hey guys, decided to join the acura club, my first not so domestic car. anyways i bought it from an older guy, not elderly just older and has had it for about 5 years and has used it to commute to and from cities about 3 hours away for work on a weekly basis. it now has close to 240k and the guy has done alot of up keep on the car. i bought it last week with a known overheating problem and i have a couple ideas but am looking for feedback. the car has a had a water pump, radiator, cap, flush, and brand new thermostat. all of the above except the thermostat is less then 2 years with less then 70k on the parts with new upper and lower radiator hoses also. the thermostat is brand new. i thought that maybe the guy hadnt bled the system of air and it has partially been true.

the needle would go about 1/8 above half and then swing back to 1/4 above cold when i dropped it into a lower gear and the rpms came up from 13 or 1500 to 2200, so that to me indicates an air bubble around the thermostat so ive been working that out and finally it has stopped doing that. now it slowly creeps from 1/2 to maybe a tad below 3/4 hot without a/c on, and light driving no hills and no crazy traffic. once again if i drop the gear down from 4th to 3rd the needle will go back down to half right away when the rpms spin a bit faster and if i keep it at 2000 or so rpms it stays fine. the coolant is nice and green, no discoloration, reservior is where it should be with hose on snug. no milkyness to the oil either indicating an internal leak.the guy has kept good records of all the maintenance done to the car its self. but i do have a question, i went to oryllies and looked at their chilton manual and one troubleshooting step of overheating is to take a look at the auto belt tensioner. well mine is bad, the bearing is shot and it appears that the spring is worn. the pulley get searing hot and is making a god awful growling/ grinding noise. could that be a problem?

sorry about the long info, just wanted to give a lil background

 

you mean the ac/accessory belt tensioner up top by the alternator?
replace it - thats causing some probs at the least!!- easy diy thru the fender liner

lets start with your guage readings- 1-2 lines below half- at all times - is normal
no variation in reading means all is well

ck driver fan, does it cycle on and off in ~1minute, when at idle a few minutes?
does it run more than 1-2 minutes after engine shutdown? like 5 or 10 minutes?
thats a main fan temp sensor or sensor A.
very common failure and number one or two cause of overheats

burping- heater on hot- cabin fan on
rad cap off, run at idle till fan cycles, top off rad if needed
rpm 2000 and hold until fan cycles on and off
idle again-cycles, cap on partway- 2000 rpm fan cycles
idle- top off- cap on tight- engine off
re'ck levels in rad and res after its cooled- like overnight

passenger side fan operates with ac and when very hot it comes on to help

 

honda thermostat? the TL seems to be picky about that part
and its installed with the line up marks correct?

 

hey there 01tl, read some of your posts while searching, you seem to be an expert in this area. thanx for the replies.

forgot to mention that both fans are hot wired so that they come on when the key is on and seem to be pulling air well but havnt checked them out for drag or play. as for the thermostat, it was replaced recently before i bought the car last week, so i am not sure where or what brand. the radiator cap appears to be oem replacement because it has jap characters on it, not aftermarket brand name. i kinda burbed the system since ive had the car but not so much by the owners manual but i did get air out and took quite a bit to fill the radiator.

 

For what it's worth, every time I've had that symptom, i.e. temperature comes down when you raise rpms, it's been a water pump. I've never seen it on a honda, but it's common on vw's. The impeller slips on the shaft. The impeller can also rust away, if a pump with a stamped steel impeller was installed. Without serious teardown, the only way to check it would be to have it flow tested at a good radiator shop.

 

reading first post again, 70kmiles on a replacement water pump? is that correct?
aftermarket unit could easily have failed now, even an acura pump could have

ck under the pump for signs of coolant leak from the weep hole on bottem of pump.
Its there to tell you if there is an internal shaft seal leak, which means pump failure and may indicate the shaft issue noted in last post

 

with a bad acc. belt tensioner you can get impaired performance of several systems
get that fixed
but there are other issues like why are the fans hotwired
how bad was the overheat prob- seems like someone was still chasing it when you got the car
the increased rpm drops temp points to water pump,,make it spin faster and cooling occurs

I use a lower gear in stop and go traffic just to make the wp spin up when possible~

 

ya roughly 70k on replacement wp. as for the hotwired fans, not sure. could be wiring problem with or fan switched themselves and hotwired for a fast fix. i personally dont mind them being hotwired other then them running excessively and not having prolonged life. so from what you have said 01tl and from what i have seen from searching, is that these cars are finiky with aftermarket brand replacement parts, so what do you recommend. i dont have a honda/ acura dealership in my town so what parts would be recommended to be suitable from these stores:

autozone
napa
oryllie's
car craft
merle's

also, with some of my other domestic cars, it was concidered a cheap but useful upgrade to drop to a lower temp stat, 170 or so. would that be as useful on these cars also since i may be changing the stat again?

on an irrelevant note, my buddies 95 honda accord shat an ignition coil and cost 180 bucks, 2 week wait, and a 2 hour trip to a dealership. his fuel pump shat recently also and has been sitting in my driveway for 4 months because itll cost almost 300 bucks from oryllie's since it is considered to be a "special order" and has to be shipped across country. is that going to be something similar with these cars also?

thanx for all the advise

 

The oe water pump is bullet proof, and not all that expensive. Others I've used on hondas without problem are gmb and aisan. Thermostats, stick with oe.

