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I have been doing a lot of work on my 1987 Accord LX (141,141 miles) over the winter but it’s been up on jack stands the entire time and the work is very slow as I’m concentrating on my last semester of college. I have only started it three times in the past four months or so.
Two starts ago I left the car for two minutes to get a tire gauge and when I came back the engine looked like it was about to explode with a massive cloud of steam and coolant spewing everywhere. I ran through it and managed to turn it off in time. I checked the temperate gauge with the key half turned (for power) and it was still in the cool area when I expected it to be well into the upper part indicating a hot engine. Obviously it was very hot with the coolant boiling up and then hitting the engine and turning into instant-steam.
This was very odd since I test drove the car before buying it, I drove it home from Long Island to central NJ, and drove it around the block a few times since the purchase, and there was never any cooling issues. I proceeded to look for leaks and couldn’t find any. I replaced the upper radiator hose, used two new spring clamps, and also replaced the thermostat and thermostat gasket since I had the coolant system opened up anyway.
Since then I’ve only started it twice. Last time it started up, I waited ten minutes, and nothing happened. I noticed the temperature gauge didn’t budge during that time, but I figured this issue was fixed since it created a huge steam cloud in less than ten minutes before and I was in a rush to get somewhere during this last test.
Today, I finally finished all four brakes and went to start it up to bleed the brakes and within two minutes it begins steaming/leaking coolant out of the radiator cap. I turned it off and due to the fact I had worked on it all day and it was getting dark soon, I gave up for the day. Tomorrow I’m going to the NYC auto show, but my uncle and I will work on again on Sunday (he doesn’t have any auto mechanic experience either). I’m personally stumped but I’m hoping an experienced tech can look at these symptoms and instantly know where to go with it.
You guys have been great helping me in the past, so as always, i truly appreciate your time and expertise and hopefully someday I learn enough to give back to this community and offer my own advise. Until then, I’m begging for help. 🙂
Itemized notes in case this helps clarify the situation:
– Three car starts ago, a huge steam cloud developed within five minutes of starting, the temp. gauge showed low temp.
– During testing I didn’t see any visible coolant leak, but I also forget to check and see if the fans started up during the last successful start (the one out of three without steam).
– Given the two minute overheat time, I imagine even a failed fan wouldn’t result in a steam cloud so quickly?
– I also assume the radiator cap isn’t the culprit as the car shouldn’t overheat even without a radiator cap in two minutes.
– I tried to pressure test the coolant system but even with a properly fitting adapter I simply couldn’t get any pressure to build up. The needle didn’t budge. I assume if this was due to a leak, at least A LITTLE pressure would build up and then dissipate quickly versus no pressure at all?
– Replaced upper radiator hose and spring clamps.
– Replaced thermostat and gasket.
– Flushed most of the coolant and refilled it to the top of the radiator.
– Also filled the coolant overflow to the indicated line.
– The odd thing is, to the best of my knowledge, I haven’t touched this coolant system between the time the car drove home 50 miles without error and the time the first overheat occurred.
– I’m a learning amateur; this is the first car I’ve ever done any work on and I’ve had it since July.
– Given the temp. gauge behavior, I assume it’s likely a dead gauge?
– Over the next few months I’m extremely busy as I graduate, have a wedding to attend, taking a motorcycle class, and have to study for the CPA exam full-time.
– Without a clear diagnosis here, I hate to say it but it may be time to just hand it over to a pro and get this done quickly so I can finally enjoy this car (I love driving a manual and this is a surprisingly fun car to drive for some reason). I did a laundry list of repairs and tune up items myself but I’ve only driven it about 60 miles since July. It may just be time to give up on this one and learn more auto repair later on.
Also, I do know about Eric’s overheating diagnosis video and I will be re-watching it and trying to follow it prior to Sunday, but I’m sincerely hoping these symptoms jump out at someone and result in pinpointing the likely failure point to cut out diagnosis time.
Thank you!
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Have you watched Eric’s video on burping the cooling system? I would start with that.
Was that two minutes after a cold start? Steaming over within two minutes of a cold start is a red flag that you may have a head gasket leak. In that situation the pressure rises much more quickly because of pressure from exhaust gasses, and at first the coolant may not even be very hot. You could test for that with a little tester kit looking for exhaust gasses in the cooling system. When you start the engine I would feel the upper radiator hose to look for early excessive pressure in the upper hose. I guess there are other possibilities, maybe trapped air or a bad water pump. Sometimes trapped air gives spurious readings from the coolant temp sensor, and trapped air can interfere with pump action. But I am a little worried that the first overheat may have caused a head gasket failure.
My car was overheating a while driving on the hwy. but because of a bad sensor the gauge didn’t show it, later I fiqure out that it was because of a bad themstat, a crack in the lip of throttle body. I replace this. My point is that a sensor will make look Like not overheating. Hope this helps.
Check your oil to see if any coolant in it, milky color fluid on the cap. Maybe the water pump is toast.
Yes, the steam cloud was about two minutes after a completely cold start.
Just an update: I already had the exhaust gas/radiator test kit, so I dug it out of the closet and the results were negative. The test liquid remained blue. Then I performed the backup test of of breathing into my hand and sucking up the exhaled breath and the test liquid turned color, so it looks like it was all in order and there’s just no exhaust gasses in the radiator.
Also, the coolant is not milky or cloudy.
