1995 Honda Accord boils over

My daughter owns a 1995 Accord with about 125K on it and a new timing
belt and water pump. The car was running fine for several months after
purchase when it suddenly got hot and boiled over. She had the
thermostat replaced and that wasn't the issue. Here's what I know: It
starts and runs normally, it heats up to normal operating temperature
at idle and will happily stay there all day. With the cap off, the
water level will come up and overflow the filler neck and if i
accelerate the engine, the water will pull out of the neck into the
system. Water does seem to move through the system and with the heater
on, I get heat in the cab...lots of it. With the heater off and full
cold with A/C on, temp remains the same and the cooling fans come on.
The fans will run after I shut it off. If I drive it a short distance
it is happy enough but (if the car is warmed up) after about 1/2 a
mile, the gauge will jump to the halfway point and then climb. I can
turn the heater on full bore and get it to cool some but it won't be
happy for long. If I pull over and let it idle, it returns to normal
temp.
I have bled the system according to the Service Manual for the car. I
have verified as best I can that there are no holes in the system and
I see no leaks.
When the engine warmed up, it looked like it was burping some air out,
but the bubbles were random and they were not smoky. I see no steady
stream of bubbles in the coolant as it passes through the radiator,
but when the system is closed and it gets warm the behavior is that of
an old car boiling over. There is a lot of action in the overflow tank
and it begins to fill and bubble violently.
I am out of options. I am getting conflicting symptoms as to whether
or not it is a failed head gasket and I am not sure if the cooling
fans are working while it is just running down the road since my wife
won't let me strap one of my boys to the hood while I drive it to look
and listen.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

On Apr 29, 7:41 pm, lewis... (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you need a new radiator to me..
I'm not so sure about the head gasket..
Maybe, but I still think your radiator is about
shot. A leaky head gasket will not cause all
the symtoms you have. IE: overheating...
The only way a head gasket causes overheating
is when it finally loses it's coolant.. If it's still fairly
full when doing this, I doubt the gasket is the problem.
Most of your problems sound like a bad radiator.
Thats why it overheated in the first place I bet.
MK

<nm5k (AT) wt (DOT) net> wrote

On Apr 29, 7:41 pm, lewis... (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you need a new radiator to me..
I'm not so sure about the head gasket..
Maybe, but I still think your radiator is about
shot. A leaky head gasket will not cause all
the symtoms you have. IE: overheating...
The only way a head gasket causes overheating
is when it finally loses it's coolant.. If it's still fairly
full when doing this, I doubt the gasket is the problem.
Most of your problems sound like a bad radiator.
Thats why it overheated in the first place I bet.
MK



A fairly common symptom of head gasket trouble is wild fluctuation of engine

temp. I don't know why that is, but it's seen all the time. I rely pretty
heavily on the shadetree test for head gasket trouble: with the engine cold,
remove the radiator cap. Start the engine and pinch off the tube from the
radiator neck to the reservoir. Place the palm of the other hand over the
radiator neck for a few seconds. If you feel a steadily rising pressure or
(worse) fluctuations as the engine turns, the head gasket is very likely
bad. This test has some false negatives - the head gasket may not leak when
cold idling - but I haven't seen a false positive. The most widely accepted
test is a chemical test for combustion products in the coolant.

I often focus my attention in overheating cases based on the way the system
behaves. Bad radiators usually show up as a slow buildup of heat that never
wants to go away. Air flow or water flow problems show up at idle but the
temperature drops rapidly when the car gets moving; water flow problems
return to normal within seconds while air flow problems take a minute or
two.

It really doesn't matter if the fans are running while driving; air flow
should be fine then. I hate to say it, but I fear for your head gasket at
this stage. Overheating while going down the road and cooling down when you
pull over and idle make that a prime suspect.

Mike

nm5k (AT) wt (DOT) net wrote in
news:1177918618.713043.30410 (AT) c35g2000hsg (DOT) googlegroups.com:

On Apr 29, 7:41 pm, lewis... (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you need a new radiator to me..
I'm not so sure about the head gasket..
Maybe, but I still think your radiator is about
shot. A leaky head gasket will not cause all
the symtoms you have. IE: overheating...
The only way a head gasket causes overheating
is when it finally loses it's coolant.. If it's still fairly
full when doing this, I doubt the gasket is the problem.
Most of your problems sound like a bad radiator.
Thats why it overheated in the first place I bet.
MK

bubbles in the coolant reduces it's heat carrying ability.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Radiator my be irreversibly clogged and need to be replaced.
I havd to do it once after about 150K miles.

Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク wrote:

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:24:24 -0700, jim beam wrote:

snip

the fans don't work on the highway - airflow from car movement exceeds
airflow from fan rotation by a country mile. if you were boiling, you had
airflow restriction, thermostat problems or a gasket problem.


LOL! You come to Mass on a hot July day, and I'll take you for a ride. At
70MPH on the highway, when the fan kicks in it sounds like a B-17 trying
to pass you! Oh, yeah, the fan kicks in! (It's attached to the
crankshaft...not electric, and uses a heat-sensitive oil that thickens
when hot and causes the fan to be driven, rather than just 'feathering'.)

This is new to me... A fan attached to the crankshaft??? What is this
vehicle?

That said, if you're going 70 mph and it (thermostatic clutch) causes
the fan to come on, most likely you either have too little radiator or
its plugged.

JT

Grumpy AuContraire <Grumpy (AT) ExtraGrumpyville (DOT) com> wrote in
news:VGKZh.94257$VU4.23174 (AT) bgtnsc05-news (DOT) ops.worldnet.att.net:

Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク wrote:

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:24:24 -0700, jim beam wrote:



snip


the fans don't work on the highway - airflow from car movement
exceeds airflow from fan rotation by a country mile. if you were
boiling, you had airflow restriction, thermostat problems or a gasket
problem.


LOL! You come to Mass on a hot July day, and I'll take you for a
ride. At 70MPH on the highway, when the fan kicks in it sounds like a
B-17 trying to pass you! Oh, yeah, the fan kicks in! (It's attached
to the crankshaft...not electric, and uses a heat-sensitive oil that
thickens when hot and causes the fan to be driven, rather than just
'feathering'.)



This is new to me... A fan attached to the crankshaft??? What is
this vehicle?

Not a Honda.

That said, if you're going 70 mph and it (thermostatic clutch) causes
the fan to come on, most likely you either have too little radiator or
its plugged.

JT

No kidding.When the thermostat on my Integra stuck open,just going 20 mph
would cool the motor down to the C line(well below normal),In hot Central
Florida,in the summer.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Jim Yanik wrote:

Grumpy AuContraire <Grumpy (AT) ExtraGrumpyville (DOT) com> wrote in
news:VGKZh.94257$VU4.23174 (AT) bgtnsc05-news (DOT) ops.worldnet.att.net:



Hachiroku ãƒ�ãƒ�ãƒ*ク wrote:


On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:24:24 -0700, jim beam wrote:



snip


the fans don't work on the highway - airflow from car movement
exceeds airflow from fan rotation by a country mile. if you were
boiling, you had airflow restriction, thermostat problems or a gasket
problem.


LOL! You come to Mass on a hot July day, and I'll take you for a
ride. At 70MPH on the highway, when the fan kicks in it sounds like a
B-17 trying to pass you! Oh, yeah, the fan kicks in! (It's attached
to the crankshaft...not electric, and uses a heat-sensitive oil that
thickens when hot and causes the fan to be driven, rather than just
'feathering'.)



This is new to me... A fan attached to the crankshaft??? What is
this vehicle?


Not a Honda.

That said, if you're going 70 mph and it (thermostatic clutch) causes
the fan to come on, most likely you either have too little radiator or
its plugged.

JT





No kidding.When the thermostat on my Integra stuck open,just going 20 mph
would cool the motor down to the C line(well below normal),In hot Central
Florida,in the summer.

....which is a whole lot better than it stickin' closed!

<G>

JT

Hachiroku ÇgÇYǧÇG wrote:

'88 Supra...the Poster Child for Blown Head Gaskets...

I know that version of Supra had head gasket issues. But surely the real
poster child for blown head gaskets would be a Dodge Neon, wouldn't it? :-)

High Tech Misfit wrote:

Hachiroku ÇgÇYǧÇG wrote:


'88 Supra...the Poster Child for Blown Head Gaskets...


I know that version of Supra had head gasket issues. But surely the real
poster child for blown head gaskets would be a Dodge Neon, wouldn't it? :-)

Or Taurus' with the 3.8 engine. I can tell a long tale of woe regarding
one of those POS...

JT