Alright. I didn't know where to put this.
I need help with my GF's 96 Acura 3.2 TL. It has an overheating issue, well sorta. After a while of driving, even in -15*c weather, you can smell coolant. and in the next few minutes after you can see smoke coming from under the hood where the coolant overflow tank is located. Now the weird thing is the car is not overheating. Temp gauge works fine (had it tested) and its just below half when it happens. When I've opened the hood to check it out the overlow tank is bubbling and steaming. Now along with this problem she get horrible gas mileage (worse than me) and it seems to be stuck in open loop, or so I can tell. RPMs are around 3k when doing 110km/h whereas I'm under 2k.

My thoughts are the thermostat.

Any help is appreciated

Thanks ahead of time!

 

I would start with the simple stuff first, t stat, radiator cap, hoses. I wonder if mabey the radiator is 'icing up' you could possibly try putting some cardboard infront of it and see if that helps.

 

Yes i just remembered that the rad cap is bad! thanks!

 

That's might only be part of the issue. What I meant with putting cardboard infront of the rad is to block off some of the freezing air that could cause the fluid to freeze up and flowing out the overflow.

When was the cooling system serviced last?

 

Couldn't tell ya. Probably never. but I have done a quick flush and put new prestone in it. I didnt do a whole proper flush tho. Ill try the rad cap tomorrow and if thats not it i will do the cardboard.

 

trade it in and buy a chevy, that should solve your problems lol. j/k

hope you find out the problem, little things like that are such a headscratcher. my old cavalier used to give me some headaches back in the day. sounds to me like it's plugged somewhere and the hot antifreeze is going to the overfill instead of flowing through the lines. How is the heat inside the car when this happens. Depending on the temp of the heat/defroster, that might give some insight to where the problem lies. I would think that is it's plugged and the antifreeze is not making it to the heater core, then the heat should not be very hot in the car. Just an idea.