Hey guys, I know this is a little long but please help me.. I am a so far disappointed new owner of a 1999 black 2.3 cl. I bought the cl about 3K miles ago and I think that I might have a blown headgasket. See, the temp gauge started to run hot about 2500 miles ago and when i checked the coolant level it was low, so I added some. The car would run fine for about a week and then the temp gauge would run hot again. I changed the thermostat but that has seemed not to help at all. Everytime the car runs hot, I know that I have to add some coolant. I am thinking that it could be a blown headgasket, but no white smoke comes out the exhaust and the exhaust tip is also dry. There are no signs of oil in the coolant, no signs of coolant in the oil, its not leaking fluid, and both fans work. I was thinking that it might be the temp sensor, but I could not see how that would cause me to be losing fluid. Yesturday, the car started to run hot, so I added some fluid, not to the overflow bottle because that was full, but to the radiator. I figured that the car would be fine for a week, but that night the car started to overheat. The lady that I bought the car from gave me all the recipents from acura because that is where she always had the car serviced. One the latest recipents said that they replaced the radiator already a couple of months ago and now there is a coolant lose. It said that they pressure tested it and there were no leaks found. What should I do??? any ideas on what it could be????

 

Well one way to check is with one of those optical type thermomitors where you just point it at the engine. Check it with the gauge saying medium temp and with it saying its in the warmer zone, and see if there is a difference.

Another mechanicle failure possibility may be the water pump. Thats all that a knows.

 

Brush a bit of liquid detergent around the headgasket seal line and see if it blows bubbles (no kidding) - I've had 2 headgaskets blow (not on a CL however) and they did result in oveheating, loss of power and a strange Pfffting noise on acceleration (almost sounds like tappets on a pushrod engine). Hope you have a good mechanic to help get the definitive answer.

 

It could be a problem with your overflow tank. The tank should fill as the engine gets hot but the radiator should suck some of the overflow back in as the engine cools.

 

if you have less than 50000 miles go to the dealer because you have a 5 year 50000mi warranty.