Need Help Badly with Overheating

[BioCyte]

well.. having a really annoying problem with my 92 honda civic dx and was just wondering if anyone could help.

i tend to keep close to 3/4 of the way up the temp gauge and have no idea what is wrong. Sometimes it goes close to the red line and thats when i shut the car off.

tried flushing my coolant out, change the thermostat, change the fan switch (sensor) and nothing seems to be working. if i was gonna take it to a mechanic, they said that they will charge me 150 bucks JUST to check out what is wrong with it.

Was wondering if anybody in here have any ideas/clues of what is going on? Thx

ps: also if anybody can give me a clue where that fan sensor is? i didnt get to see where they put that part in when they changed it

[MaxGCivic]

ok, i had a cracked radiator not long ago, so I can give you some personal advice on this...


1st, try to make sure it's full of radiator fluid. If it is overheating like it is in this case this will keep it from overheating as fast.

2nd, see if you got a puddle of like green liquid under you car. Fill up you radiator. (don't run you car right before you do this or you will have radiator fluid flying everywhere when u take the cap off. it's under pressure) after you fill it up run it till it starts getting hot and the engine temp needles at like 3/4's before. Pop your hood and see if it's squirting out anywhere.

3rd, if there is not a leak check your hoses. You might have a bad hose.


If your radiator is cracked or broken basically I suggest to get another one. See if you can get one off a honda in a junk yard or find a place that sells radiators and just buy the raditor. Don't pay to have someone put it in. They tried ripping me off and telling me it'd be $100 bucks to put it in. You'd be surprised how easy they are to put in. Not much more then taking the fan off, then the radiator and a hose. (2 if you have a automatic) then put the new one in and reattach the hose(s).



Hope that helps.

[spooleffect]

When you flushed the coolant did you add nothing but Anti-Freeze/Coolant. If you did then thats the prob, radiator fluid doesn't transfer heat which is why you need water.

If its not that then when you added the coolant/water mix what mix% did you use. If you put just 50/50 then you do not have enough coolant. When you flush out your system it still has a bunch of water in it. So when you fill up the system you want to use a 70/30 mix in order to get it as even as possible. If you do not have enough radiator fluid in your system the your boiling point will lower and cause your car to overheat.

Too much radiator fluid = No heat transfer

Too little = Low boiling point and no freeze protection

[eckoman_pdx]

One trick iif you have too little coolent in the mix, since the boiling point is lowr, it to put on a high pressure radiator cap. the stock cap is 16 psi on civic's, though lots of mechanics I know of seem to try and use a 13 psi (0.9kg/cm2) cap until you demand the proper one. I know that if you have a 16 psi cap (1.1kg/cm2) and put on a high presure cap (18.5psi,, 1.3 kg/cm2) it is usually good for approx 10 degrees on the boiling point. The Higher pressure cap raises the boiling point of your coolent mix, thats why race cars use high pressure cap. Don't know if that helps but there you go.

[BioCyte]

yeah .. when i flushed my coolant out, i just put in straight rad fluid in and didnt mix any water in it at all. could that be my problem? i also looked at buying a new rad cap but i looked at my old one and it still keeps a good seal .. do i have to totally flushed my rad fluid out and add in water this time? or just put some water in the rad itself without flushing?

thx for the help guys

[Egg_Shen]

Check your exhaust! if it has any white/grey smoke coming out, even a little, you may have a warped head gasket(burning rad fuild). Your temp gauge is acting exactly the same as mine did and I had a little smoke coming out the tailpipe.

It was a warped headgasket, I have extended warranty so it covered it.
Oh and the shop I brought it to didn't charge anything for just looking to find the problem, find a friendly shop that will do this.

[BioCyte]

hmm.. thx very much for the help Egg_Shen n to all the people who gave suggestion. im gonna go try to figure out this out myself b4 bringing it to the shop ..

hopefully it is something simple

another note to add though:

when they change my fan sensor, my car seems to be fine for the next 3 days or so .. but then everything went nuts again.. so i dont know if that info helps any at all .. sorry if i left it out before ... just remembered now

thx again

[michaelsd16c]

I know you don't want to hear this but I think you have a blown head. Dose the heat go up when ur moving or just when ur stop(like stoplight) I have the same problem. But one more thing have you check the water pump? also when you change the coolant did you bleed the air? If you want to see if it's the blown head or water pump.Take it to a radiator shop for a pressure check. They charge you about $50bucks.

Good luck!

[spooleffect]

Originally posted by BioCyte
yeah .. when i flushed my coolant out, i just put in straight rad fluid in and didnt mix any water in it at all. could that be my problem? i also looked at buying a new rad cap but i looked at my old one and it still keeps a good seal .. do i have to totally flushed my rad fluid out and add in water this time? or just put some water in the rad itself without flushing?

thx for the help guys

Theres your prob..... No water mixed in with your radaitor fluid = Overheating! You need a 50%Water/50%Coolant Mix. Read my original post and pray you have not f'ed up the engine. Whatever your temp gauge said wasn't even close to telling you how much you were overheating your engine. Get the proper mix in your system ASAP!

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by spooleffect


Theres your prob..... No water mixed in with your radaitor fluid = Overheating! You need a 50%Water/50%Coolant Mix. Read my original post and pray you have not f'ed up the engine. Whatever your temp gauge said wasn't even close to telling you how much you were overheating your engine. Get the proper mix in your system ASAP!

BINGO!

dude mix it 50/50 or it will overheat again. Back when I was ignorant I changed mine with straight radiator fluid and it overheated. Daddy spread the word of the wise and my baby was fine. You don't have a warped head gasket or anything wrong with your engine.

[MaxGCivic]

i was gonig to put something about the 50/50 mix but i didn't think you'd be dumb enough to do that. (i mean that in the most respectful way.....no seriously!! )


hopefully that was your problem... next time buy pre-mixed radiator fluid. *cough dum dum cough*

[eckoman_pdx]

Yea, thats your problem right there. You used straight coolent instead of the proper 50/50 mix. Flush out the bad non-mix, put in the proper mix and there you go. If you feel the need for a new high pressure cap, they work good, besides, the blitz high pressure cap looks hella slick in a nice decorated engine bay.

[spooleffect]

Originally posted by MaxGCivic

next time buy pre-mixed radiator fluid. *cough dum dum cough*

Its pretty *dum dum* to use that stuff when you flush out your system. You end up with around a 70% Water 30% Coolant Mix. When you flush out your system you still leave plenty of water in it, so when you go to fill the system you want to use a 70% Coolant 30% Water mix to even it out as much as possible. That 50/50 stuff is only for topping off you system if you notice its a little low.

[BioCyte]

just flushed my rad again today and put in the 50/50 mix (well.. close to 60/40 cuz of the leftover water in the system) but still having the same problem as before .. its almost like that the problem is worse now

any other ideas what else could be the problem?

i checked my exhaust too and there is no yellow/whitish smoke coming out cuz by a warped head gasket.

[candlaudio]

well i say if you done all that stuff and it is still overheating then your water pump is more than likely gone, im not for sure if you can check that part or not but if it is the original part on a 92, then more than likely it is no good, water pumps generally wont last 10 years so if that isn't it then hey you got a new waterpump that wont go out for a while and plus if it isn't it you can always take it back to the parts store and get a refund or keep it for a back up.....