foxusau

the prob I have is with My Beautiful Red 2 Door Coupe Legend

She runs like a charm but since I have only had her for 12 months from second hand I cant remember ever hearing the thermo fans run.

her temp gauge sits on about half way even on long drives she never plays up with over heating

But I have noticed that after driving for some time she gives off a smell like she is boiling I use Honda spec coolent and my Legend still keeps same prob.

measures I have taken to try and solve are:

New temp sender on motor

Auto elec said its air pocket in radator use bleeder to flush out
tryed that. But no presure at bleeder so I thought theremosate?

How ever after runing for a short time the radator is just as hot as the motor
so I (think) the coolent is flowing

I saw a radator guy he said it's not the thermosate because the coolent is getting hot in the radator it self that tells him that there is flow of some kind So he said.

I am now thinking pump but it still does not answer why the fans don't kick in if it is getting to hot in the first place.

Any idea's I'm worried about my coupe she means a lot to me and I hate seeing her in pain.

A-series

The thermoswitch is what tells the fan(s) to come on. No experience working on Legends but I'd look for it on the thermostat housing... probably easier just to get a manual. That way you'll also know the proper torque for when you install the new one. (17ft-lbs. for the one on my civic, might be different)

To get the air out after you replace it you'll need to fill the rad. back up with coolant(50/50 mix), leave the rad. cap at the first stop, not all the way closed, and run the engine until the fan turns on at least twice. Afterwards, fill the rad. back up with coolant and then check your overflow bottle after you've taken it on a drive, you'll most likely have to add some to bring it up to the max mark.

If your car has a bleed bolt, you should open that after you've first filled it back up with coolant. If there's no air bubbles in the stream of coolant that comes out, or once there's no more, you can fill the rad. back up and start the procedure above.
You may have to be adding/pouring coolant into the radiator in order to get a substantial stream to come out of the bleed bolt, since the motor is cool when you do this and so little to no pressure in the cooling system.


edit: and yes, if the rad. and hoses are getting hot after the engine runs, the thermostat and the water pump are working. (doesn't rule out the thermostat being stuck open though)

dwm71

Hey,

I have an 89 Legend Sedan that looks almost exactly like yours and had the same symptoms as yours. They replaced the thermostat, the fan switch, radiator. Finally, it turns out that there is a controller chip that tells the fans to come on and that chip had burned out. I almost got stranded on the highway and I would have, if I didn't have the presence of mind to call my mechanic asap. Here is a good test. If your temp gauge goes up half way or more, turn on the air conditioner. Old acuras (and I think hondas, too) were rigged to turn the fans on automatically if you turn on the AC. If the fans turn on when you are using the AC, but didn't turn on normally, that fan controller chip might be the culprit. Good luck and get that fixed soon because it is no fun trying to drive with smoke coming out of your car!

A-series

That's good advice dwm71, that should work on most Hondas (ones w/ "normal" size radiators) because whether both fans automatically turn on with A/C or just one to cool the A/C condensers, it will draw air through the radiator and cool it down.

I'm not at all familiar with Legends other than driving a couple, but many Hondas use a thermoswitch to switch the fans on once that "switch" gets to a certain temperature. For all I know it's possible that on Legends, at least those years, went off of a different chip of some sort(maybe taking temp from the temp gauge sender or the ECU temp sensor), rather than running the signal directly from the thermoswitch to the fans :dunno:

foxusau

Thanks everyone for the helpfull hints in the end id did turn out to be a air bubble in the radiator thew air con trick worked a treat it moved the air bubble to the air con radiator so now i got no air con but my baby is still on the raod radiator specialest says it's a matter of compressing the whole system but then a local mate from chat group told me of the bleeder that is next to the temp sender once i used that all was back to normal


this group should be proud of it's help you offer to every one i know i'm over the moon to have found it

A-series

Glad you figured it out, or at least sort of :shrug:
I think the A/C problem may be a separate thing, the refrigerant used to cool the interior or the car is separate from the engine coolant.

If you think it's air in the system, you can just run the car w/ the radiator cap at the first stop (not all the way closed) until it's fully up to temperature and it should get most of it out of there. If you aren't sure your cooling fan will come on when it's supposed to (running twice is normally the indication of being up to temp.) you can watch the temp. gauge inside the car while it's running so it doesn't overheat.
Your owner's manual should mention a bleed bolt if your system has one, just follow the steps given earlier (or steps given in the manual, even better) to make sure you get as much air out as possible.

If you have to add coolant periodically, air could be getting in through a leak somewhere.