1990 Accord LX, overheating?

Hi all,
This may be a dumb question, but here's the deal. I have a '90 Accord LX
with 208,000 miles. The timing belt has been changed, I have kept up with
all the oil changes, etc. It has a radiator barely a year old. Up until
recently, I've driven the car just around town, and it's been normal wear
and tear. In the past couple months, I've taken road trips to York, PA,
about 5 hours from me, in Richmond, VA. I've noticed the dash feels kinda
hot after about a half hour on the road and the area around the stereo too.
I always check the oil before I hit the road. The temp gauge remains in the
middle. I thought I noticed some warm air briefly coming through the vent
even when the heat was off, recently. The AC croaked last summer and I
never got it fixed, if that's even a factor in this?

Since I've just started taking this car on the road, I'm a bit concerned.
I've called dealers, shops, nobody wants to touch this car, because they
have no idea what it would be, if anything. You have to drive it about a
half hour anyway to do this.

Any ideas? Anything to be concerned with? I'm going to Hershey PA this
weekend.


Thanks,
Josh
http://www.pingeek.com

 

My 91 Civic's dash right above the radio always feels very hot after the car is
warmed up. I think I heard on "Car Talk" that this happens to be something usual
with Hondas of this vintage.

If the temperature gage is where it's always been, I wouldn't be immediately
concerned.

Of course, good preventive maintenance for a car this age might include
replacing the cooling system thermostat. It's a $20 part and I should think not
more than an hour of labor at any shop. It's likely a pretty straightforward
do-it-yourself job, too. It was on my Civic. (I replaced my Civic's thermostat
pre-emptively at about 150k miles.)

This assumes you have never replaced the thermostat before.

 

Two things come to mind:

Perhaps the thermostat needs replaced (not sure that is what you call
it). Its the thing that kicks on and off when the temperature hits a
certain temperature and allows the radiator fluid to circulate.

The other is whether there is air trapped in the radiator lines. Part
of the procedure to change your radiator fluid is to open a certain
screw or bolt or something and then wait until no more bubbles come
out. Its close to the thermostat as I recall.

 

Thanks. I need to get the AC fixed anyway. It blows hot air only as of
last summer.

 

Possibly the mechanism that controls the heater's temperature and
diverts hot air to the windshield's defroster vent is malfunctioning.

 

My '92 Accord has done this since new. At times, the cassette in the
radio will get VERY hot. If you find out what is leaking heat in the
heater box, let me know. bob

 

There's a series of logical assumptions and deductions regarding the
heating and cooling system that I can't always keep track of, but having
dealt with these problems on both an 87 and a 90 Accord, I would agree
with the other people here -- try replacing the thermostat. A faulty one
will make the rest of the system malfunction, and it's such a cheap
(~$15) and easily replaceable part (do-able by an unintimidated novice)
that it's worth a try. Sometimes they just go. Unusual-temperature air
from your vents could be another sign of this.

As other people have said, though, parts of the dash just tend to get
hot. When I had a tape deck, tapes would come out quite hot. But not
when the car first heated up.

 

Thanks again. I got outrageously high quotes, starting at $250 to fix the
AC last summer, and I was afraid to take the car on the road this weekend.
I-95 through MD is very unforgiving.

Josh

 

Ignore my post - I mis-read the original post.

 

The lever near the firewall inside the engine compartment probably
broke. The valve is constantly open releasing hot coolant into
the heater core. Or most likely the temperature dial cable breaks off
(under the passenger left foot) when someone tries to go from hot to
cold. Look under their or see if the valve near the firewall is
moving when the hand dial twists.