alexh1266

Hmmm so if it were to fail the part to blame would be the fan motor if its not the sensor correct?

alexh1266

Turns out the ps pump was fine, and no rebuilding was necessary. Although I learned its extremely cheap to do so if I ever needed to. turns out my problem was the tech installed the ps hose bracket on the wrong part of the rear valve cover thingy, so it was rubbing against the strut bar causing a vibration noise that would also intrude into the cabin.

New rad hoses, bypass hoses, and heater hoses installed along with a new thermostat and fan temp sensor. I noticed that my driver side fan actually works on its own now, and more often.

Unfortunately, none of this fixes the overheating problem, even with the new water pump. I've run out of ideas on what to replace next. So I guess I'll continue to live with this problem. It very rarely occurs, mostly when its 100+ degrees outside and the car if put under full load.

I'll just keep an eye on oil and antifreeze levels for now see if one evaporates somehow, because there are def no leaks.

QUESTION: If this were a bad head gasket, wouldn't my car be overheating all the time?
Their is no loss of performance that is noticeable.

For now I'll keep driving it, as it doesn't over heat in normal driving conditions. Currently has 190k and going to try to get it to 250k+ miles, hoping for more though, until I can decide what I want to do with the car or buy a new one.

Currently thinking about new engine in the future, but if that happens its going to have to be a type s engine, with low miles.

(also on a side note: ballast was replaced and warrantied with a new one, lucky me I had my original 1st ballast to turn in. Turns out the ballast isn't the problem because the problem reoccurred. Now I have an extra brand new ballast laying around just in case. Problem isn't the igniter either as I swapped them from L to R and the problem stayed on the same side. This leaves the bulb which sadly is only about 1yr old from XLR8. The light comes on, starts up a little purplish, which lead me to believe it was the ballast in the 1st place, but once it warms up it works fine for a while. It turns off while driving.

Any other brands somebody can recommend other than Kaixen? Or should I just spend the $100 for another pair?)

01tl4tl

prob is likely the module if you are still on stock ballast setup
that silver thing that mounts on rear of headlight housing

how the inside of the radiator look?

alexh1266

Do you mean on the inside of the housing?
I checked the lights to swap those to see if it is a bad bulb, and i noticed that the part that holds the HID light is loose. When i was reinstalling the bulb i noticed a little play and was able to wobble it back and forth a little where as the other side didn't do this. I figure with the vibration from driving, it moves and causes the light to turn off?

I did notice a missing seal that wasn't transferred over from the original headlight to the new one by the high beam, so i moved that over and it helped a tiny bit with the wobbling, but its still noticeable compared to the other headlight.

I couldn't find any screw or bolt to make it tighter or not move as much? can this be fixed or will I need to replace the whole housing again?

alexh1266

As for the radiator, it was flushed twice. And new fluid was added on the last flush just to be safe. This is what it looks like now. Looks a little brownish to me, but i dont know if this is normal? Also with new fluid the reservoir looks fine for now, but the rad looks like it has something in it, its barely noticeable in the pictures below:

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

that can only do so much sometimes a new radiator is easiest



as far as you 01tl4tl.... , i have not seen you mention this yet, but what does it look like between the condenser and radiator OP, is it full of this like "fluffy stuff", if so you need to clean out from between the two

also taking a hose, and hosing out the radiator fins from the back side, can help also, cause again it helps clean out the shit from the radiator and condenser





edit: btw you need a hose clamp on that upper hose, should not seep out like that, and have crusties around it


also i see mentioned about a honda dealer doing the work, then why is the coolant NOT blue then.... just asking

01tl4tl

I meant when the coolant was out of the rad- could you see the metal was shiny and clean in the rows?

when those rows clog...guess what doesnt flow

coolant over 5 years old tends to go acidic- in an aluminum environment =uncool

if the pump is good, the flow rate is getting reduced somewhere,
when its under load it gets hotter,,thats usually bad pump and rad dirty

TLer trash

I'm with fries on this one. Check between the condensor and radiator for stuff. Secondly, radiators lose their ability to dissipate heat with age. Over and above flow, the thin metal "fins" lose their contact with the radiator tubes and the radiator won't dissipate heat. Eventually they fall out. It fits your symptoms perfectly, because at speed you've got lots of air flow, and even a marginal water pump will usually move enough water to keep you from overheating.

