1988 Honda Accord Overheating

MJPOWELL

MEMBER
1988 HONDA ACCORD
4 CYL
FWD
MANUAL
200,000 MILES

Please help! This car is overheating, has plenty of coolant, replaced the fan motor and the thermostat. After about 15 minutes of idling it still overheats. What do I need to look at next?

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 AT 7:49 AM

4 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

Hi mjpowell,

Do you have coolant losses whereby you need to keep topping up?

Did you check the radiator coolant level when engine is cold?

Did you check the radiator for clogging?

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Friday, January 23rd, 2009 AT 11:23 AM

MJPOWELL

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3 POSTS

Thanks for you response. The topping off of fluid seems to only be necessary when it overheats. How do check for cloggin?

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Friday, January 23rd, 2009 AT 11:53 AM

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

To check for clogging you need to test the flow of coolant going in and coming out of the radiator. The easiest way that I use is to drain the upper portion of the radiator dry and use a light to visually inspect the radiator cores from the neck. You might not see much and if any of the cores that you can see do not look clean, most probably they are clogged.

Does the engine overheat while driving at low speed? At high speed?

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009 AT 4:51 AM

MJPOWELL

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3 POSTS

Thanks again for the response. Don't mean to sound so dumb but I only know the bare minimum! Anyway, found someone to work on the car. On the side so hopefully won't be as expense as a garage. Thank you again for your input. I'm sure I'll be back with something new!

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Saturday, January 24th, 2009 AT 12:55 PM