How does car run when its about to overheat or overheating.

jayhonda1981

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How does car run when its about to overheat or overheating. I posted previously about low power when aircon is on but i noticed it runs like that when car is hot. (Not sure its overheating since temp gauge shows on middle but possible temp gauge is faulty). When engine is cold, it runs like a champ.

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Joshfish9182

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That's weird that it runs better cold, most cars are the other way around.

The two most common reasons for a car overheating are a) a coolant leak and b) a failing water pump. It could also be an obstruction somewhere in your coolant system.

If your car is leaking coolant you should see smoke (steam technically) as it drops onto your headers and evaporates. If your water pump is failing it will make some sort of bad noise(groaning, whining, squealing, grinding) and it will come from whichever side of the engine the belts are on.

As for driveability, the coolant system has no effect on how the car runs until the car starts to run really really hot. I would say look for smoke and get your temp gauge fixed

Give some info on your car and maybe I can help. How many miles? Has the radiator/coolant hoses/water pump/thermostat been replaced?

I'll tell you this much: if you have the radiator that the car was built with past 150k or so you're playing Russian roulette with your car and that POS needs replacement immediately. You can get an OEM one from CARid for real cheap and the install isn't as hard as it seems. Hope this helps!
 

SupraGuy

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Well, a coolant leak will mean that you have less coolant in your system, which should be somewhat obvious.

A stuck thermostat, blockage in the radiator, damage/failure of the water pump or blocked airflow to the radiator are the most likely if you aren't losing coolant. It's probably worth checking the thermostat, and checking that your radiator gets more or less uniformly hot. (An IR thermometer scanning across the radiator as it warms up will tell you if you are getting good flow through the whole radiator surface.)

That said, if you aren't losing coolant at all, it's unlikely that the engine is actually overheating.

Most EFI systems advance timing when the engine is cold, which could result in the perception of more power. A/C does suck power from the crank, so no surprise that there's less power when it's on.

On the note of timing, SOMETIMES when the engine is running over temperature, particularly when there's a cooling issue at the cylinder head, the EFI can pull timing because it's dealing with preignition due to high combustion chamber temperatures. This will result in a "lame duck" feeling for engine performance, really crappy gas mileage, and sluggish response. This is a pretty specific condition though, and not common.

It's probably worth pulling the spark plugs to see their condition, as well as a check of the distributor cap and rotor.
 

jayhonda1981

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That's weird that it runs better cold, most cars are the other way around.

The two most common reasons for a car overheating are a) a coolant leak and b) a failing water pump. It could also be an obstruction somewhere in your coolant system.

If your car is leaking coolant you should see smoke (steam technically) as it drops onto your headers and evaporates. If your water pump is failing it will make some sort of bad noise(groaning, whining, squealing, grinding) and it will come from whichever side of the engine the belts are on.

As for driveability, the coolant system has no effect on how the car runs until the car starts to run really really hot. I would say look for smoke and get your temp gauge fixed

Give some info on your car and maybe I can help. How many miles? Has the radiator/coolant hoses/water pump/thermostat been replaced?

I'll tell you this much: if you have the radiator that the car was built with past 150k or so you're playing Russian roulette with your car and that POS needs replacement immediately. You can get an OEM one from CARid for real cheap and the install isn't as hard as it seems. Hope this helps!
Its got about 180t kms which is for sure over 100t miles. Seems like its got an original radiator and i should replace it to new one. I will do it this weekends and post update. Thanks ^^

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SupraGuy

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Damnit, CHECK the radiator before replacing it.

On top of all of this, you report that your temperature gauge sits in the middle, so chances are that your engine temperatures are actually perfectly normal! You're going to spend a few hundred dollars on replacing a radiator just because you think that it might help with an issue that it probably isn't even causing? Really? You suspect that the temperature gauge might be bad because it reads normal? Check the instrument first, you can do that with a $15 multimeter! If your gauge is right, then it's not a temperature issue!

A radiator only lasts 100k? You've got to be kidding me! A radiator doesn't fail because mileage. It fails when it gets blocked for water flow or air flow. If it's air flow, a power wash will do it. If it's water flow, then there's something else wrong that needs to be fixed first. It's far more likely that you'll get leaves and trash sucked up between the A/C condenser and the radiator anyway, which you can just clear out by pulling the radiator back from the support. This will result in overheating, which you'll see on the gauge before you notice any other symptoms.

Your problem is more likely to be spark plugs than it is radiator. Do some actual diagnosis before you just start randomly replacing stuff.
 

Joshfish9182

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First off it isn't hundreds of dollars to replace a radiator. It's 2017 and any company with a factory knows how to make them. For these cars they are DIRT cheap. Hundreds of dollars if you order it directly from Honda maybe, but any auto parts store or online store or even eBay has at least 3 options well under $100 that will all work perfectly fine.

Second, yeah technically mileage doesn't kill anything but the fact is you can't see into a radiator to inspect its condition and clear gunk out of it. I said 150k, not 100k. Lots of radiators sh*t the bed well before that point so I guess you could call it preventative maintenance to spend $90 and an hour or so of your time to replace something that could potentially cost a hell of a lot more than that if it does fail.

That said, yeah you should def check your electronics and codes and google around before replacing stuff so you don't spend money you don't need to.
 
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jayhonda1981

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Thanks supraguy and joshfish. I replaced sparkplugs to new and its same. Previous owner used water instead of coolant. Its typical thing that mechanics do in Philippines. It also destroyed my volvo that way. I found a shop who can pullout radiator and clean it up. Cars and parts costs 3times more. 2000 accord costs around 6-7000 US dollars. I will check gauges are ok or not also.

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Joshfish9182

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My bad I didn't realize that. Picked my ol' girl up for $350. If it'll be expensive to make repairs then you definitely want to check the systems first obv

If your think it's just running weird when it's warm try and find a friend with your same car or even test drive one at a used car dealership because it could be all in your head.

I find that most car guys hear a new noise or feel a vibration or smell something and start panicking like "uh oh is that my head gasket? Did my timing belt just go? Did I just spin a bearing?"

As for running your cooling system with water-- don't. If anything gonna cause an issue it's that, antifreeze prevents rust and corrosion as well as freezing. Without any in there you're doing some damage to your car in the long run and if it DOES end up overheating it will be baaaaad if you only have water in your system. I'd go correct that asap.
 

Blazinqwickly

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First off, running pure water is a great way to rust out and ruin your cooling system, there is a reason to use coolant that has anti corrosion. If you want to run straight water then you need to use something like water wetter so that everything is still protected in your system.
I've pulled apart motors that ran straight water and what a night mare, the rear water pipes normally pack with rust and the fins on the water pump you can only imagine.

You made a post before about this and said you dident even have a thermostat in the car... It sounds like you really need to go over this car and put it back to where it was originally, for 20 bucks you can buy a manual that can tell you just about everything you need to know about these cars and motors. Right now, that sounds like the best investment you can make to help yourself.
 

jayhonda1981

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This weekend i will pull few things apart to correct it. Depressing....lol

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