Civic 1986 with heating and aged mechanical problem

Discussion in 'Civic' started by ski, May 22, 2006.

  1. ski

    ski Guest

    I have a 1986 Honda Civic, Automatic Transmission, fully loaded, it has
    few problems when ever the AC is turned on the car heats up. I have
    been to car mechanics and after few repair touches they say now it will
    be ok. But the problem persists.

    The other problem is that due to i think age factor the speed of window
    opening and closing has reduced a lot...

    So if any one has a practically applied tip for me please advice.

    SKI
     
    ski, May 22, 2006
    #1
  2. Check the engine side of the radiator. Is it corroded or eaten away? May be
    time for a new radiator. Is the A/C fan kicking in?

    Apply some silicon lubricant to the window slides. There's also a lubricated
    arm inside the door that dries out.

    Stewart DIBBS
     
    Stewart DIBBS, May 22, 2006
    #2
  3. I have a 1986 Honda Civic, Automatic Transmission, fully loaded, it has
    few problems when ever the AC is turned on the car heats up. I have
    been to car mechanics and after few repair touches they say now it will
    be ok. But the problem persists.

    The other problem is that due to i think age factor the speed of window
    opening and closing has reduced a lot...

    So if any one has a practically applied tip for me please advice.

    SKI

    SKI,
    These sorts of issues are common with cars that are over 15 years old.
    When I took a trip to Los Vegas via Interstate highway 58 which caused
    me to have to travel thru the Mojave Desert (Death Valley), I saw at
    least a dozen old cars next to the road with steam coming out of the
    radiators. The best solution would be to trade the car in on a newer
    car. If you plan to keep the 1986 Civic, you could install a new
    thermostat. It may or may not help. If you have the system recharged
    with freon--that might help since the compressor will not have to stay
    on as long. Also, open the cap on the radiator at least once a week
    when the engine is cold to make sure it's full. If it's not full, you
    may have a leak in the cooling system and that could be the source of
    the problem. I wish that I had a magic solution but there is not one--other
    than buying a newer car.
    Jason
     
    Jason Johnson, May 22, 2006
    #3
  4. ski

    jim beam Guest

    and how many were hondas? i drive that way every couple of months, have
    done so for nearly 10 years [family in vegas] and i can count the number
    of broken hondas on the fingers of one hand. in fact, i've done it on a
    half empty radiator, and the car /still/ wasn't overheating. in july.
    jason, with respect, "buy a newer car" is not a solution. new cars
    break down. in fact, new [post 2000] hondas are really nothing special
    in the reliability department at all. there's a thing called a "bathtub
    curve" in reliability stats. it means there's a comparatively high
    probability of failure when new, then it drops off significantly,
    finally rising again towards the end of the design life. if this
    vehicle is still in the low part of the curve, it's got a lower
    probability of failure than a new car. at least, when the current
    problem's been fixed at any rate. which is what the op's asking about.
     
    jim beam, May 23, 2006
    #4
  5. ski

    jim beam Guest

    replace the thermostat with new oem. use good quality coolant [do not
    dilute with tap water, use distilled] and a new radiator cap. /after/
    you've checked for head gasket and other leaks.
     
    jim beam, May 23, 2006
    #5
  6. and how many were hondas? i drive that way every couple of months, have
    done so for nearly 10 years [family in vegas] and i can count the number
    of broken hondas on the fingers of one hand. in fact, i've done it on a
    half empty radiator, and the car /still/ wasn't overheating. in july.
    jason, with respect, "buy a newer car" is not a solution. new cars
    break down. in fact, new [post 2000] hondas are really nothing special
    in the reliability department at all. there's a thing called a "bathtub
    curve" in reliability stats. it means there's a comparatively high
    probability of failure when new, then it drops off significantly,
    finally rising again towards the end of the design life. if this
    vehicle is still in the low part of the curve, it's got a lower
    probability of failure than a new car. at least, when the current
    problem's been fixed at any rate. which is what the op's asking about.

