J.B.

Here's my symptoms...

Temp gauge stays in middle until stopped in traffic for a while...begins to rise almost to red...turn on heat and temp falls (heat blows very HOT). A/C blows really cold until stopped in traffic then blows like just vent is on. No smoke, no shuddering, no leaks, no other problems at all.

Belt?? Thermo?? what???

jgurley

Probably your fans aren't turning on. While you're driving air is moving through the radiator and keeping things cool. But when at a stop your fans need to be running in order to move air through the radiator.

Try driving until the car gets warmed up, then park, raise the hood and see if your fans kick on. I bet they don't.

You have 2 fans, one for the radiator and one for the A/C. If they aren't kicking in when warm, it could be a bad relay (under the dash) or a bad fan motor.

jazzy jeff

It was overheating only when i drove for long periods of time. So I replaced my thermostat. After this it is still overheating and I can not seem to figure out the problem. please help

NeitNJ

I ve just finnally decided to subscrib to this forum and become a member.
After reading and reading 100* of pages and reading over the net...

I feel a bit happy that the current problem I am having with my 92 legend is commun to a lot of theses acura.

It isnt a factory recal situation where suddently acura would happen to realize they made a mistake in the way they build theses generation 2 motor. etc.

Anyway, the more electronical parts you ahve and complexity of the car the most likely some adjustements would have to be done.

So there you go, ...

1. You have rpm going wild by itself.
2. oil gauge seems to be goign up and down for no reason.
3. your engine cut off by itself
4. white smoke at times.
5. no leaking apparently.
6. etc.


so the garages and mecanician tells you it must be this or that...

1. water pump.
2. thermostat.
3. headgasket.
4. some sensors.
5. stearing wheel and i dont know which ****

Well here most likely youll find that common problem and the solutions aint so many for that commun problem and msot likely it might cost...

Conclusion:

1. find a good, truthworthy mecanician make him do a lsit of all the pbm.
2. find good sites etc for the pieces.
3. make a budget and stick to your budget.
4. leave your car on rest untill you can fix all for once step by step.

Good luck.

jordain817

bought a 91 legend changed the thermostat but the temp gauge still shot up. took it to a mechanic and he said it was a blown head gasket. im planning on replacing/fixing it but what can i do to keep this problem from happening again (because ive heard this is a common problem with legends)

btw....is $1400 a reasonable price to fix a blown head gasket or are they over charging? if anyone could email me with answers to my questions that'd be great because i dont check this much

graffitiking_23@yahoo.com

mimbster

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and b/c I am on the road with little access to the Internet, I have to get to the overheating issue, which I am sure many of your are familiar with.

I have a 1991 Legend. Since January of this year, it's been overheating whenever I get off the highway. It runs well on flat surface at highway speed. Temp. gauge spikes up to red mark whenever I get off the highway to a slower speed or waiting for red light, and also going uphill.

I haven't had a loss of coolant throughout these months so it's prob. not the water pump. I flushed the radiator a few times and filled up with 70/30 coolant and distilled water but still no help. What I notice is that the cooling and AC fans are almost never turned on when the engine is running. So could it perhaps be the cooling relay switch that is bad that is not turning on the cooling fan at lower temp? If that is the case, what would be a temp.fix. I had to pull over like about 10 times on my way to Reno last week when driving through the Sierra Nevada. I worry that I have been running the engine in overheat for so long that the cylinders are warping or head gasket may blow up soon. Perhaps what's been preventing this is that I have changed the oil very frequently, like once every 1000 miles.

Thanks for your replies in advance. Any advice would help and I will post for more details.

Jeffrey

I recently bought a 93 Legend and had a similiar problem i keep hearing about in here. I was driving it home on the freeway for about a hour and a half with A/C on and had no overheating problems until i got off the freeway. Anyways long story short. THe symptoms i had was it quickly started to overheat at idle and i had no hot air. I replaced the thermostat yesterday and flushed my radiator as well. So far so good. I have hot air and it idles fine now. Im thinkin i got lucky, as we all know the thermostats are the cheapest fix we can do. Also my fans dont kick on until the A/C is on so im plannin on changing my fan switch wherever it may be located? Another quick fix till i do is to drive with the A/C on low just to get some air to the radiator. Great site, keep it up

daloyal1

my upper radiator hose caves in on itself. if i open the radiator cap the pressure gets releived and the hose retuns to normal.i bought the hose from the dealer.the engine does not over heat and no smoke out the tail pipe.any body have an idea whats wrong.

mikez

Just bought a 93 Legend and when I first drove it it would only shift to D4 and D3, now it will only drive in D4, I cant downshift to D3, 2, or 1. Tried the key slot for the shift lock obviously. Advice anyone?

