Hot Prelude

Lately the engine coolant in Fourwheelsteer’s Prelude has been disappearing over time. Although there were no puddles under the car the only explanation I could see was that the system must be leaking from somewhere.

From My Honda

I purchased some Radweld and the instructions suggested that flushing the cooling system with another product by the same company. It could just be clever marketing but I reasoned that a nearly 13-year old cooling system might benefit from cleaning out. Especially as the product suggested it would help with overheating and the Prelude’s engine does get rather hot if stuck in traffic for any length of time.

Draining the Prelude’s cooling system is simple enough; Honda does a good job at making its cars easy to service in my experience. The instructions for the Holts cooling system flush suggested driving 20-30 miles which was just right for driving to my local Honda dealer (friendly and efficient as always) for some genuine coolant. Again, I’m a sucker for marketing but I did hear another Prelude owner extolling the virtues of genuine anti-freeze. Since it is about the same price as generic stuff from Halfords why wouldn’t you go for the OEM stuff?

Back home and after lunch the cooling system was drained, the recommended dosage of Radweld poured in along with the fresh coolant. I also put the cooling system to the test, letting the car tick over until the fans cut in. It is reassuring to know they do, even if the temperature is some way above that of normal running (but still within the bounds of the ‘normal’ portion of the gauge).

Initial investigations show that the level in the radiator hasn’t dropped overnight – hopefully the mystery leak has been fixed.