YAY! I fixed overheating issue – 1991 Honda Accord

[Josh Robinson]

Last week my CB7 was overheating, and I didn’t notice it until I was driving home from a store run. It’s only a 2.2 mile drive to the store (4.4 miles total). I was about 0.5 miles from home and noticed steam flowing out behind me, not a lot thank goodness. I looked at the temp gauge, and it was near the RED.

I pulled over, and turned on the heat to MAX .. nothing but cool air. FECK. I turned the car off to let it cool down. Steam was puffing out from the front of my hood, and the cooling fan kicked on. After about 5 minutes, the fan turned off, and I turned the key ON. The temp gauge was in the normal range. I started the car, and got myself home.

The next day I used my 92 CB9 to goto Napa to get some 50/50 green coolant, a new thermostat & gasket. I got home and took off the thermostat, and it looked nearly new. About 4 years ago it was replaced & the returning coolant hose from the engine. I squeezed checked the spring, and compared it with the new one .. they both had the same springyness.

I put the thermostat back on, and topped off the coolant & res tank. I started the engine to get it up to operating temp. I left the radiator cap off to bleed out the air. The engine was slowly getting up to temp. This is when I saw what the problem was.

There was coolant leaking from the heater inlet hose from the engine going to the control valve. I hopped into my CB9, went to Napa got a new heater inlet hose, another 50/50 mix of coolant, and Prestone Radiator Super Flush, or summat.

I got home, replaced the heater inlet hose (it was bulging where it connected to the engine, and had a big split). I put in the Prestone Super Flush stuff, and topped off the coolant. Started the car, left the rad cap off to bleed out the air. As it was getting to operating temp, I was squeezing the engine inlet hose to help push out any air, and the return hose. There was quite abit of air bubbles happening, and I was keeping the coolant topped off.

Once it got to operating temp (the fan kicked on), there were no more bubbles showing, and each time I was squeezing the hoses there was also no more bubbles showing. But interestingly, as I was bleeding out the air, squeezing and what not. The green coolant was getting cloudy & darker. This was the Prestone Super Flush doing its work.

I drove it around the block, and YAY it was not overheating. I plan on driving it for a few hours tomorrow (I have some errand to do), and performing a super flush on the system. After I get home, I’ll drain the coolant, and fill it with distilled water, running it thru the system. Drain & repeat until I am happy with how clear/clean the water is after draining.

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[college man]

excellent. 🙂

[Author]

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