OLDSKOOLACURA

not sure, but why would you wanna downshit unless your going on and icy hill.

turkish_JDM

It is possible some of you guys may just need to bleed the cooling system properly. Its been my experience that after a flush, if not bled properly, you will experience the quick spike into red. Its worth a try if you are certain that your fans work.

cccmaa

-No Over heating
-Temp gauge usually stays 2/5 to 3/5 of the way
-Loss in Coolant overtime
-At some stops, smoke smoke out the tailpipe, but sometimes it can go 2 weeks without me seeing no smoke, then some days I will keep noticing the smoke
-When car is started you can smell coolant, I think more towards the engine bay?

Any help is appreciated!

sap

Sounds like rad cap (cheap and easy to just get a new one) to me, maybe thermostat .

Might just be a broken piece of plastic getting in the way, seems to me I've heard of exactly that happening before. Not exactly a coolant or overheating question.

3/5 of the way is overheating (even though it's not up at the H), the normal operating temperature is a bit below half. What does the smoke look like and smell like? Are there any visible coolant leaks? Does the coolant overflow tend to fill up over time? Does the oil look milky at all?

If the smoke is white and smells sweet it sounds like you're getting coolant in the cylinder (ie. blown head gasket). Might want to get a leakdown test done and see if there are bubbles coming up through the radiator. Could also pick up a block leak detector (NAPAONLINE) or get a hydrocarbon sniffer at the rad neck to check for exhaust gases.

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kurlykonan

I've read through about 50 pages of these threads and the 6 pages of the BHG story. I see alot of symptoms that I'm currently experiencing, but not necessarily the same order so if you all could enlighten me on what I should troubleshoot, I'd greatly appreciate it.

'92 Acura Legend (L) Auto Sedan
223k miles

About 6 months ago, I noticed engine would idle/rev between 1-3 rpm (back and forth).

Randomly notice temp guage jump from just about 2nd bar to just about the 3rd bar. Sometimes I would shut off the car (even while driving if it was safe), pop it into neutral wait about 10 secs, and restart. That helped me out once (temp went back to normal)

Another time, when i saw temp rising, I turned on heat....it came back down.

the next time, neither trick worked. I pulled over, let it cool a little, restarted, still rising temp. then after about 10 more minutes I restarted, and a heard what sounded like water begining to flow (as if it was blocked), once that water gushing sound came, the temp guage instantly dropped to normal.

Later that week I changed the radiator, and radiator cap, and cleaned my stillin air intake just to be safe.

Fast Forward to the day b4 yesterday. Coming home from work, i drove about 10 miles, stopped for about an hour, resumed for another 3 miles, saw temp approach the Red. Shut car off and waited a while. Tried turning on heat, checked resevoir (it was high way over the full mark which wasn't normal), checked for any leaks...nothing.

I did not notice my fans responding either.

Towed to my mechanic.

Time Belt, Water Pump, was done at 160k at Acura (Although i'm not sure, but i doubt they took the time to change those 3 hoses that are behind to engine block going to firewall)

I'm praying its not the HG, but I just want a little direction as to the order in which i can troubleshoot and isolate my situation.

Things i'm thinking of doing regardless are:
Change all the hoses
Change Thermostat
Fans (not sure what to replace to get these working though)

anyone?

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WANTED: 94-95 Acura Coupe (Brake light in trunk but with no spoiler) Manual Transmission... Almost any condition. I'm looking to Restore it. thanx

Jetdoc

When the resivor fills it means the pressure inside the cooling system has exceeded the limit of the radiator cap which is about 15-16 psi. The cap allows this pressure with the fluid to escape to the resivoir. Otherwise the radiator or a hose would bust. The symptoms you describe in your post, fluid sounds, gauge fluxuations, ect. are the result of the coolant level becoming too low to cool properly after the high pressure has pumped it into the resivoir.
Why is this happening? A headgasket leak is allowing combustion gases to slowly leak into the cooling system, overpressurizing it. It's just what Legends do sorry to say.
With 223k you might consider a JDM engine with low miles(around $2k installed) unless you want to do it yourself and save about $1000.

My 92 had the exact symptoms as yours. I know you are thinking, How could it stil run so good and have a blown headgasket. It can. It's a small leak.

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