DaTimez420

I've been away from this board for a while but I still keep up with forum from time to time.

Problems have gotten more and more with my 94 sedan lately. After a decent streak of a couple of years with no major repairs, in the past couple of months been in the shop too many times.

I got in a small fender bender a few months ago and my insurance had my radiator replaced because they saw some coolant leaking out. They authorized an aftermarket radiator.

A week later the top radiator hose broke, replaced that myself. A week later the bottom hose was leaking so took it back to the shop and they replaced it for me.

A couple of weeks later I notice a little white smoke come out of my exhaust only when car has been sitting for a while, even when it is fully warmed up. I took it to the shop and they told me it was probably nothing, they sounded confident it wasn't head gasket. They told me to go on highway and ride it out and see if it goes away.... I haven't seen any white smoke lately so that's good.

A week or so later I notice some coolant leaking again, and my belts squeaking, this time leak was coming from water pump. So I had the water pump and timing belt all replaced. I thought that was the end of my problems, and I took a long trip and everything ran great.

This past week during Thanksgiving break I notice some coolant leaking again, this time from the bottom of the radiator itself it appeared, the same one that was just replaced a month earlier. I take it in to the dealership and they tell me radiator is leaking. After some calls to the shop that had originally done the work (which was hundreds of miles away, so taking it back it wasn't an option) they agree to cover the cost of what they had done, which was about $200. The dealership however would only install a factory honda radiator in the car, saying all others were junk, so this message gets relayed to the body shop that had done the work, which relays it back to my former insurance company which had originally authorized the aftermarket radiator, and they agree to cover the remaining $470 more that it was going to cost to put in a factor radiator. (So an insurance company will follow through after the initial repairs and didn't try to offer me the aftermarket crap again!!) So I get all that done, thinking for sure now my problems should end after timing belt, water pump, radiator had all been replaced. I've never had any overheating problems so that I am thankful for.

So then yesterday I take the 300 mile trip back to school. It was freezing outside the whole drive. I had the heat cranked and pumping nicely for the first half of the drive. Then I notice my temperature gauge is way too low, to where it got to the blue and stayed there, so of course I pull over and stop, the gauge goes back to a decent amount. I notice my belts that had been replaced (timing belt) was sounding very rough and loud, yet no signs that it was going to give way or anything like that. I get back on the highway and heat once again makes temp go lower than it should, so I turn heat off and try a.c., did the same thing. I then have just cold air from the engine compartment and the cold air from outside blowing into the car, and that kept my temp gauge at an operable temperature, couple of bars, for the rest of the trip. I get back in town and when I get off highway temp gauge goes back to normal, yet my belts are still sounding rough once again.

I'm going to get it all checked out first thing Monday morning. I'm thinking thermostat at least is a definite that should be replaced? Also gonna have all those belts checked again because it's all still warrantied. This car I love but I don't know how many more repairs I can put up with. Winter is time of year I want car to be especially running solid, but so far problem after problem and winter hasn't even officially started.

Any ideas bout what I should do or have checked out? Comments? Suggestions?

 

Jetdoc

The themostat is the only thing that will cause the engine to not warm up at highway speed. As for the belt noise, do you know for sure it is the timing belt. Maybe the alternator belt and power steering belts are loose causing the noise.

Jetdoc

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People are often reluctant to pay for good advice but rarely follow free advice.

DaTimez420

I'm definitely going to change the thermostat tomorrow. I went out and drove today around town for a little bit and everything sounded fine, the belts weren't making the noises again, just last night when the temperature was freezing outside during a long highway trip.