46 replies to this topic

[othrpinkthng]

This is amazing...

I have 2 cars, and both of them are f*cking up at the same time. Go figure....

My Acura has had a very bad creaking in the front end that has gotten MUCH worse in the last few weeks...
Guess what? I need both R/L lower ball joints.

My CRX is blowing bubbles in the radiator...Hmmm...??(not to mention it's stalling issue)

Well... I'm going to start it up, let it warm up then check the temp on the top and bottom radiator hoses.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...If they are different from each other, then I need to replace (or remove) the thermostat.
and, if they are the same, then it's not a faulting thermostat...but could be a blown, or partially blown head gasket or worse.

frikkin wonderful

The oil doesn't look milky, and the antifreeze doesn't look oily...

Any other things I might be overlooking?

As always...
Thanks you...in advance.

[Captain Regular]

This is amazing...

I have 2 cars, and both of them are f*cking up at the same time. Go figure....

Any other things I might be overlooking?

Thanks you...in advance.

First, I would park your cars a few hundred feet from where they are now, dig at least feet under where they are CURRENTLY parked, and remove whatever ancient artifact or cursed corpse or alien field generator is buried underneath your hapless automobiles.

The coolant issue is getting a bit outside of my personal realm of strong expertise, but if there are bubbles, they should basically be creating "hot spots" at points in the engine, which COULD lead to a blown gasket, I suppose. I would start by draining and refilling the radiator. Not really sure how to check to see if coolant is flowing well, I would probably remove that plastic cap on the hose and let some of it out, then run it with the radiator cap off and engine running and see if the system starts sucking up coolant. I'm not sure. I've had leaky hoses and bad water pumps before, but never a problem this complicated in ANY car I've owned, the CRX included. I fear my personal usefulness in this aspect may be dwindling. You could always just get a garden hose, mate it kinda tightly to that plastic cap, pop your radiator cap off, turn the hose on (engine off) and basically flood the whole system until water is coming out of every possible place, then cap it off. That should kill any bubbles or identify any clogs, I guess. Or at least in the path between that cap and the radiator. Or you could even do that with a bunch of different hoses. As long as it's not freezing cold, water is fine to have in your engine coolant loop. Basically, just pop each coolant hose off, shove a garden hose up every engine orifice, and hose it out. As long as there's liquid in it and no leaks and the arrangement is correct when you seal it back up, should be no harm done. Kinda like cleaning out your carb passages with carb cleaner, except it's your engine block and coolant loop, and instead of carb cleaner, it's a garden hose.
You may want to think about what I say this week, because I've been working 12-hour shifts, and it really sucks and I think my brain is starting to shut down in certain places.

[mkgearhead]

Did you bleed the air out of the cooling system? If it was that low, you need to do that or you'll have air pockets in the system. Make sure you do that before you try to check the thermostat. If there's air behind it, it may not open. Too bad you're so far away. I have head gasket replacement down to about 2 hours.

[kaymo]

uhhh.... yeah


id go ahead and stop listening to him. no offense capitan, but i do believe you ARE beyond your "personal realm of strong expertise"

dont drain your coolant quite yet. first we want to know if you do have a blown headgasket. if you cant run your honda without the coolant cap off, because its spewing everywhere, i would say its blown. that would mean that your compression (the boom boom in your engine) is trying to escape via your radiator. you said your oil isnt milky and your coolant isnt oily... which are both very good signs. if you are getting bubbles from your radiator, then can you watch your coolant level in your radiator disappear? if it keeps pushing air up CONTINUOUSLY then it would get to where you see NO coolant. at this point, add some. keep adding some like you want that sucker full. then locate the coolant bleeder. this is on the engine side of your upper radiator hose. run a hose from that to inside your radiator cap. loosen the bolt to allow bubbles to bleed out thru the hose into the rad, until there are no more bubbles. then tighten it and see what that does.

also replace your thermostat with a HONDA unit, NOTHING ELSE!

[othrpinkthng]

Ok... I've figured a couple of things out.

1. I need a new radiator cap. The one I've been using (after close inspection) has seen better days....the rubber is all cracked and dried out . soooo...that might explain where the coolant went...prolly right out the cap.

2. I need to replace the thermostat. after warming the car up I checked the temp on the top and bottom rad hoses. The top was warm, the bottom was cold. so that leads me to believe the thermostat isn't opening.

3. I really don't think (actually I frikkin' hope) that I DON'T have a blown head gasket.
The reason I don't think so is....uh yeah, well ...The last time I blew a head gasket my car was blowing out white smoke, overheating like crazy, had no power... and the oil and antifreeze became one...pretty much.

So far it hasn't done anything like that.

I took some pics of my bubblin' radiator.
I'll upload them in a few.

The pic's look kinda cool.
The fact that my car is doing this is not cool.

[othrpinkthng]

heres the pics.

[Gimpalot]

Based on what you said with the hoses being different temps, I would:

1-replace the thermostat, as that is the easiest and cheapest fix, if that is the problem.

2-start sourcing a water pump, as that could be the problem as well..

[kaymo]

is that constant? because that would be a blown headgasket...

altho i have heard of many a person driving a blown headgasket honda for 10's of thousands of miles

then again, it would be better to just fix it now before it becomes a bigger problem. go buy a headgasket from honda. you're a girl so you should be able to find a guy to do it for free if not, its actually quite easy to do yourself.

[kaymo]

as i said, you should be able to run your car with the cap off at idle with no overflowing issues... since you have something pushing from the inside it would have to be from the boom boom inside your engine otherwise known as a compression leak.

[othrpinkthng]

Well today I followed the directions in the service manual for purging the air out of the system.