01tl4tl

its possible that road crud has clogged the ac condensor and possibly blocking the rad- yes fries, I should have thought of that
BUT
based on everything the OP has said and done- Im going with internal clogging of rad

dc2kid

iTrader: (2)

i switched my sensors also still overheats sometimes when i put the ac i am guessing i need a new rad, i dont think it was changed since 1999 lol

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

ac condensor is not clogged , it would be the radiator itself.... since they always seem to have smaller openings then the condensor, and collect all the fuzzy stuff, compared to the condensor, which like to collect the gravel and such

and a airflow blocked radiator can also cause issues though, cause like the fans are NOT that powerful, when compared to say driving down the highway, and the amount of airflow that goes over the radiator (has alot more force behind it, to get through the debris)
and it's something easy to check too (and fix), so can't hurt to look; but yeah due to a lack of maintenance on the OP's part it seems, i would not be surprised if the radiator is blocked internally either

alexh1266

Indeed. The a/c condenser was cleaned out when all the hoses were changed so thats free of crud.

The radiator was also cleaned of debris, so I'm guessing it as well it could be internally clogged.

I'm going to work on replacing the radiator next, as its going on about 11-12 years of non-stop service. I guess it had a good run.

alexh1266

That hose is brand spankin' new along with the clamp. That crusty looking stuff is actually some type of sealer from what it looks like.

Not officially done at a honda dealer, but done by bro-in-law who is a honda tech. He used his personal supply of fluid, guess it just wasn't blue.

He also saw that I needed new wheel locks as my old key looked like it was about to break at any time. Apparently they get unlimited free wheel locks from the dealer. So he got me two sets of locks, and put 1 on the car.

alexh1266

If this is correct, than this is good info that I did not know

alexh1266

As for the headlight, the part circled below is the part inside the lens that is loose. The headlight is about 3-4 months old. Maybe when I adjusted the light it came loose? But it rocks from front to back and there is obvious play in it. Now, can it be tightened somehow? or would I be better off replacing the whole assembly again? The hid bulb remains on with the car in park, but as soon as there is movement and vibration it will shut off.

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

and by the sound of it, you got the majority of the shit that could potentially block any airflow across the radiator, so yeah the next place would be to replace radiator itself (and it's made even easier, cause yoiu dont' have to deal with any tranny cooler lines either, since they are integarted on the top of the transmission itself

with it being sealer.... okey, it's your car afterall

alexh1266

Any better performing atermarket radiators for 2g TL's? Or should I stick to OEM on this one too?

01tl4tl

ck aftermarket on the internet--bound to be way better prices than dealer!!

call local rad shops, they have new ones, and do cleaning/repairs on most rads

alexh1266

New radiator installed and my problems have went away.
With blue Honda fluid too!

Although its quite a shame all the money that went into in for troubleshooting and replacing things here and there. But all in all I guess my car's happier for having done so.

Thanks for all the help guys, especially 01tl4tl

01tl4tl

you can screw around
or you can believe acurazine- where info is based on thousands of users reports!

alexh1266

Indeed.

01tl4tl

alex
mind doing a brief review of prob and solutions we can use as a new diy overheat troubleshooting thread?

there are several others with similar issue,,rad being suspect after wp etc replaced
and I think it may have something to do with extended years use of coolant-
which goes acidic and eats its aluminum home~
acura says 7 years max on OE coolant (from 2000!) and 5 years after that on replacement coolant
Most aftermarket product says change in max 5 years or less
coolant is cheap, and like most of the TL diys- easy to do once you know how~

01tl4tl

sidenote: this reminds me of buddy with old jeep I tried to troubleshoot -
he installed 3 electric and 2 mechanical fuel pumps- all die in less than 2 miles!!
I suspect fuel line blockage= but he insist all ,,,BUT 1 SECTION ,,,has been replaced
it couldnt possibly be that~

guess what crud was found clogging fuel line,, in the 1 piece not replaced!!
less than a minute running and line blockage starved pump for fuel, caused its overheat failure = I tried to look surprised~
DOH!!!!

01tl4tl

clarification:
the coolant itself isnt the issue in `wearout` as much as the additives in coolant go bad after time, they turn acidic in aluminum = breakdown of aluminum stabilty

ziners in science class care to elaborate?!

alexh1266

Problem: Car Overheating to 3/4ths under high load, including but not limited to; A/C on full blast with high RPMs. Could be climbing hill or just spirited highway driving. No leaks detected, no loss of fluid, or signs of a collapsed/weak hose. Problem unable to be recreated under normal driving, or by a dealer.