 

Ive never had problems with aftetmarket products as of yet but havent needed any cooling components besides a radiator fan. I think it all depends on what aftetmarket part youre looking for.

There are many places online to get parts.
Rockauto.com
Acuraoemparts.com and others.
Ebay works too. Got my blower motor and a few other things from there. No problems.

As far as the thermostat, I would definitely stay OE.

 

there are a few dealers on here who are sponsors that give us a price break,
and ship right to your door!
ck the VENDOR list at top of pages
wholesalepartsguy is santa rosa ca acura, tim@ wherever his is now, ? etc
mention azine for special pricing
Look in the Black Market, Sponsored Sales threads to find all of them with various item or package deal postings,
example: WPG has 105 tbelt wp `kit` at $295, a major deal for what they include

tensioner for ac belt- mine is aftermarket from local import parts store, under 100$
our coils are ~50-60 bucks at dealer counter, 45 at local parts store or a sponsor

Our car is not an old school design, and temps are critical
when its running right, the needle stay at 1 or 2 lines below half
NO on the different thermo TEMP

yes on honda thermostat and wp
other parts: rockauto, oreillys, zone

 

k, the timing belt service was done at 168k. my car now has close to 240k so roughly 72k since service, 33k till next 105 service. the previous owner bought the car with 115k roughly in march of 06. he didnt get the timing belt done until oct. of 08 with 168k. since he had the car from 06 till me, he has put roughly 6 g's into the car with the timing belt service, tranny in 06 also, regular services, and tires. on top of the 9000 original selling price when he bought it. i got it at 1200 bucks. i like sellers like the guy i got it from, straight forward and honest with good record keeping.

so at 240k, is there other maintenance issues i should consider. the seller was middle aged guy and used it to commute between cities 3 hours away from eachother once a week, so i really dont think it was rodded too much. the original seller before him was also a middle aged guy. so i think the mechanical side of the motor is still sound, doesnt have any ticking or knocking, definitely gonna sea foam it though and run some slick 50 through the oil and get all the sludge out. i really like this car and hope it doesnt turn into a lemon, has to last me for at least a year.

one last question: i was looking at the DIY timing belt thread and the thermostat he used said 170 but when i looked up on AZ.com the oe recommended temp is 180 and the alternate was 170, thoughts?

so game plan:

check weep hole on wp:
if seeping coolant from weep hole, replace water pump and do timing belt service since i am going to be balls deep into the motor anyways.

double check burbing

pressure check system

analyze exhaust for unburnt fuel particulates to determine head gasket:
if head gasket is bad, replace head gasket with timing belt kit also

new thermostat to eliminate that, simple enough swap

flow test system

how does this look?

 

stay away from slick 50 and the TL
use seafoam thru gas and in oil for cleaning with no problems
vac port method for instant results in combustion chamber
but gas tank gets the rest of the system

I would solve this overheat before spending a dime anywhere else on the car

then flush brake fluid and ps fluid, often overlooked for many years

 

ya, this is my focus. i was going to do the seafoam in all three places.

seafoam through the vac port cleans out the intake tracts, carbon and oil build up on valves and in the combustion chamber.

seafoam through oil cleans all the gunk built up in passages, pump, pickup, and any and all other components supplied with oil.

seafoam through fuel system cleans out the gunk in the tank, pump, lines, and injectors.

thanks guys, your advise has been very helpful, and all has been understanding. great forum and great members

 

thermostat

 

Your cooling system game plan sounds thorough and in the most logical sequence.

 

I was reading the first post again, did you replace the ac belt tensioner yet?
and back then you said it seemed partly burped?

Have you checked all the hose clamps? new hoses often equal a loose one somewhere

beg / borrow the pressure tester, call parts stores in your area, if not zone try oreilly (kragen) or pepboys
last resort: have a shop pressure test it

 

my car has kind of the same problem if idling for too long it starts to overheat as the rpms go up it starts to come down....once its a lil too high in temp it takes longer to come back down...my car is a 99tl with 63xxx miles..i will look into some of the suggestions posted