98 Accord EX Overheating/Yellow foam in radiator..

[Mnemonic]

Hey folks,

I bought this car about 50 days ago. I should have just told them to take it back the day it overheated (the first day owning it), but they 'fixed' it for free.

The original problem they diagnosed was the transmission cooler inside the radiator leaked and it made the yellow gunky foam occur in the radiator. The next week, a hose blew. From here on i took it to my mechanic, who i trust.

He said the foam stuff was eating away at the hoses, and they all needed to be replaced. I did that, 2 weeks later the heater core went. same problem. The rubber on the heater core blew out from the goop. he flushed the cooling system thoughroly, and now another week later its overheating, and i opened the radiator cap and sure enough, i have yellow goop in it.

Yesterday, i checked the oil level (it was down 2 qts), and i filled it to normal level. I also checked tranny fluid, it was down a small bit too. Later that night is when it overheated.

I know alot of you will probably say blown head gasket, but the motor runs fine, and there's no white smoke coming out the tailpipe..

Funny thing is, I just had a baby and bought this car for honda's reliability. I cannot afford to pay for all these repairs and be out of a car for 5 days at a time every week or so!

Please let me know what to do or what this could be!

Thanks,

DC

[wiseguy01]

well for sure do you know that the rad was replaced or did they try to put sop leak in the trans if so then that would happen again the stop leak does not work also the hondas reliability is really great but lack of mainteninence can jepordize any vehicles reliability so make sure the rad was replaced and not repaired an average rad is 100-200 dollars depending on make and model ask for receipts too and old parts

[Mnemonic]

Originally Posted by wiseguy01

well for sure do you know that the rad was replaced or did they try to put sop leak in the trans if so then that would happen again the stop leak does not work also the hondas reliability is really great but lack of mainteninence can jepordize any vehicles reliability so make sure the rad was replaced and not repaired an average rad is 100-200 dollars depending on make and model ask for receipts too and old parts

Well, my mechanic told me it was replaced. The dealers mechanic is the one who replaced it though. I trust my guy, but at this point i dont know who to trust anymore. this is almost $2.5k in the hole in repairs now.

[wiseguy01]

i would ask for old parts if rad is clear then maybe deeper prob is hidden

[StealthSonic]

It's hard to say, sometimes most reliable car can be your worst nightmare. Usually it's the previous owner that abused it.

Anyway, does your fan comes on after 5 mins of idleing? Your engine oil is leaking somewhere really bad just like mine, every 2 weeks I have to put in 1-2 qts. I don't get smoke and I have a clean antifreeze.

My friend's 03 pontiac grand-am was running fine until the heater hose burst and the car got over heated. It never run the same again even after the hose was repaired. He ended up replacing the ECU and the problem went away.