Hey, guys. I'm looking for someone in the San Diego area to diagnose what's wrong with my 1994 Accord. I just bought it from my buddy, so I can't tell you much about it. I'm not asking for a handout, here. I'm willing to pay for a correct diagnosis. If that means I take it to a mechanic's shop, so be it. If someone without a shop really knows what in the hell they're doing and wants to swing by and take a gander in order to make some spare cash, that'd be great, too.

If at all possible, I'm looking for someone in the City Heights area. I have yet to plate the car, so I don't want to drive it very far. Not only that, with it running funny, I don't want to venture too far from home. I'm pretty new to the area, so I don't know who's good and who isn't. That's why I'm asking here. I figure some of you might be able to recommend someone who's good at what they do with the fifth generation Accords. If you know someone who can help and maybe wants to make a little cash, have them drop me a line at jhieb1@hotmail.com.

Thanks, everybody.
Jon

 

What I have done in the past is check with the Better Business Bureau, they're a great start, and can access them on the web. Also ask other Honda owners when you usee them out and about, word of mouth is the best advertising.

 

Okay, guys. I finally got a chance to investigate so I'm going to post what I know. Let me say first off that much of what I'm going to post is going to be second-hand information. I bought the car a short time ago from my friend. He told me it had a problem, but the price I paid is WELL below what that car's worth. It'll be a great car once I figure out what's up.

Okay, here's what my buddy told me: the first thing he said was that he'd noticed that it'd been "running hard" in recent times. I asked him what he meant and the only thing that he said was not running as smooth and a bit louder than usual. I asked how far back, he said not long. But, I should mention that he knows NOTHING about cars and I'm almost certain that no preventive maintenance has been done. I'm sure a tune-up would do it wonders. Anyway, he said that toward the very end, there were an instance where he was driving and it died on him. He said that just before it died, he could tell that it was about to die, but the sound wasn't your typical chugging that a car makes just before it dies. He also told me that after it died, he saw smoke coming out from the passenger side wheel well, but said that it wasn't black smoke. That's when he parked it and decided to get rid of it. He's got a great job now, and he decided that rather than taking it to a mechanic, it was time to get a new car.

That's all he told me. I was going to take it to a mechanic recently, but I kinda figured a few things out. So, I decided to give the forum sights a shot before turning it over to someone else. Who knows... we might be able to figure it out on our own.

Anyway, I had a friend following me to the mechanic, and when we got there I shut her down. He asked me if everything went all right, and I told him that it was fine. He asked me if it idled fine, and I said yes and started it to show him. Right after I started it, he told me to shut it down. He noticed that the temperature guage was in the red. Dumbass me missed that one. Luckily, the shop is close to my house, so I couldn't have gone far with it running hot.

So, we opened the hood, and I check the upper and lower radiator hoses for pressure before popping the cap. There was no pressure whatsoever, which led me to believe that it had no water. So, I CAUTIOUSLY opened the radiator cap and took it off. No water or steam spurted out. However, I did notice that the cap was trashed. The innards were broken. So, that led me to believe that I'd solved the mystery of the smoke. I figured that the cap wasn't sealing and allowing the system to pressurize and that the coolant was leaking out from the cap. It took almost two gallons of water and coolant to fill it up, and at first I believed that the cap was to blame.

Anyway, my friend told me that he had another cap at his house, so I went with him over there to get the cap. It was there that I noticed that the overflow reservoir was completely full. So, I took the cap off of that and noticed that there was no hose. The elbow that goes through the cap is broken on the inside, so the hose won't hook onto it anymore. Hell, the hose is probably inside the reservoir. I can't tell, though, because it's full. Evidently, the coolant is shooting in there when it's hot, but can't suck it back when it cools down, cuz there's no hose.

He gave me the new cap, and I put it on. Wait, not new. It was a used cap. Anyway, we got it all full of coolant and fired it up and let it run for a while. There still wasn't any pressure in the upper and lower radiator hoses. These should be pressurized, right. Also, I noticed that while it was running, coolant was bubbling out from the overflow cap (where the missing hose was supposed to be). Is that supposed to do that? Isn't the system supposed to pressurize? It shouldn't allow the pressure to escape out there, should it?

Here's my take on the situation: I think that my buddy was losing coolant, but didn't know it. I think that the car got too hot and started to run ****ty. Do Honda's do that? Would it shut down on him if it got too hot? It seems to be running perfectly for me... well, except for that fact that the cooling system won't pressurize. I didn't notice any sort of 'running hard'. It sounded and ran like a Honda is supposed to, as far as I'm concerned.

All right, let me know what you guys think. Sorry that my information is limited. Like I said, it hasn't done anything to me like what it did to my buddy. I'll post back if it ever does. In the mean time, let me know what you think about this coolant problem.

Thanks for reading
Jon

P.S. I need a new coolant overflow tank cap, if anyone's got one. The car is a 1994 Accord. The one on there is broken.

