Help 90 Honda Civic Overheating

My car started overheating last week. The more I accellerated the hotter my car got. I could sit in neutral and the temp would cool down a little bit. My husband "worked" on it this weekend and said it was fixed. He said it was the thermostat. Yesterday, while I was driving it the Check engine light came on. The temp gauge showed mid range. I pulled off the highway and the light went off.

Later in the day, I had driven about 15 miles. When I got out, I could hear hissing and see steam rising and what sounded like boiling water. The check engine light was not on nor was the temp guage showing hot. But it is apparent my car is getting hot.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

replace the radiator cap, check all your heater lines for plugging, remove them from the firewall, blow them
out, blow out the heater core (same lines) test/replace coolant, and the next time the CEL comes on, reach under the pass-side dash and pull the carpet back, count the number of blinks the ECU shows you... you'll see a series of blinks, a long pause, another series of blinks, a pause, etc... count it 2 or 3 times, to make sure you're not getting more than one service code.

and backflush the coolant system... if your husband changed the thermostat, that's not it, unless he got sealant all over it. make sure you're not leaking water all over under the hood, check all your hoses for leaks, and the reason to replace the radiator cap is b/c it's probably old, and worn, and isn't allowing the fresh coolant from the reservoir back into the radiator, or is sticking open/weak, and just allows coolant to circulate past it.

check your coolant level too, your dude may have forgotten to put more coolant in as well.

Make sure you bled the system as well with the bleeder screw, if there are air pockets in the system they can create a hot zone where the coolant will boil inside.

I agree with dropzone. Sounds like your rad cap isn't sealing properly and is allowing the system to bleed off pressure and boil over.

OoOo.. I forgot about that.. good lookin out frodo, air bubbles can pool in your water pump, causing cavitation, meaning that it stops pumping water.

Yes that is true. But civics aren't really plagued with that problem.

not usually, unless someone didn't bleed the coolant system after they drained it... but the pump has relatively low clearance inside also, making it harder to cavitate.

I have never had to bleed a coolant system on a honda, never had one get air locked. Just fill, start it, top it off.

I dont do it that way anymore, but only because I bought an airlift kit that pulls the entire coolant system into 25 inches of vaccum and then simply sucks the coolant back in until its completely full.

that's how we did it at sears :P

I bled a freaking accord for damn near ten minutes straight, that thing had so much air in it.

You probably didnt fill it correctly. It helps to have the car jacked up to make the fill point the highest spot in the cooling system.

I still like the vacuum fill idea... we used it at sears, and I have something similar (homebrew, of course) at my shop in my dad's barn.