Engine overheat and cool air -thermostat?

Yesterday coming home from work in -10 C, a 26 km drive,

I was getting just cold air through the heater. I was watching the temp

guage all the way home and as I got near my home about 20 minutes in,
the temp guage on my pickup was at the red line.


Once parked in driveway, I noticed the rad pushingbubbling fluid into
the
overflow and could smell hot antifreeze.


I have noticed the past few weeks that the temp guage has been rising
but then would suddenly start to go down esp. if I turned on the heater
and it seemed unusual at the time
so I have been watching it. --yesterday was the first time, it did not
go down. I went for a little drive later that evening and this time,
the temp rose even faster -7 minute drive to move temp guage close to
red and
still no heat from heater.


I assumed/read that you would have one or the other,
that is, engine overheats so thermostat is stuck in closed position
No heat in car so thermostat is stuck in open position.


I seem to have both scenerio's going on.


Any thoughts -is it even the thermostat?
if so, I know the thermostat is relatively inexpensive? should I buy
3rd party or from dealer
and finally, how long/shop time to replace one (I am assuming one hour
or so) and is it worth trying to do it myself?

Many thanks in advance

 

I can't remember if the heater hoses bypass the thermostat. I would
make sure that the radiator is full of water without air pockets.

 

See my reply in alt.autos.acura.

Learn to cross-post properly so all can benefit from inputs to this thread.

 

------------------------

Before doing the thermostat, do an experiment. Fill the rad to the top
and the reservoir to the MAX mark. Drive it for 15 minutes and let it
cool down. Later, or next morning, check how much coolant it sucked out
of the reservoir and top it up again. Do it again when you come out of
the office. Don't spill any, and look on the ground to see if there's
any leaks.

It's possible you may have damaged the engine judging by the phrase . .
.. "I have noticed the past few weeks"

Honda premix is the way to go, tap water is called HONDACIDE.

P.S. It's usually helpful to mention the make, model, year, and mileage
of the vehicle.

'Curly'

 

He also posted this in the Toyota newsgroup, and has received plenty of
responses. The car in question is an old Toyota pickup.

 

Very sorry, I will learn to cross-post.

 

*Which* Toyota group? And what did others say?

 

And put your post in the right group. This is a HONDA group.

 

And put your post in the right group. This is a HONDA group.

 

It is a generic auto question as all cars have cooling systems. I think
it would be okay to see what others would choose to offer as a
constructive suggestion. So I say sorry and after your first comment
and you decide to follow up with a second comment like the 1st. Are you
a gatekeeper to this group and if so, are you suggesting that I do not
post to this group?

 

It is a generic auto question as all cars have cooling systems. I think
it would be okay to see what others would choose to offer as a
constructive suggestion. So I say sorry and after your first comment
and you decide to follow up with a second comment like the 1st. Are you
a gatekeeper to this group and if so, are you suggesting that I do not
post to this group?

 

some generations of honda are much more sensitive to coolant level
issues than many other cars, hence not all honda answers are
appropriate. they also have a different circulation configuration than
most other cars, hence not all honda answers are appropriate. and this
is /not/ a honda question.

in this instance, yes. and since you're new here, go to tegger.com and
think about the amount of effort and contributions made before you start
bleating about gate keepers.

 

I had the same problem and it was my head gasket. The best way to find
out if your head gasket is bad, is do a compression test on the
cylinders. You can find out tons of info anbout this is you search...

 

Yes, it's generic, but it would be helpful, or maybe better
received, if you stated up front that your car is a Toyota
and you know this is a Honda newsgroup, but you heard the
Honda people are brilliant (and of course good looking as
well), so you wondered if people here had any suggestions.


Two cents.

 

And all cars have tires too. Would you say all tires are the same?

Systems differ from brand to brand and model to model. Some brands and
models have specific trouble areas due to design defects.

You give yourself away as a real newbie. Have you ever thought about WHY
there are groups for specific things?

If you have general automotive questions, post to rec.autos.tech. Oh, wait,
you already did. Sheesh.

 

.... and if GP will please now drop and give us 50 pushups,
the hazing of the plebe will be concluded, and we might
return to our regularly scheduled programming...

;-)

 

Honda people are brilliant (and of course good looking as well)

An update on my growth now that the " hazing" /ritual and lesson has
come to an end.

I cross-posted the follow-up to my engine overheating problem and if
any of the brilliant minds would like to contribute to part 2 of the
diagnosis in either the toyota/toyota truck and rec.autos.tech .

Still do not completely agree that it is wrong to draw on
experiences/suggestions from other groups as the participants knowledge
is not restricted to Honda but I can understand the usefulness of
having specific automaker groups, so with that, I leave you and may
hear from you in the toyota forum.

Anyway,
cheers

 

You're correct. It's not wrong, generally speaking. People
have done it in the past here, sometimes with success, and
will do so in the future.

I'd stay tuned a bit longer here. 'Specially since you have
a good humor. Now that the situation has been clarified,
people may be more forthcoming with constructive assistance.

 

If this Toyota is over five years or 100k miles old, I'd
consider replacing the thermostat and at least eliminating
it. If you're a little handy, rarely are they hard to
replace on any car model. Always use an OEM (genuine Toyota
here) thermostat. The temperature settings do vary a bit
with the aftermarket ones. You only pay a little more, at
most, when buying an OEM one anyway.

Yes, figure around an hour if a shop does it, unless there's
something really peculiar about your Toyota model. Figure a
few hours if you've never done it before. Don't forget to
have extra antifreeze on hand, to refill the system. Or it
could be a good time to do a drain and refill.

Chilton's manuals are fine guidance for such repair jobs, at
least for Hondas.

 

It is an 88 toyota with 190000, 22re engine 4cyl, fuel injected. I
bought it 2 years ago and really like it, but of course not so much
that I want to sink too much money in it. The rad and hoses seem
relatively new. I am pretty handy, do my own tuneups, have replaced
shocks and most fluids including dif removal clean and fill.

A little summary:
-no fluid in the rad -it was fairly dry --I drew some fluid from the
drain plug and it seemed like antifreeze (light green and seems to
shine a bit but not contaminated i think)
-yes to some white out of exhaust but no sweet smell (smell some
rubbber but think new tailpipe was installed too close to undermount
spare), and white exhaust is not too much and it is cold now --nothing
that looks too much out of the ordinary
-no milky in oil from dipstick, however, read a book called "keep your
toyota alive" and it said to check under the oil fill cap and see if
you have a coffee and cream accumulation going on and I do have some
creaminess under there, but it is a 20 yr vehicle and I am in a bit in
denial so I am hoping that it may be normal in our cold climate. The
book suggested that i drain and fill with new oil, examine for same
coffee/cream on drain plug in old oil, then drive 40-100 continuous
miles and examine again for milkiness.
-Next the book suggested a pressure test and leak test if I noticed
that milky stuff was coming back.

I am at this point:
-I plan to fill it with new rad/distillwater mix, change rad cap (easy
proactive fix and someone was convinced that that was problem) and
watch overflow and monitor temp guage and monitor fuild loss and other
signs, esp thermostat indicators which I am not totally sure of but
assume it does not include fluid loss. I am also going to run engine
from cold with cap off to see if it starts spitting out fluid. Before I
continue with thermostat, I will give it a week or so and see how
things progress and I know thermostat is not much cost, so I will
likely change in the new future unless I narrow it down to that. More
importanly, I am trying to rule out the head gasket scenerio. Empowered
with all this knowledge, it all else fails, it is off to a local
mechanic or Rad shop?? any thoughts.