'04 Accord Random overheating + Acceleration issue
 

Car: 2004 Honda Accord EX
Miles: 190,000
Single Owner..
Never a single issue prior to May 6th.

Ok, so a few weeks ago, roughly May 6th. I took my kids to the sports card shop, its a 20 mile drive about 30-35 minutes. No problems at all.

We were inside about 40 minutes, come out to the car, everyone opened their boxes of cards, it was about 88 degrees sunny as hell, was hot. so sat in car probably 30 minutes with AC blasting. Then we went back in to get him a case, for one card. so car got turned off for 5-10 minutes, then back to car, sat for 5-10 more minutes with car on and AC blasting again.

Finally go to leave once we decided what we were doing next. car wasnt accelerating super well, drove to end of parking lot, sat at light twice as cars blocked intersection, finally got chance to go, acceleration was terrible, looked down card temp gauge was on full HOT. So i flipped on the heat full blast, temp gauge dropped, pulled back into the parking lot.

Parked, popped hood, let everything cool down with car off, etc. The coolant tank i finally noticed was almost empty, was below the minimum fill line. So i grabbed some coolant at the gas station, topped it off to the full line. started car, it pumped a TINY TINY bit, into the radiator, so the tank went down maybe a half inch.. pretty minimal amount. but i thought hmm maybe somehow that was it.. turned AC on.. sat.. nothing heating up.. drove around parking lot, no issues, so i decided to drive home. no issues at all.

Fast forward to Monday, the 23rd, driving home from work, traffic sucks, AC on, its like 77 out, nothing crazy.. but sun beating down.. im getting poor acceleration, look down and BOOM temp gauge almost all the way to hot.. so i roll down windows and kick on the heat full blast.. temp drops. get home, pop hood, cant see anything wrong thats obvious, coolant tank about same level, im not leaking oil or any other fluid anywhere.

Since then.. no issues.

Completely random, only POSSIBLE common factors are hot-ish day, running AC full blast, and sitting stop and go in traffic or sitting in traffic. However i feel as if i have done these things and also NOT had the issue as well.

Any thoughts? tests? ideas?

Possibly a defective A/C Fan relay? Check to makes sure both the fans are running when the A/C is on

Could be a slow leak in the Engine Head Gasket.. ? Keep an eye on the Radiator overflow coolant level. see if it continues to use coolant

:)

hope this helps

So both actually, the AC fan is not running, ever, i checked fuses and for loose wires, nothing there, so i need to dig a little deeper on that one.

Also the coolant level has dropped int he overflow tank again, its basically empty. the radiator is full the overflow talk was filled two weeks ago from empty to full, now its empty again.

Sounds like a trip to a good Honda Tech to check for a head gasket leak or other coolant leak.

Good Luck

:)