just got a free car (94 accord).

drove it to work in the morning and there were no problems.

drove it home in the hot weather (105 today) and temperature gauge moves past the half way point and goes as high as the 3/4 way point. this seem to happen worst when i am driving on the freeway with the fan/AC on or when i am in stop and go traffic situations with no ac on. when driven in cooler temperator at night, the temp gauge doesn't move past the 1/4 mark and stays there consistently.

car does have 283K miles and on its original radiator. radiator fluids looks clean (but could have just been refilled). not sure when the thermostat was changed. waterpump and timing belt was done at about 260K.

what do you folks think?

thanks in advance.

 

Flush the radiator.

 

Flush the radiator and do a t-stat.

 

it wouldnt hurt to flush it, but do just the tstat first. super quick and cheap to do.
btw, check your radiator cap, or just replace that too. it will prevent your system from overpressurizing.

 

+1 - very good advice! Also, with that many miles and a car that age it would probably be a great idea to pull the t-stat, cut a heater hose and fully flush the system. There are kits that facilitate this - they have a "T" fitting to insert into the cut hose which has a threaded fitting for a garden hose, and a spout to shoot it out of the radiator. Run the car like this for a bit until the water comes out clean. With my '80 Celica I used as a track car (purchased in 1999) it looked like milk for a bit, then came clear and I never had another issue with the car, same radiator, even running hard at Thunderhill. LMK if you want some help.

 

check to make sure el fan is el working.

 

thanks everyone. i'll look to do a flush, replace the thermostat and gasket, and refill and see what hapens.