I don't think it made any difference. the coolant ran out of the bleed valve pretty much steady right away.

Then after closing the valve, I started the engine (radiator cap off) and waited to see if I had any bubbles happening.
Well yes I did, but not untill the rpm dropped to about 1500. it started off with just like one bubble, then another, then the level started to rise up till it overflowed. (I did all of this with the heater setting all the way hot)

One thing I noticed, my fan isn't kicking on like it should, and the thermostat finally did open, but I don't think it's opening up all the way. after running the car for about 15 minutes the fan finally kicked on for only like 20 seconds. And the level of the coolant stopped overflowing, and you could see the coolant circulating in the radiator ( it actually looked normal!)

But as soon as the fan kicked off the level started coming back up and bubbling over. It almost looked like the thermostat closed up as soon as the fan started cooling it off

The strange thing is my car stayed running (this was temporary) while the idle stayed at 1500 (too high)
It didn't drop down to a normal idle this whole time (at least 15min)
So I decided to give it a tap on the a accelerator...the car instantly stalled!

Meanwhile, the frikkin fan is still not running (as it should be...the rad was pretty damn hot) so I try starting it up again, same thing, it stalled about 2 seconds later. I did this a few times...then I gave up.

It's out there cooling off as I type, I need to add coolant to it after this little adventure (it bubbled quite a bit of it out)

When it cools off I'll add it, and see what happens next.

I'm sure my rad cap is bad, and I know the fan isn't running like it should...when the fan finally did kick on (for 20 seconds...wow) that was the only time the coolant dropped down, and I could see it flowing in the radiator...

I kind of wonder if I wire the fan to run all the time (while engine is running...of course) if it would have stayed running at a normal idle...hmmm?

either way, the thing stalled as soon as I touched the accelerator.

This totally sucks, and it couldn't happen at a worse time.

The bad idle has turned into ....a bad idle, and other major problems.
I was ready to rip out all the vac hoses, then this coolant issue happened in a big way.

Related? me thinks so.

Where to start? I dunno

[Bubba]

When the bubbles come out of the rad- is the temp gauge reading over halfway?

If your fan relay coolant temp sensor is bad (it is the one that screws into the rad next to the lower hose), the fan won't come on. You can just unplug the two wires from the sensor and temporarily connect them together. This way the fan will always run when you have the key on.

The best way to bleed the air out is to move the heat selector to hot, then remove the upper heater hose where it attaches right behind the thermostat, put your thumb on the fitting that goes to the engine block and make sure coolant comes out of the hose that is coming from the heater core- then put the hose back on and tighten the clamp- you will lose less than half a cup of antifreeze doing it this way.

My head gasket went out about 2 years ago during the summer (87 Civic 1.5). It would run a little hot on the interstate (about 75% up the gauge) and then it would not suck coolant from the recovery bottle back into the rad when it cooled- so the rad was always a little low when the engine was cold. It would also boil over out the recovery bottle a little bit after I shut the engine off. I also had a faint oily sheen on top of the antifreeze when I looked in the rad and the bottom of the rad cap was covered with a little oily slime. I never had any white smoke or coolant in the engine oil.

These engine crush the center of the head gasket between cylinders 2 and 3 when they get a little but hot and that is where the leak happens. My old head gasket was obviously flattened out there.

If you pull the head- get it checked for flatness at a machine shop. It will just blow again if it is warped and you put a new gasket on it.

[othrpinkthng]

Update:

I pulled out the thermostat, It helped...somewhat.

The car still wants to stall, but it takes longed to happen.

What I did notice is that my fan isn't running.

I'm going to do the jumper between the two terminals so it stays on with the key.

This is probably a dumb question, but do I still need to bleed the air out of the system if I don't have a thermostat in there?

And...should I still be seeing any bubbles in the radiator?
I can certainly see that flow of the coolant, so I at least know my waterpump is working.

Any thoughts?

[mkgearhead]

I'd go ahead and bleed it. It only takes a couple minutes. Once all the air is bled out of the system, you shouldn't see any bubbles. If you do, it's probably head gasket time. It's possible to have a blown head gasket and not have coolant mix with the oil and vice versa. They sometimes blow between the water passage and the combustion chamber. If that were the case, I think you'd be seeing steam out the tailpipe though. Then again, when I had my '86 HF, The rings were so bad that I was going through a quart and a half of oil in 300 miles and never saw any smoke. Anyway, keep us updated and good luck with it.

[othrpinkthng]

Yeah, I don't see any smoke/steam from the tail pipe.

The car has a strong engine. it doesn't burn any oil, it doesn't smoke at all.

I put an engine in it a few years ago. I picked up one of those low milage engines from japan.

I'm still looking for the thread that explains which/where the terminals are to jump the fan so it stays on with the key.

I know the fan works, but it isn't running long enough, or often enough.
It use to stay on for a few minutes after I shut the car off (when fully warmed up)

[GeezRX]

Yeah, I don't see any smoke/steam from the tail pipe.

The car has a strong engine. it doesn't burn any oil, it doesn't smoke at all.

I put an engine in it a few years ago. I picked up one of those low milage engines from japan.

I'm still looking for the thread that explains which/where the terminals are to jump the fan so it stays on with the key.

I know the fan works, but it isn't running long enough, or often enough.
It use to stay on for a few minutes after I shut the car off (when fully warmed up)

Civic coolant system diagram Check this link-it is for the Civic but is virtually the same as the CRX- See the THERMOSENSOR shown in the picture at the bottom passenger side of the radiator by the lower hose attachment point? There are two wires attached there- jumper them together. Good luck!

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