I guess I’ll just start from the beginning and go from there (Eric’s video). I was hoping for that magic tip where someone has these exact conditions and they could tell me what was the most likely culprit. Is there any great method to test a water pump?
Thanks!
Had a friend with an overheating car which would blow the coolant out of the resivoir tank within a short time of running the motor. It turned out to be a cracked block. Once the motor warmed up enough to allow the thermostat to open, all that pressure forced the coolant back out of the block into the resivoir tank and would actually pop the resivoir tank lid.
And there were no signs of water in the oil which would indicate a crack in the cooling jacket of the cylinder. Sorry, but from th OP’s description, I’m going with a cracked block or if he’s lucky a head gaskt. You need to find a mechanic who can run a leak-down test by pressuring the cylinders one by one with compressed air while watching for bubbles in the radiator.
Super heated coolant hot enough to burn a hole in a resivoir tank can only be caused by combustion gasses escaping into the cooling jacket of the cylinder with a crack in it.
The root cause was most likely the thermostat freezing up, once that happens things go downhill pretty fast if it’s not resolved. The termostat regulates the coolant flowing out of the engine block into the radiator, when that happens the pressure of the overheated coolant inside the block builds up looking for a way to escape (caused the freeze plug to pop out or leak) the increased pressure and resistence put a huge strain on the waterpump causing it to leak/fail.
Test the new tstat by boiling water and putting it in to make sure it opens. Also if u have a tiny leak in the raditor( steaming) pour black pepper will seal it. A few tricks a old mechanic show me.Hope it helps.
Well, you guys won’t believe this one.
I forgot to mention my battery also died, but I thought nothing of it because I haven’t started the car in months and I think there’s a small power drain on the power lock system as I hear them cycle (without actually unlocking/locking) while walking by the car occasionally. I’ll be looking into that soon once the more major issues are fixed.
Anyway, I was going to school in about 10 minutes and I wanted to see if the car is charging properly using a float charger I purchased for $19. Then I see it. There’s a broken belt just handing there right by the smallest belt. It’s the alternator belt.
– Battery went dead.
– Car overheating within a few minutes of starting.The alternator belt powers the alternator obviously, but also the water pump.
I feel like shit wasting your time when such an obvious problem wasn’t noticed.
Is there any potential secondary damage from the belt being broken and the car running? The really weird thing is the belts on this car (including timing belt) were changed a few thousand miles ago at most and the belt is torn unevenly but it does in fact look and feel like a brand new Dayco branded belt.
Thanks as always!
I was able to work on this over the weekend. In order to install the new alternator belt, I have to take off the other two belts (power steering pump belt and A/C compressor belt).
I have the first belt off (power steering) and I’m trying to get the A/C compressor belt off now. I realize this is a very specific question, but I’m struggling with finding the correct A/C compressor pivot bolt to loosen up in order to begin working on the A/C compressor tension rod.
These older Honda’s don’t have the modern serpentine belt tension setup where you stick in the male 3/8″ drive (or serpentine belt breaker bar tool) and release tension on the belt. They use a 10mm 5-sided hex rod threaded into a bracket; you turn the hex rod to release tension. But first, you must loosen up pivot bolts before releasing tension using the adjustment hex rod.
After looking over the area where it should be, my best guess is that it’s the 14mm bolt with the head facing towards the opposite side of the car (pointing towards the battery), right next to the oil dipstick tube and oxygen sensor. Normally I’d simply loosen it up and see if it’s the right bolt, but I’ve struggled getting this bolt out due to A/C lines going into the compressor blocking the movement of my ratchet and wrenches and its rusted up. I’ve already removed the oxygen sensor, but I simply ran out of daylight before I could try more methods to remove the bolt. If I could work on this anytime soon, I’d just keep trying, but since I don’t have enough free time for the next several days, I wanted to post here and see if I hit the bolt jackpot on the forums. 😀
I found one video on YouTube that helps with this job, but the one pivot bolt I’m having trouble with is the bolt in the video where the camera didn’t really pick it up (at least I can’t tell which bolt it is). I sent a message to the video producer, but he doesn’t have that car anymore to check for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcsRBtn0iHQ – Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qSTfdzeTqE – Part 2Video 2 at 0:20 is the bolt I can’t figure out location wise due to the shadow/zoom/focus of the camera.
Here are pictures of the bolt in question. I’ve tried every ratchet, wrench, extension, universal joint, and pry bar I have to try and get some leverage to loosen it up. I don’t have any air/power tools such as an air ratchet to use.
The general area: http://i.imgur.com/qtNIMOC.jpg
The tube in the image below is the oil dip stick tube; you can see the dip stick handle in the picture above for a good reference.
Closest: http://i.imgur.com/CvZ2mTT.jpg
This is a smaller version of the image of the bolt pointing out exactly which one I’m talking about: http://i.imgur.com/AMFzY90.jpg
Front-side image of belt area: http://i.imgur.com/rlBKFYW.jpg
[quote=”college man” post=58093]see if this helps.
My alternator belt broke, so in order to get the new one on you must first remove the other two belts (power steering and A/C compressor). So far, I’ve taken on the power steering belt but I’m stuck removing the A/C compressor belt.
The link you posted is for the alternator belt. I’m confident I’ll have no issue with this repair once I get past confirming the bolt I need to loosen for the A/C compressor belt removal, or if I am looking at the right bolt, figuring out how to break it loose without air tools and only a few inches of clearance in any direction.
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