Hello everyone. I have a 94 accord lx 4 doors auto with about 144k. My car has a weird overheat problem. When I stop at a traffic light, the temperature will keep going up almost reach the red zone. As soon as it gets into motion, the temperature drop back to normal. This has been happening for a while. Today, I see some coolant leaking beneath my car. They are leaking from a huge metal compartment which located close to my front right tires. When the car cool down, it stops leaking. What is that? What is happening? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Is your fan on? Can you be more specific on the "metal compartment? Some pictures would definately help.

 

i am not sure how to upload a pics but here it is.

http://i30.tinypic.com/x0s6kk.jpg

 

I did not turn on the fan, but by the time the temperature get to really high, the fan turn on by itself. Right now, the car is sitting on my drive way without any leaking. And the coolant level is still high, radiator, upper and lower hoses are good too. Hope the pics would help. Thanks.

 

I'm almost positive your fan isn't turning on. You can check by driving your car and when you see it over heating pull over, pop the hood and fan to your left (passenger side) should be on. If not then that's your problem. You need a new switch, the Coolant temperature switch A is a fan switch that is located on your thermostat housing.

This is what I would do.
1) replace switch with OEM honda part
2) bleed entire cooling system
3) replace thermostat with new OEM honda thermostat (cheap part and easy install)
4) refill cooling system

As far as the leak it might be starting from somewhere and ending up at the location you see. It's probably the pressure of you overheating the engine, causing a seal or tube to leak.

Change the switch, drain the system, put in a new thermostat and see if this solves your overheating problem. If your fans are turning on then bleed the system and replace the thermostat. Report back with results.

 

After you describe it, yes, the fan is on just like what you said. When you talk about the switch, are you talking about the one inside my car to turn on the fan? It sounds not too difficult to fix, will get the parts tomorrow or day after. Really appreciated to let me know at least what is going on with my car. Thank You.

 

its not ur fan. when it heats up when ur not moving, that means ur low on coolant, and obviously, when u have coolant leaking, ur gonna be low on coolant.

just fill it up w/ water adn the heating problem will go away temporarily.

the leak seems to be in one of the hoses. cant tell which one but its either the one on top of the radiator or bottom.

 

when u stop (idle), ur water pump revs w/ the engine, circulating the water through the motor at the speed of the engine.
when ur driving, the rpm stays a little high and the water pump revs faster, circulating more water.

there isn't enough coolant/water in the radiator for the engine to stay cool at idle

 

On my coolant reservoir, it indicates that I still got plenty of coolant. Better way to describe the leak is dripping, not really keep leaking all the time. Right now, it doesn't leak at all on my drive way. Weird ? I checked the hoses and radiator they seems fine to me. I don't see any place is wet or has hole on it. Any help?

 

actually, my fault, v6accordjerz was right. it probably is ur coolant temp. sensor thats not working right.
what ever i described is also another reason why cars heat up at idle.
but do take off ur radiator cap and look at the coolant level.

also take it to a mechanic shop and have him pressurize teh coolling system to find out where the leak is.