From: "Randy Bennell" <rbenn...@bennell.ca>
My younger son's girlfriend has a 2000 Honda Civic that is doing things
that suggest overheating but I am not convinced.
It seems to only happen when she has made a highway run and then slows as
she comes into an urban area. The temperature gauge will shoot up.
Neither he nor I has been there when it happened, so we don't know the
whole story.
I am suspecting that it is just the temperature gauge acting a bit strange
and that the engine is not actually getting hot.
She says the car does not act odd. It just displays high on the gauge.
Tom is a mechanic and he finds this frustrating because she is unable to
help with the diagnosis. We don't think it is pushing the coolant out.
There is a catch tank of course, so once it cools it might pull it back in
if it is.
He changed the thermostat last weekend thinking that it might be hanging
up. Last night, she experienced the same thing so that does not appear to
have helped.
The car is an automatic with air conditioning and it is warm here now so
she is running the ac. One would think however, that it would be fine on
the highway and exhibit issues in town if it was overheating.
She drove it home through city traffic yesterday when it was 32 Degrees C
(about 90 Degrees F) with the ac on and it apparently was fine. Later that
evening she drove 30 miles out of the city to visit a friend and the
needle jumped up when she got to the small town where the friend lives. I
assume she would have driven it at 100 to 115 kph on the way which would
be 60 to 70 mph.
The rad does not look plugged up - not full of bugs and leaves on the
exterior. One can see the coolant flow with the cap off. The electric fan
seems to be coming on when it should etc.
Coolant is a good mix and not just water etc.
Any thoughts on something we might be missing?
2nd part of the question - a temperature gun. Anyone have experience with
them? Is it worth buying a "good one" rather than just whatever? I
suggested we get one and my son who has good taste in tools wants to get a
Snap On for a couple of hundred $ rather than a Chinese whatever from the
local version of HF.
We think that may be the best way to check to see if it is getting hotter
than it should.
Randy
Having her stop, leave everything running, open the hood, and see if the
fan(s) is/are running. That was a similar problem on both of my Mercedes on
two occasions.
Gerry
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