93 Honda Accord mystery issues: Trouble starting, random overheating,etc.

Asked by Jaden Aug 23, 2018 at 12:01 PM about the 1993 Honda Accord LX Wagon

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Ok so to give back story on how we got here: I
bought the car from a guy about an hour and a half
from me who had put on a new head, gaskets,
pumps, belts, etc. The car was in his yard and has
been parked for a couple years. Records pointed to
2015 but it has a 2017 emissions sticker. I bought
the car and drove it home fine. Only issue was the
radiator needed replaced.

Fast forward to last week. It was the week before
school started and I finally got the car on my
insurance and got tags for it. That Saturday I
replaced the radiator. When I did that I also did the
hoses. Once I was done I headed to a friends. After
5 minutes of driving I noticed the temperature
gauge had just hit red so I pulled over. 15 minutes
later I drove it 2 blocks worth down the interstate to
Home Depot where I found the radiator hose on the
top had blown off due to me not putting the clamp
on correctly. Me and 2 guys who stopped helped
me get it fixed and filled the radiator. After this the
car would not start. 30 minutes later we had
sprayed starting fluid in and it fired but was still
overheating. The oil was normal still. So we let it set
for 2 hours before I discovered the radiator hadn’t
been filled all the way because the guy didn’t have
enough. Drove the car home fine but the exhaust
would pop/gurgle every now and again (it also has a
major leak). Later that night I went to start it and a
bit of white smoke puffed out but the car ran. Oil
was still unchanged. The next day I put blue devil
gasket sealer in it and it ran for 50 minutes. After
parking it the car would no longer start. I had
replaced the plugs and wires. Upon putting the old
plugs in the car would start but it would take a lot of
messing with the pedal and it was misfiring in all
cylinders. Also my radiator holds pressure when the
car is off and cool.

Yesterday I took the #1 plug out and turned the car
over and clean green coolant came out. The oil was
still the same so it made no sense. The car wasn’t
overheating nor smoking. After this the car would
turn over as it always has since this issue. It’ll turn
over for a bit before it starts firing and then it builds
up only if you hold the pedal to the floor and
eventually runs but this time it ran just like it always
has. The check engine light gave me code 43 which
means fuel system. This went away after shutting
the car off and restarting and I drove the car for a
bit and it was completely fine. But strangely enough
the temperature would go up after you shut the car
off and go back down once it started. The longer
you leave the car off and the more it cools down the
harder it is to start again but once it does it runs like
normal with no issues.

2 Answers

64,350

Try bleeding air from system like this. Remove cap from overflow tank fill with antifreeze to full mark leave cap off and start vehicle and let idle you will notice the level in tank start to rise this is normal once thermostat starts to open level in tank will drop add more antifreeze to full mark then put cap back on.

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