Civic 1986 with heating and aged mechanical problem

>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.

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?

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

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

Stewart DIBBS

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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

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jim beam - 23 May 2006 02:36 GMT

> 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
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> least a dozen old cars next to the road with steam coming out of the
> radiators.

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.

> The best solution would be to trade the car in on a newer
> car.

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.

> 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
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> than buying a newer car.
> Jason

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Jason Johnson - 23 May 2006 03:21 GMT

Jason Johnson wrote:

> In article <1148295480.923068.175830@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com>, "ski"
> <skirshad@gmail.com> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> least a dozen old cars next to the road with steam coming out of the
> radiators.

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.

> The best solution would be to trade the car in on a newer
> car.

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

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Michael Pardee - 23 May 2006 13:43 GMT

> Jason Johnson wrote:
> > In article <1148295480.923068.175830@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com>,
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> leak.
> Jason

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

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Jason Johnson - 23 May 2006 21:08 GMT

"Jason Johnson" <jason@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:jason-2205061921350001@66-52-22-30.lsan.pw-dia.impulse.net...

> In article <NOqdnSfSWLWo-u_Z4p2dnA@speakeasy.net>, jim beam
> <nospam@example.net> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> leak.
> Jason

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

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> 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
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> SKI

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.

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