Engine gauge say overheating, but engine barely warm.

[VTISC007]

I just removed the A/C compressor, condenser, hoses, etc. etc....

The A/C wasn't working so I just removed pretty much most A/C related items.

I drove the car around the neighborhood a couple of times and the temperature gauge says it's overheating, but the engine is barely warming up.

Not to mention, when I came home from work (in a different vehicle) I noticed a significant marking of (maybe) oil on the driveway, underneath the CRX.

I'll check it tomorrow. Any suggestions would be appreciated........................

[danielsatur]

It could be a bad Temp sending unit, or a bad guage.
1) Clean and check the connection going to the temp sending unit.

[VTISC007]

It's not the gauge, nor the sending unit...that's a good thing.

I checked the water level in the radiator, and it was quite low.

I added water and that solved the problem, however, a week later, I checked the water again...low and behold, the water was low again.

"Question",,,Is it possible that the radiator water is leaking from the engine where the A/C bracket mounted to???

I never had this problem until I got rid of the A/C...which didn't work anyway.

My next bet is to re-install the long bolts that held the A/C bracket in place.


Any ideas would be appreciated,,,,,Thanks.

[amy@af]

#1 sounds like you have an air pocket in your cooling system.

#2 sounds like your headgasket is going bad. There signs of that are: hard start, loss of coolant, sputtering, white smoke out the tailpipe. You can also check your coolant overflow bottle & see if you see any oil residue.

if not I'd try to locate a possible small leaky hose

if there is coolant on the "a/c" side of the car it might be a bad water pump. Water pumps are so basic about the only thing to go wrong is the seal going bad & it leaks.

possibility of heater core going bad if your heater doesn't blow hot air.

my educated guess: you had a pocket of air which caused the initial overheating & resulted in your head gasket starting to go.

[VTISC007]

It seems like the leak is coming from somewhere where the A/C compressor was located.

All those ideas were great...the only thing is, I have never heard of an air pocket in the cooling system and how it gets there.

No white smoke, no hard start,,,the car seems fine other than low radiator level after about a week.

I'll check the water pump and any other obvious leaks.

Thanks for the good ideas....................................

[amy@af]

not saying this IS what happened however I've been wrencing a LONG time, I've seen a lot of action causes reaction. Low on coolant leads to overheat. Putting more coolant causes airpocket of not bled. Air pocket leads to breach of headgasket.

I know you're thinking it's unrelated but you'd be surprised how many little things we don't notice until the car is worked on & you are now looking for any little thing that might have gone wrong with what you did, in process discover a completely different problem.

to me, sounds like a very slow water pump seal failure might have caused a slow leak that wasn't noticed until the car finally got low on coolant & overheated causing a chain reaction. Lets hope it's just an old hose leak :-) much easier to fix

[FrodoGT]

The seal goes, the water leaks out, voila, air pocket, and they are much hotter than the water because they don't transfer heat well at all. So you end up with a hot spot on the head. Enter blown headgasket/warped head.

[GTA]

Air in the cooling system, very possible. Next time you add coolant there is a bleeder valve on the engine right where the upper hose connect.

[VTISC007]

*******UPDATE*******


There must be some kind of divine intervention going on here...

There is no more leak, the radiator is full and there is no longer a need to add water!


I'd hate to say that it fixed itself (not likely), or that nothing is wrong,,,but if the problem went away,,,how do I find it.....................

I'll just drive it some more and see what happens. I'm slightly perplexed.

[Moppie]

I've seen a water pump seal develop a small leak that stopped for short period of time. Then the whole thing let go at once and completely failed.

I would be looking for seepage around the pump, and replacing it if you see anything.

[VTISC007]

This is just to reinforce all the great advice.......

I finally took the CRX apart attempting to remove the water pump. The closer I got, the clearer it was that it was leaking from behind the water pump. Upon removal of the water pump, it was clear as daylight that the water pump seal had gone bad.

Thinking back to when I replaced the timing belt, I probably thought it was a good idea to NOT change the water pump (lesson learned). That being said, I'll be replacing the timing belt, tensioner and the water pump.

Any solid advice on how to avoid and air pocket in the coolant from this point forward would be great.