engine wont stay warm... or something.

[97 Ex/SiR]

heres the deal. since i got my swap done the car will warm up in my driveway, but when i drive it, the temp guage goes down to cold again. it didnt do this in the summer, but now that its cold outside it will not stay warm. my heat wont stay warm, and i cannot enguage vtec when engine is reading cold. whats the problem?? coolant had a leak that i couldnt find for the life of me, so i took it into the shop. they fixed the leak, and i filled the coolant back up. whats the deal? any ideas would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
-Dane

[imported_biocac]

Dane - From the sounds of things, I am going to take a stab towards the possability that you may need to replace your thermostat. The fluxutatio in temp could be caused by a false reading. You might want to get that checked out first. If you think about it, you car HAS to warm up . . that's just a given.
That's my $.02
Good luck on it.

Sam -

Im thinking thermostat too, but i have never heard of a thermostat sticking closed and reading cold. Im thinking maybe a heater core issue. Do this...Start up your car, let it warm up, and feel the engine if its hot, then your engine is warm (Obviously) Check for any kinds of leaks anywhere. It might be your tempature sending unit, it might be all fawked and reading wrong, telling your ECU your engine is running cold. Just my .02, try it out, and tell us your results

[97 Ex/SiR]

well yes, ofcourse it gets warm. its just when i start driving, it cools down. according to the guage anyhow. i will look into it though. thanks. oh, and by the way. coolant is leaking again. cant figure out where, again. could be the problem! thanks guys

[imported_team_adrenaline]

Thermostats can also stick open and it would cause a similar problem. What I would suggest is find someone with an aftermarket temp gauge like an autometer or someone with a computer scanner and hook it up to verify the temp readings. If they are the same then replace the thremostat. If they aren't then replace the coolant temp sensor. There are two different ones and the one you need is at advanced auto/autozone/pep boys/etc. for about 20 bucks. it should be located on the head just below the distributor, probably a one wire sensor that screws in to the head. If none of these are the prob. then you need to take it to a shop and have them look at it. Also with the coolant leak, take it back to the shop that said they fixed it before. If the leak did anything to the temp it would cause it to go up not down.

[hybridhatch]

If your collant is leaking then that is your problem. Just make sure you don't let it run like that for long or it's bye-bye head gasket. Your symptoms are usually the first symptoms of a head gasket going. It will warm up, but once you get moving and get the juices flowing thru the motor, it blows all of the coolant out and runs cold. That's probably the best guess on where your coolant is going to also. I'd have your mechanic check out your head gasket.

[imported_biocac]

:werd:! I never thought of that. My first hatchie had a semi bad head gasket in it and it often read a low temp. I thought it was just a Honda thing!
See? I learn something new every day!

You'll def. have to let us all know what it ended up being.

Sam -

[cynosurecivic]

im leaning to checking either the headgasket or thermostat.

[imported_DRAGNFARTPIPE]

i have this wonderfull tester that "sniff"s" out hydrocarbons in your cooling system go have it tested takes 5 mins and you will know if your head gasket is blown shouldent cost you more than 15 bucks to get tested

[97 Ex/SiR]

the headgasket is fine. theres just a hose leaking somewhere. it seems that i tighten one hose clamp, and another one starts to leak. its been so damn rainy that i cant tell where its comming from. im not going to mess with it. i will just take it in. i talked to the shop and they apologized for not fixing it the first time. i would guess its all due to a low coolant level. i will let everyone know exactly what the problem is as soon as i get a day off of work and i can take the car in. the car also has a bad case of the cv shakes. might as well get everything done before the snow falls... and take off rims, and..... so much to do. never enough daylight..
thanks guys. -Dane