHEATING OR AT LEAST THATS WHAT THE GAUGE SAYS. WHEN AT IDLE THE TEMP GAUGE MAXES OUT. WHEN I ACCELERATE IT DROPS BACK TO MIDDLE AND SOMETIMES MAXES.
AFTER DRIVING MY RADIATOR IS COOL TO THE TOUCH. ITS USUALLY HOT. TODAY AT A STOP LIGHT I COULD SEE THE ANTIFREEZE SMOKE BUT THEN IT STOPPED. ALSO MY HEAT AS STOPPED WORKING SINCE THIS HAS OCCURED. IS THAT RELATED? ITS LEAKS A LITTLE BEHIND THE ENGINE ONLY WHEN REALLY HOT. CANT LOCATE IT. ITS NOT THE LOWER RAD. HOSE.
CAUSE THIS ALL BE DUE TO A FAULTY THERMOSTAT? PLEASE HELP ME OUT.
First if you’re leaking and keep having to add coolant, then it’s a bigger problem than JUST the thermo. Here’s what I think happened. Your thermo went bad, probably stuck closed. This kept coolant from circulating through the radiator and the heater core. This is why your radiator is cool and why your heater won’t work. If you’ve maxed out the temp guage more than a couple of times, and I think you have, you’ve got some bad damage now. Because your engine has over heated so much, the seals around the thermo housing and water pump go bad. This is causing your leaks. If you saw coolant smoke coming from the engine this is from the seals leaking on the hotass engine. If it comes from the radiator only when hot, it’s a stress fracture, but you already said the radiator is cool. Your temp will drop while moving because of fresh air blowing on the engine and dissipating some of the heat. Accelerating will circulate the coolant around the engine only. It never goes through the radiator to dissipate heat away. The circulating hot coolant will affect the temp slightly but the coolant has no way to release its heat. If you have any questions email me at pedroarmstrong@yahoo.com.
ITS ONLY HAPPENED TWICE LAST NIGHT WHILE DRIVING HOME AND THIS MORNING COMING HOME FROM WORK. JUST ADDED COOLANT TODAY. BUT DONT THINK ITS CIRCULATING. WHERE IS THE WATER PUMP LOCATED. BECAUSE ITS NOT COMING FROM THE THERMO. SEAL. COULD ANY OTHER INTERNAL DAMAGE HAVE OCCURED. LIKE I SAID IT ONLY HAPPENED TWICE AND AFTER BOTH TIMES I STOPPED DRIVING THE CAR.
I don’t know, my thermo got stuck closed this summer and i drove for about ten minutes with the engine overheating before i noticed it. Dumb me i thought the smell was the truck beside me and i’m used to just ignoring the stupid engine light that likes to come on and off a lot.
The rad was super hot and the overflow was filled completely. The closed thermostat ONLY blocks the circulation, it doesn’t block the other engine coolant outlet (the lower hose), so the hot water can transfer its heat to all of the coolant.
If the thermostat had gotten stuck open, then engine would never have overheated (and the engine would take forever to warm up) because the coolant would always be circulating.
I replaced the thermo with a failsafe unit and put in a new rad too to be safe (really cooked that plastic junk). I am going through a little coolant now tho (??) and the idle seems to be a little kooky on start up somtimes. Ah well, its got 318 000kms on it, so as long as it keeps working.
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ps If anything i just said there is technically wrong please tell me. This is all what i deduced based on my experience.
What I personally experienced was this. My original radiator developed stress cracks up top due to old age wear and tear. Under normal driving these cracks expanded and the coolant vapor was escaping from these cracks. I was driving to Dallas so even though I was losing coolant, the highway wind was keeping my engine relatively cool. But once I got in town and stop and go, every stop the guage would rise. I maxed the temp twice and had to replace the thermo, radiator, and h2o pump.
DAVER: you are completely right about an open thermo. However with COMPLETELY closed thermo yes there is no circulation, but the engine will be hot and not the radiator or upper hose.
CARBONTEG: First of all just add water instead of antifreeze. You said coolant, which is actually a mix (no more than 70%) of antifreeze and water. Antifreeze has significantly less heat dissipation than water. It only lowers the freezing point. You must have at least 15% antifreeze in the coolant mix for minimal street driving. If you don’t think it’s circulating none of this maters now.
I am almost completely convinced that the thermo is completely closed. The water pump is just to the right and below the driver’s motor mount. It bolts directly to the block, not like an alternator or steering pump, and it’s gear hits the timing belt just above the crankshaft gear.
All this info is from my Haynes manual. If you need something from it I can scan pages and send them to you.
I had the same problem…
replace the thermostat and get a bottle of those radiator leak fix at a local auto supply store
MY friend, you just may be in luck!
I had a 90 Dodge Dynasty. All, please forgive me! Anyway, it was heating up like a “sum bits”. So, after working on it myself, it turned out that the waterpump went out. As a result of the waterpump going out, some oil seals located near the waterpump started to leak, causing oil to leak all over the belts in the general area, especailly the timing belt (pain in the a$$ belt to replace). So, because oil was all over the belts, the rubber timing belt snapped on me. The mixture of oil and heat was too much for belts. Well, I got all this fixed for my Dynasty for around $800. Then a week later I bought a used 93 Integra LS for 2,000. Well, I noticed yesterday that it was overheating and the car was running sluggish. When looking under the hood, I noticed that there was some oil on my belts, and also on the inside top of my hood, near the belts on the right side of motor. The car looked low on water so, i filled it up, went inside, and let the car run for about 10 mins. so that the water would enter the engine. Came back outside and all the coolant was on the driveway. So, I took the car to my trusty mechanic and asked him to look at the car. I knew for sure, after looking at it myself, that the radiator and hoses were not leaking.
The mechanic told me that the water pump went out. The reason why I mentioned the Dynasty earlier is because this is a similar issue.
My integras waterpump went out, the oil seal i mentioned before started leaking, oil got all over my belts, because the oil got on belts, the belts sling the oil on the top inside hood.
Im betting your waterpump went out. If the waterpump went out, then get your timing belt replaced as well. The timing belt will be around $40-$60 more, just for the part. When getting to the waterpump, they have to take the timing belt off first to get to it, so if you get both done, they can only charge you labor for 1 so, you save money in the long run
If you dont get the timing belt done, and it breaks a week later because of the oil that is all over it, then your mechanic will charge you the same labor, you just paid for the waterpump. TRUST me, get both done. The ballpark price to get the above fixed, according to my mechanic is between $560-$600.
This includes waterpump, timing belt, oil seals, misc. belts and LABOR.
Heres what you should do.
Put coolant in your car, let it run for about 5-10 mins.
Water leaking?
Look at your belts to left of motor. See any oil?
If you see this, then I would bet on Waterpump.
I know I wrote a lot, but I’m a newbie to this forum, who has already put a lot of money into my integra, just to get the car back to basic. PLus, I’ll be needing help on my car. Hopefully the advice can be returned, if not by you, then someone else.
Let me know how it works out.
Good Luck,
SneakyC