ive been doing some good research and before i take my car out to get pressure tested. i just want a rough idea of what it is so the mechanic doesnt throw some bs at me.

my radiator was replaced approx. 20k miles ago and seems like there are no visual leaks.
after refilling on the coolant mixture, i burp the system for air deposits and let the thing idle to see if the fans turn on when heated up. everythings a big OK.
but after i take it for a spin and come back i realize im losing coolant somewhere. no visual leaks but no overheating yet.
after the 2nd trip i take, there is an obvious leak somewhere and my radiator is missing less than 1/4 of the coolant which caused the coolant sensor to show the engine is overheating, having the needle point near the red section on the temp gauge.

so, thinking it might be an old T-stat, i replaced it. and the problem didnt go away.
as of now im thinking, it might be a bad water pump or a bad radiator(the radiator that was replaced is some generic aftermarket brand)

anyone else have an idea of whats goin on?
thanks in advance

 

Find the leak. That much coolant loss should be easy to spot. Look under car for drain spot and work upwards.

Water pump drain hole is behind driver's side wheel at the lower end of the timing belt cover. Check all hoses very carefully, including heater hoses, coolant lines to intake manifold, radiator hoses. It's there but can be difficult to spot w/o some deep digging.

It's not impossible to be losing the water through the cylinder head gasket into combustion chamber, and out the exhaust pipe, however you should be seeing some very white smoke from the exhaust. Bad news, as this is an expensive repair, probably $600-800 would be my guess. Hopefully it's a leak.

good luck

 

Are you sure the system is bled completely? The radiator itself does not hold much coolant, so if you're not seeing a leak, it may be the system still "filling up". How much coolant did you add originally?

 

yeah..as of now finding the leak is hard. since it doesnt lose coolant unless the car is warmed up.
also, a note..the car seems like it warms up way too fast, just a 2 minute drive can make the hoses feel like its been running for hours.(no exaggeration)
coolant not circulating at all?

 

Hondas w/ a good thermostat warm up fast, particularly in warm weather, so that probably normal.

I know finding the leak can be difficult, but that's the only way to fix. No big red easy button here.

good luck

 

What does the temp gauge indicate? Mine usually is at full temp (about 1/3rd gauge) within
5 min of startup at idle, it'll hit it in about two min like yours if I just jump in and drive. You may want to just start it up on some clean pavementto see where the coolant is hitting the ground. Fill it up first, sit back and watch. Verify the system is circulating, then button it up. Sometimes the system has to come up to temp (and pressure) to open up the component that's leaking. Sounds like you're covering the bases as far as eliminating causes.

 

Someone already mentioned it but I'll re-iterate it. This sounds a lot like what one of my cars did, the water pump hadn't been replaced for a long time so the fins were pretty much shot but it wouldn't leak until the car was warm and the system pressurized, start the car and let it idle, look towards the bottom of the engine (look from under the car) drivers side, the side of the motor facing the firewall. Right at the back of the water pump is a "seep hole" where fluid will leak from if there is a bad bearing or something of that nature.... look there, also make sure your radiator cap is on good, fill up the coolant before you start doing these tests to ensure that it's operating normally, watch for "smoke" coming off the radiator to indicate that it's leaking and burning off...

 

i will def. check if my waterpump seep hole is leaking after the system is pressurized.
and btw, if i took the car to get it pressure tested to see where the leak is coming from, isnt that the same as me sitting there watching it idle and warm up while its building pressure in the system?

thanks for all the help so far

 

found something new today.
after car being warmed up. there was no visible leaks yet, until i backed the car up into a parking space, then i realized there was a trail of fresh coolant on the ground, and it seems like it was leaking from the driver side of the engine bay.
this puzzles me...even if it was the water pump..does anything change for the cooling system when i put the car in reverse?
looks like it was just constant drips to be specific. and no traces of it while i was g

 

The car idles a bit higher so the water pump starts spinning more quickly when you move the car, find the seep hole, and stuff a toothpick in there a little bit, you could even put a dab of super glue on it to make it stick, then back up the car and look for coolant on the ground, if you see some then shut off the car and check your toothpick, if it's covered in coolant or wet then you have your answer... the other option is to let the car warm up then rev the engine a few times and watch that area to see if stuff starts coming out...