Alright I did a search and seen copas thread but didnt seem to find an answer so heres another one with all the details.

Got a 94 accord ex vtec with 160,000 miles on it. Lately the car has been overheating very quickly. I changed the thermostat on sunday, worked good for about 10 min and then it was back to the same of overheating when I was driving. Later that day I drove for a little while, the car was overheating, i pulled in front of my house, opened the hood and in the reservoir, the coolant filled nearly to the top, leaked/splashed everywhere, and was literally boiling. the top hose of the radiator that goes to the engine looked like it was gonna blow up, it was swollen bad. after that I brought it to my mechanic today, he bled the whole system, put another t-stat in, and put a new radiator cap. I got the car back and its still overheating quickly. The water pump I had done in Jan 06 as well as the timing belt, heat guage and hoses. The fans come on when they are supposed to, no problem with the fans at all. Does anybody know what is going on with this cause I can barely drive just to my girlfriends house without it getting near or to the redzone. Thanks in advance.

1

 

blown head gasket. get the motor compression tested

 

Also, are you blowing a lot of white smoke through the tail. Check the oil dipstick and see if you have any extra "oil".

 

have them do a leakage test,,

 

ight thanks for the help on this. Here is the update though. I went to a guy to find out how much a head gasket n all that would cost me and he said $1000 and i was like f*** that. so i brought it to my friends dad, said it wasnt the gasket cause my oil wasnt grey and wasnt blowing out white smoke. we spent a few hours cleaning the radiator, air pressure on the hoses, and other tests and what we came to find out was that the coolant temperature sensor that is near the engine connected with the top hose of the radiator. we tested it with currents and there was nothing going through it, so bought a new one for 37 bucks. Now this helped out hell of a whole lot, the car doesnt even overheat anymore but thing is that the temp will still go to the halfway point and in time will go up to 3/4's and sometimes a lil more and sometimes go down. now the car doesnt overheat at all so obviously that sensor made alot of difference. now is there anything else I should check for to get the temp to stay permanently at one spot??? question is, on the t-stat housing there is another sensor which i really didnt test much but do you think that could be the other part or maybe somethin else?? anyway thanks for the help and hopefully this could be a lil tip if anyone else got this problem.

1

 

Rizzie,, my friend.........A couple of things,,

# 1 ,,Please keep it clean,,

# 2 , I hate to tell you this ,, but you wasted 37 dollars ,, that switch that you replaced at the end of the top radiator hose , is what makes the fans come on after car has been shot off and underhoot temp is higher than the switch settings,( 222 F ), thus it will make fan come on for about 10-15 minutes and than shut off

# 3 ,, the switch by the t-stat housing is what makes the fans come on, while engine is running and coolant temp reaches specified degree,,( 199 F )... if the fans work , that switch is working properly and doing its job

# 4 .you can still have a blown head gasket and no smoke will come out of tail pipe nor coolant might mix with oil..

this car should run at about 1/2 on the gauge when all is working properly,, if temp gauge goes to 3/4 and a bit above you got issues,, do yourself a favor, play it safe and have the shop do a leakage test ..

 

Have you thought about a new rad. cap? I've had a mazda that blew a head gasket, water in oil and white smoke and it never overheated. Well, it did when the water ran out and then blew the gasket in the first place but that's to be expected, but with water in it, it ran cool as always. I don't know if honda's are more pressure sensitive for a working cooling system than the mazda as a leaking headgasket will reduce the pressure as will a bad rad. cap. Did this happen after you did something to it like put a new thermostat in it? Just asking as they are supposed to go in a particular way. I agree the best thing to do is have it pressure tested and a compression test might be good as well. You might try a new cap to see anyway. I don't know if they cost much but being that old I'd say it's a fair bet it's not in the best working order. I take it your fan does work and turns on when the temp gets warm right? Being that old you might try giving it a good flush treatment as well. Good luck.