Firstly, I apologize if this is in the wrong place, I lurked the stickies but didnt see anything pertaining to my problem. On that note...

Be gentle, I'm a novice
I want to start by saying i know next to notging about cars. Recently (Tuesday, actually) I purchased a used 2000 Accord, 158,000 miles. Less than 24 hours after completing the deal, I noticed something that didnt spring up during the test drive. After driving for 10-20 minutes, I'm noticing a mild coolant leak under my car and seeing steam coming from under the hood. After further inspection I noticed some coolant splash near the radiator cap, so I figured the cap had degraded and I replaced it. The problem pursists. Here's what I know: the IS coolant in the line and the radiator fans do kick on every five minutes or so. The dashboard thermometer sits at just under half way after about five minutes.

Can anyone offer any ideas or diagnosis reguarding my problem? Do I need to replace my thermostat? My thanks in advance

 

This is more of a General Tech. question, so I'll move it to that board. More people probably read it there anyway.

You need to really find the leak location. A bad radiator cap seems like a good place to check first. If you can get it hot & then look & find exactly where its leaking, great.

A pressure tester can help, by pressurizing the system cold. The coolant doesn't evaporate as soon as it leaks.

Check the small hose going over to the overflow reservoir. That isn't pressurized, but if it leaks that can cause a puddle of coolant. More importantly when the engine cools off, the radiator sucks air back in (instead of sucking coolant back in).

Honda's really don't like to have air pockets inside the cooling system. That can even cause strange things like surging idle.

ps
I just looked up and I think the 2000 SE only comes as 4-cylinder, automatic, 4-door. Normally you need to tell us that kind of stuff.