You really must pay attention to your temp gauge and notice any slight fluctuation in the gauge. Only happened to me when I was pushing the car to its speed limits on the freeway. NOT SAFE & NOT RECOMMENDED! SPEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Troubleshooting Steps Taken:
1st - Burped radiator (Remove rad cap, start car, heater to full hot, fan on high. Let temp come up and should operate driver fan for 15-60 seconds then it goes off. A few minutes go by and it cycles again. Check fluid level in rad- top off- rev to 2000 and hold there until fan cycles on and off twice, gently reduce rpm and ck level in rad. Now with you outside: bring rpm up to 1800-2000 again and observe the flow rate thru the radiator. Low flow, little change between idle and rev is water pump not putting out at low rpm or clogged hoses. Reduce to idle gently. Install rad cap with engine running, ck res bottle is half full/empty. Check hose inside res cap on tight. No cracks anywhere on its length back to rad. Shut off car. Check both levels in the morning, and top off if as necessary. Overheating)

2nd - Replaced Thermostat (Possibly Sticking again. Had replaced previously only 6k miles before. Overheating continues.)

3rd - Replaced Fan Temp Sensor. (Although, my fans were working on shutdown and not running longer that necessary, I found it peculiar that BOTH fans would run on shut down every time. After sensor was replaced only driver side was running as normal on shut down with the occasional A/C cooling fan if temp was too hot outside. Overheating continues.)

4th - Replaced all radiator hoses including heater and bypass hoses. (11 year old car, I assumed it was ready for all new hoses, which isn't a bad investment either, all hoses were replaced and system burped again, but the overheating continued under full/high load)

5th - Cleaning Up (Visually inspected the A/C condenser and rad for crud built up such as dead bugs, pebbles, trash, etc. There wasn't much to clean so I did what I could. Overheating continues.)

6th - Flushed Coolant Again (it was flushed after the hose replacements, and flushed again a week later. I was able to notice a little bit of metal flakes in the fluid, not really noticeable unless your looking hard. Overheating continues.)

7th - RADIATOR REPLACEMENT. (This is what I believe was my problem all along, but I'll never know for sure as I serviced so many other things in the process. After replacing the radiator my car no longer overheats. When the old rad was replaced it was almost obvious that this thing was bad. This was the orig rad from the factory. It had a good run, 190k miles. Anyways the plastic at the top of the rad had stress marks and wasn't a hard plastic anymore compared to the new rad. With one good squeeze of the old radiator plastic it cracked and crumbled. The old rad was so fragile that I'm led to believe that years of running the same coolant caused it to become acidic and wear down my rad. Although I had flushed it before I guess I just didn't save it in time. I wish I would have replaced the rad 1st to save money, but I went the cheapest route possible in terms of replacing parts.)

FLUSH YOUR COOLANT GUYS! LESSON LEARNED
In case your wondering the Radiator was replaced with an OEM one from the dealer. Although I'm sure that wasn't necessary, I just prefer it this way.

alexh1266

I'm on to bigger and worse problems now. It seems that this car knows when one problem is fixed and wants you to fix something else.

My transmission just started slipping from 1st to 2nd, and from 2nd to 3rd. Although its still drivable, I'm going to get this fixed asap, before I end up stranded somewhere.

I can't really complain I guess as its expected with these cars, and I feel like I got a full life from my transmission.

Currently @ 190xxx miles with the ORIGINAL, yes I said the ORIGINAL transmission! OIL JET kit has also been installed from the very beginning. I know I can get more miles out of the transmission, but I'm the kind of person that likes to fix something right away or it will bother me until it does get fixed.

Was looking @ a 6spd swap but can't afford it. Anyone know a good cheap dealer where I can a new/reman transmission? I basically just have to pay for the part and have my bro-in-law install it for me for about $200 in labor. And since he's certified to do so it will have the 3yr/36k warranty on it

01tl4tl

there are no brand new trans
the oil jet kit has nothing to do with the clutch wearout- 190 you did way better than average
dealer wholesale is 2400!,,dont know how warranty works on `you install`
shops rebuild 2500 w/install maybe 1500-1800 rebuild only

los angeles should have many places with experience, lots of acuras down there

01tl4tl

also many junkyards with odyessy trans for sale,,,better plan overall

01tl4tl

back to the overheat diagnosis

The TL should ALWAYS run 1-2 lines below half --
if it ever goes above that- does anything but stay at the same temp its always run,,stop and fix asap- there is a problem that will only get worse
never above half is the rule!!

alexh1266

Got a dealer quote of 2500 for the trans. They said it might require a new PCM from 400-1200. Is the pcm even necessary? I read somehwere that it changes the trans shifting a little and makes it shift sooner = crappy/less performance.

