one problem after the next...

[tisguy]

okay my DA's giving me so many problems that it's beginning to suck my wallet dry.
my first problem:
my temperature guage is psycho. when I first turn on the car the needle moves up to about 1/4 the way, but once I hit the freeway, it drops below the C as if the car was off. it usually happens when I drive up to about 4th gear, but then on the streets it would rise back up. My friend's uncle checked the wires to the sensor, and a wire was off, so he replaced the head but it still does it.

the second problem just came up today. I saw smoke or steam coming out of my hood when I got home, and found a big puddle of coolant under it. It was dripping from a pipe, and I'm not sure why.

the area in the circle was where the coolant came from... i checked my radiator and it was almost completely empty, so I refilled that. Any ideas why or how I can temp fix it before I get to my mechanic would be great. I still have my DC4 as back up car so I should be okay commuting.

 

[tonys2teg]

check ya coolant hose 1st and take under hood shots

 

[TegSox]

Your temperature fluxation sounds just like a bad thermostat to me. Hope that it is just the thermostat, it's an easy inexpensive fix.
As far as your leak, you'll have to do some searching around for the source of that. That's an unusual spot for coolant to be dripping from.

 

[tisguy]

yea the leak was pretty weird to me too. I didnt see any noticeable wet spots under the hood, but it actually sizzled on that pipe from the other picture and dripped from there... the radiator was replaced not too long ago, about 8k miles ag, anyways here are some under hood shots that I took:

 

[slikk]

as was mentioned check you hoses. i have had disappearing coolant problems also. just this last weekend i rep[laced most of my water hoses and the problem is now gone.

suggestion:
*Change your thermostat.

*replace all your hoses with genuine honda/acura parts. DONT FORGET TO PURCHASE NEW CLIPS FOR THE HOSES

* refill you cooling system and let the car idle untill hot bleed out air and top off.

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give us some feedback

 

[tisguy]

i think i might've solved one problem: radiator fan is dead, it wasnt spinning at all... and i'm assuming something burst from the pressure causing the coolant to leak... looks like im towing the car to a mechanic this weekend.

 

[g3teg97]

Whenever the needle for the temperature jumps up like that it's the thermostat. Our's just went out on the '88. Don't buy anything other than OEM Honda.

 

[g3teg97]

That would explain why it went done, because it was getting air flow. Good luck on getting it fixed, bro.

 

[tisguy]

okay getting everything done this weekend. looks like the small hoses on the back sprang a leak causing all the sensors to go insane. temperature sensor and the fan switch. I'm getting the small hoses replaced with Honda oem, but I bought a set of the samco hose kit, also replacing the transmission because there's a leak between the shift linkage. Picking up an exedy stage 1 (no money left for flywheel).
tranny- 550
hoses/switch/sensors/radiator fan- 200
clutch- 320
labor-350

after all that... all i can say is my car better not decide not to work again!

 

[tisguy]

yes! i got my car back. ended up spending a bit more for a new distributor... anyways, the car feels a lot faster, but now the rpms dont match the speed in gears i used to have. before my 5th could do 60mph at 3k, but now it only goes up to 50... I still have the same tranny(b18a1) cuz the clutch I got was for the a1. I feel a lot more power in the lower gears now though which is really weird to me. o yea, and I still need to order new engine mounts... my car's idling is too loud for me =(

 

[slikk]

Who sold you the tranny? B18a1 is the block code, the tranny code would be YS1 or S1. you might have a tranny from an B16 engine. :twocents:

 

[1990TeGLs]

my temperture gauge does that to ever since i got my radiator replaced and it also stayed on when i shut the car off so we had to discconect a wire...but i kno my car aint over heating so i could care less about the temp gauge

 

[slikk]

my temperture gauge does that to ever since i got my radiator replaced and it also stayed on when i shut the car off so we had to discconect a wire...but i kno my car aint over heating so i could care less about the temp gauge

i think its normal for 1 of the 2 fans the fan to stay on for about 5 minutes after the car is off. (dont quote me on that)

 

[1990TeGLs]

no mine would never shut off at all it would just keep running and it kept killing my battery

 

[tisguy]

i think i might have the b16 tranny... is that better than the b18s? im planning to go with an ls vtec set up using the b18a block with b16a head, so would that tranny help it? yea im a noob at trannys =/