Wassup? soo today im coming home from school everything is fine...I stop at subway to get a sandwich I left the car running. I look through the window at my car and see steam coming from the left headlight. turned off the car, and noticed the ground covered with greeen shit (coolant) i pop the hood and the coolant was everywhere. The whole parking lot was a big puddle of coolant and there was none left in the plastic bottle. Soo i called up AAA had the CL towed on a flat bed to my mechanics shop...They said I need to replace thermostat, some kind of module, and something else, and all the hoses. 3 hrs of labor a total of 440.00 am i getting totally raped in the ass? I droped the car off there. He said 340.00 without the hoses but they should have been replaced along time ago anyways. They overnighted 3 parts from acura and left my car inside the garage. Very pissed off today...Anyone know anything about this? Anyone have this happen to them?! He told me my gauge is reading wrong they hooked it up to the comptuer and my gauge is very off and showing low temp when it is really high. He said my fans didn't kick on or something and caused the coolant to boil over.

 

Damn soo now that Dustbuster aint around as much i get no answers anymore??

 

Well I don't know to much about them but the price sounds about right. Being that your from Florida it sounds like a reasonable price, when I brought my '91 Astro van down in October for school in Orlando they charged me $560 for a radiator, 3 hoses, and a thermostat gasket.

 

well there not replacing the radiator though...

 

sounds like a thermostat, was it hot outside, i've overheated but it was due to me going balls out for a good 30-40 minutes in 90 degree weather.

 

ya well they are replacing the thermostat and yes it was 97 outside today like it is everyday

 

yea, you gotta be carefull on those days, it may of just gotten to hot sitting htere not moving. yoru temp gauge didn't read it was hot?

 

Nope...They shop told me they hooked my car up the computer and my gauge is way off it reads cold when its actually hot. Soo i had no idea is we even overheating...errrr this is the last time i leave my caar running just sittin there in the middle of the day

 

Damn, i had this happen but it was in our Winter, you know when it drops below 60 for a few days. All i had to change was the radiator and i was straight. That sucks and would make sense about the hoses though. Good Luck

 

sucks, I have a feeling they all read pretty low, i've only seen mine get above the middle once or twice.

 

mine never goes over 1/3rd... even when i had about 1 liter of oil in there...

 

well it doesn't monitor oil temp, but coolant temp


and yea, mine is usually at about 1/3 too. I'm thinking of hooking up an external gauge just to see if the car really stays that cool.

 

$340 for a thermostat? i got a whole new radiator on my last acura for like $480.

but why would you need a thermostat? if there was coolant everywhere, that would surely indicate a leak (ie, hoses, not a thermostat). if there weren't a leak and it overheated, then yeah, i'd say it was the thermostat.

 

when you over heat the coolant boils and usually goes to a dump tube and out the car

 

When was your last coolant change?

 

well i changed it myself maybe a month or two ago...

 

Sounds like you need a t-stat as the mechanic said. You probably also need a new fan switch. But you need to list all the services for us to agree if that's a fair price or not. T-stat alone will cost around $100 installed.

 

hey sup guys...the shop called me before and told me the car was ready early. I just picked it up and talked to the guy and he said everything is good now and the fans weren't coming on when they were suppose to. Here is everything they charged me for is the pricing fair? and was it all necessary? thanks

thermostat and gasket - 21.00
radiator cooling fan module - 27.00
temperature gauge sending unit - 49.00
overnight shipping for acura parts - 20.00
upper and lower radiator hoses - 42.70
new coolant and hose clamps - 16.50

diagnose faulty fan module, temp, sending unit not accurate - 51.10
labor to replace all parts - 204.40

 

seems fair

 

also just for the hell of it when i got home i checked the radiator fluid and it was just above the MIN line where should it be? I thought close to the max it was just barely over the min line.

 

check for leaks... should be close to max line.

 

well if the car sits all night...in the morning i would see some leakage correct? It would be green right?

 

correct grasshopper...oh, and if the cars hot...if i remember correctly then the fluid will appear lower than when its cold...someone correct me if im wrong

 

you're right. b/c it's actually in the system. that container is just a resevoir.

 

this morning i filled it up to the top MAX line is that ok?

 

if you are leaking coolant you should be alright

 

that makes sense...if im leaking i am in the clear thats good to know is that how it works with oil also? It is ok to leak oil?

 

You are not suposed to fill the resevior to the top but if you are leaking coolant then its good because the readiator will be taking coolant out of the resevoir anyways, if you are leaking oil check your filter and bolt, you might also want to consider using MOA.

 

Moa?

 

I guess i'm not leaking anything no evidence of any leaks under the car when i looked everytime i backed out today.

 

LOL he was joking about the leaking oil and the leaking coolant....

If you got enough coolant and a good mix of water to coolant you should be fine unless you got something else wrong. I would think....

 

^- heheheheh

well i filled it to the max on the plastic tube anyways just to be safe ;-)

 

Yeah, max is fine, Just next time you do the coolant remember to replace the thermostat at the same time, I hate to see a whole engine go beacause of a 15 dollar peice. My dad warped a head on his dad's car that way back in the 80's. And most recently a friend, both bad thermostat's.

 

I did replace the thermostat...

 

You live in FL like me where it never freezes

Water cools better than antifreeze

I run mostly distilled water and about 25% antifreeze

Also I am using redline’s Water Wetter in my cooling system.

Ive never had any problems overheating

 

and check this out
Ive thought about doing this mod before

http://www.acura-cl.com/forums/showt...hermostat+king

 

I kinda have the same problem. but in mine the radiator throws the coolant back into the reserve. That started after I ran over a great dane check to see if your car does that if it does. you might want to check to see if your radiator cap is the right one. but then again. I still have the problem haha

 

time to get the mugen thermostat thingy that scalbert has!