    Jim,
    I did not write down the types of cars that I saw but did note that all of
    them were very old cars. I did not see any newer cars. I saw some signs
    indicating that air conditioners should be turned off to keep cars from
    overheating. I kept my AC on and the temp. guage ever went past the
    halfway mark--I have a 99 Accord EX. I still believe that cars that are 15
    or more years old are more likely to have cooling system problems than
    cars that are less than 7 years old. The reason is usually due to the
    build up of rust. I once flushed out the cooling system of an old Chevy
    and was amazed at all of the gunk and rust that I flushed out of that car.
    As you know, many people NEVER have had the cooling system of their cars
    flushed out. I doubt that rust is much of a problem with the alum.
    engines. Old cars are also more likely to have rusted out radiators that
    leak.
    Jason
     
    Jason Johnson, May 23, 2006
    #6
  7. I chalk it up to design, mostly. Sometime in the early '80s automotive
    engineers seemed to get the picture that drivers wanted more robust cars and
    started putting effective cooling systems in them. I'm sure that was aided
    by improvements in fuel economy and the demands of aluminum heads (cylinder
    heads, not engineers' heads). Anyway, I've never had a post '80 car that
    ever overheated unless there was something definitely wrong - radiator,
    hoses, fan, water pump.... Any trace of rust in the cooling system is a very
    bad sign. I once broke my own rule of not buying any car with signs of
    cooling system rust (car lust is a terrible thing) and ended up with a car
    that had irreparable corrosion in the fittings and a nearly inaccessible
    freeze plug that corroded through.

    Overheating is fairly straightforward to troubleshoot now that the system is
    made to work with enough margin. If the coolant level is dropping, find and
    fix that first. If the temperature rises relentlessly you can be sure the
    radiator is not conducting the heat away - repair or replace. (I've never
    seen a radiator flush do any good at all, but I've tried numerous times. It
    cleans the superficial stuff out, but when I tore down the radiator in our
    Volvo I found the lower third of the tubes were blocked solid with hard
    water deposits.) If the temperature rises at idle and drops when the car
    starts moving, you have a flow problem; coolant flow if the temperature
    drops in a few seconds, air flow if it takes a couple minutes to return to
    normal.

    If the temperature rises rapidly and the coolant is disappearing, it looks
    bad for the head gasket(s).

    Mike
     
    Michael Pardee, May 23, 2006
    #7
  8. I chalk it up to design, mostly. Sometime in the early '80s automotive
    engineers seemed to get the picture that drivers wanted more robust cars and
    started putting effective cooling systems in them. I'm sure that was aided
    by improvements in fuel economy and the demands of aluminum heads (cylinder
    heads, not engineers' heads). Anyway, I've never had a post '80 car that
    ever overheated unless there was something definitely wrong - radiator,
    hoses, fan, water pump.... Any trace of rust in the cooling system is a very
    bad sign. I once broke my own rule of not buying any car with signs of
    cooling system rust (car lust is a terrible thing) and ended up with a car
    that had irreparable corrosion in the fittings and a nearly inaccessible
    freeze plug that corroded through.

    Overheating is fairly straightforward to troubleshoot now that the system is
    made to work with enough margin. If the coolant level is dropping, find and
    fix that first. If the temperature rises relentlessly you can be sure the
    radiator is not conducting the heat away - repair or replace. (I've never
    seen a radiator flush do any good at all, but I've tried numerous times. It
    cleans the superficial stuff out, but when I tore down the radiator in our
    Volvo I found the lower third of the tubes were blocked solid with hard
    water deposits.) If the temperature rises at idle and drops when the car
    starts moving, you have a flow problem; coolant flow if the temperature
    drops in a few seconds, air flow if it takes a couple minutes to return to
    normal.

    If the temperature rises rapidly and the coolant is disappearing, it looks
    bad for the head gasket(s).

    Mike

    Mike,
    You take care of your cars--many people do NOT take care of their cars.
    This is especially true for people that have NO mechanical knowledge. I
    once dated a woman that never had the oil changed on her car before I met
    her. I checked the oil in her car and the oil looked like tar. The
    coolant looked more like rusty water than antifreeze. There are thousands
    of people like her. People like us rarely ever have problems with our cars
    since we take care of them. It's my guess that almost everyone that I saw
    in the desert with steam coming out of the radiators failed to follow a
    maitenence program related to their vehicles. Cooling systems can not
    handle desert conditions unless they have been properly maintained.
    However, Murphy's law will kick in for all of us--even if we do keep our
    vehicles well maintained--that is esp. true in related to electrical
    problems.
    Jason
     
    Jason Johnson, May 23, 2006
    #8
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