The dealer will install it for me but with my bro-in-law's discount rate. He said I'm looking @ around 1700-1800 without the pcm. Which isn't bad at all.

alexh1266

I also noticed that before rad replacement temp was 2 ticks below half.
After new rad install temp is now about 1.5-1 ticks below half.

Not exactly the same but still below half.

01tl4tl

pcm is based on cars VIN ,,if its in the list range it needs it

iirc that list can be found at bottem of our diy pages

01tl4tl

make sure the system is fully burped--heater on hot with cabin fan on
rech'k overflow bottle- its caps tube yadayada

as long as its below half---you are good

alexh1266

I couldn't find it, even after searching, and Google. Can you provide a link, I want to be certain that it needs to be replaced, so I don't get screwed over by paying extra for something I don't need.

I will burp the system when I get it back.

Also after new tranny install, how do I go about breaking it in?

01tl4tl

my personal suggestion is to treat it like a new car,,let the many new and used parts get mated togther smoothly
acura dealers say just drive it!

first 500 miles: no redline rpm, no drag or other racing, light to medium throttle- with some test of vtec and pulling thru rpm-shifts to be sure all is well inside

500-1000 miles a bit more medium and aggessive use- if something is going to break this is the time to find out!

1000+ enjoy it!
15kmiles change 3 qts fluid,every 15k for the rest of its newfound life

01tl4tl

a current rebuilt unit from acura- will have the oil jet kit mounted inside the trans case, allowing normal access to the filler hole when needed

01tl4tl

you looked thru the diy list,,the 2nd post in the thread too- bottem of that one is all the vins for recalls and extended warranties- odometer error and I thought it had pcm cars too
If not- see your parts or service manager to have them run the vin- that will tell them

If you go dealer route- take a nice thank you gift of ice creams to the parts dept!
they will take a major hit on the proposed deal

alexh1266

So according to dealer it needs a replacement PCM and it needs a new fuel pressure regulator according to the recall/tsb. Obviously I'm way out of warranty for them to cover it. They also said that the 3/36 warranty won't be honored if I only replace the trans.

The price easily sky-rocketed to about 4500. Needless to say, they won't be getting that kind of money from me.

I'm currently looking into a 6spd swap with the tl-p engine. I know one of richies harnesses will work, i just need to know if i would need to change out the PCM as well on this one, going to use a CL-S trans.

I can probably get this whole AT to MT conversion done for around the same price or cheaper. and it will be more reliable in the long run.

01tl4tl

that figures on the PCM!
and they for sure wont honor a RECALL fuel part??- I dont know all the recalls, only my own car
if its a safety item it often gets 10 years/150
call acura care (need cars vin) 1 800 382 2238x5 and ask about OPEN RECALLS and limits on it

if the dealer told you they wont honor it- you can go to corp an appeal

or just have your guy get a new one and be done with it
have you searched google etc for that part failure?

see the 6 speed swap thread, 3-4 items down list of gen2 threads--by fsttyms1, with prices etc

the Oddy trans is an option being used by some now, better trans and keeps automatic
Depends on your age and physical condition,, shifting/clutching is a lot of wear on your body, stop and go commute sucks,,,your needs change as you age
I remember too many years of that nonsense,

get a bike and (Ca and other states LEGAL) lane `share` is the way to go
I dont need much room from either lane, bike is only 3 feet wide max, freeway lane 12 feet - car 6 feet
(cop told me 2 mini-coppers side by side is `legal` as example, not just bikes!)
Stay in the center of your lane and you are fine, Thank You
Give us on 2 wheels a break!!

I know most ziners are heads up drivers, so please share this info with friends-fans
who drive pickups,, or clueless behind the wheel
~not that I had to educate a certain wife and children how to drive near motorcycles...and semi trucks~~~

01tl4tl

you spoke directly with the service MANAGER?
not a commission pay based service WRITER

if thats your car in avatar= its crying for a 6 speed