 

All right, guys... sorry for falling off of the earth. I've been a busy boy over the past few months. I just finished grad school, and the final six weeks was completely consumed by writing my thesis. So, needless to say, the sick Honda was going to have to wait. I'm all done now, so I've finally gotten to the point where I can turn some wrenches on this bitch again. Now I can finally let you know what I figured out.

When I last wrote, I knew nothing about the car. Well, I've jumped in and learned a few things. I don't know why the car died, but I do know why it was 'smoking'. It wasn't actually smoke, though. It was steam. I did some checking and noticed that two things were broken dealing with the cooling system. The first was the radiator cap, which was completely broken on the inside. The other was the coolant overflow cap, which you could no longer connect the bottom hose to anymore. I replaced both of those hoping that I'd cured what ailed her. Took her on a little road trip to see. Turns out I didn't.

Here's what's happening: She's running like a charm, but I'm losing the water/coolant from the cooling system, and near as I can tell, I don't have a visible leak anywhere. There's no water in the oil, either. So, unless I'm missing something, the only culprit left is a head gasket that's leaking the coolant into the combustion chamber, right? I don't think the cooling system will pressurize. Even when it's been running for an extended period of time, I can still squeeze both the upper and lower radiator hoses quite easily. Also, I lose coolant WAY faster when I drive at highway speeds. I don't see any smoke coming out of the tail pipe, but there is a bit of surface rust inside of the outlet pipes on the muffler. Does this sound like a head gasket problem to you guys? How can I be more certain? I don't the tool to pressurize the cooling system, nor do I have a compression tester. Is there a way to figure it out without having either of those? I was thinking that maybe if I pulled the spark plugs, one of those would look quite a bit different. You know, if it was burning more water that fuel. Don't you think?

If anybody can give me some help, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, I'm wondering just how easy of a fix this job is. I've changed them on Mitsubishi two liters before. It doesn't look like it'd be much harder than that. I'm also thinking of a list of things I'll need. Here's what I came up with:

Head Gasket Set
Copper Gasket Spray for Head Gasket
Copper RTV for all other gasket surfaces
Fluids (Oil and Coolant)
3M Roloc disks to clean the gasket surfaces

Of course I'm going to have to get the cylinder head checked to see if the gasket surface needs planing. Can't really think of anything else.

So, let me know what you guys think. Does it should like a blown head gasket to you? How can I check to be certain? Do I need any more parts? Should I replace the Head Bolts, or can they be reused?

Any help that you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a ton
Jon

 

to answer the previous book ( just kidding ) if a car gets hot enough it will idle like crap and will die soon after.

this is what i reccomend you to do............

.first off make sure radiator is full

pressure test system , make sure there are no leaks....if leaks repair as necessary ...if no leaks

start car up and let it idle and let engine get warm , feel the lower radiator hose , it should feel almost as hot as top hose ..
If it feels cold or cool you got a stuck closed t-stat...............

If it feels almost as hot ,, t-stat is opening up ok...

let car reach normal temp and make sure BOTH fans come on,,

if fan (s) do not work diagnose and repair as needed ,,,( let me know i will help you how to diagnose it )

if both fans work.

You need to do a cylinder leakage test , this will determine if there is a blown head gasket ..
also pull out the plugs and see if there is any coolant or rust in the electrode , if so,, definatelly blown head gasker and possably warped head

try these and let us know the results..

 

I'm sure that the thermostat isn't the problem. It only overheats as the coolant gets low. So, it's either leaking it or sending it out through the combustion chamber. Since I can't find a leak for the life of me, I'm suspecting the latter. Does this sound logical?

Thanks
Jon

 

It's been suggested to me that I not use the roloc discs on the gasket surfaces because the block and the head are aluminum. Some people think I'll do more harm than good. What do you guys think on this? And, also, if you don't think I should use them, what should I clean up the gasket surfaces with? Emory cloth and elbow grease?

Thanks
Jon

 

Okay, I think I've got another reason to think that the head gaskets shot. I just did the bubble test. I filled up the radiator and left the cap off and started the car. Sure enough, air bubbles were coming out of the radiator. It wasn't gushing out or anything, but there was a steady stream of good sized bubbles. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes in groups of 4 or 5. There was also a few seconds between bubbles or groups of bubbles. Also, the coolant level was steadily dropping. Kept having to refill it to observe if the bubbles would keep coming.

So, looks like it's a head gasket after all. Looks like I'm going to have to tear into this engine, don't you think?

Thanks for all the advice
Jon

 

based on what you say ,, it sounds like the head gasket.. but since it is such a big job , i would do a leakage test to make sure........
If you were low on coolant , added some and did not bleed the system, it could have air trapped in the cooling systm . like i said,, i'd do a leakage test ..

To clean the block, just scrape the old gasket off, and use some emery cloth,..

 

how do you bleed the system on the Honda?