Overlooked Repair on Honda Accord Coolant Leak

MIKHIMOKPA

MEMBER
1997 HONDA ACCORD
2.1L
4 CYL
AUTOMATIC

I had my 1997 Honda Accord towed to a local shop in my area due it overheating and idling erratically. The shop diagnosed the radiator as leaking which in their opinion caused the overheating and that the erratic idle was from a lack of coolant. They recommended replacing the radiator, radiator cap, along with coolant. I agreed to the repairs. This was in 3/4/14. On 3/7/14, (exactly 74 miles later) I have the same erratic idle issues as before. This time I'm in a different city so I have the vehicle towed to a different shop. This shop performs their diagnosis and they tell me the heater hose is leaking from oil leaking onto this hose and wearing it down. I pay again to have these repairs. Since the repairs were made at the 2nd shop, I've had no further issues with my vehicle.

Since you all are experts in your field, I greatly value your opinion.
My questions to you are: should the original repair shop have been able to diagnose the heater hose issue properly? Are their test that you can run to tell you if a cooling system repair has been completed properly in order to verify that the system is no longer leaking? Any information that you can provide will be very much appreciated.

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,755 POSTS

As far as your question, yes, they should have seen a heater hose leaking. To check for cooling system leaks, the system should have been pressurized using basically a hand pump and then inspected. At least, after the work was done, they should have allowed the engine to run and get hot so it would pressurize the system itself and then inspected hoses. Since replacing the radiator didn't fix the problem, it makes me question if the radiator was even an issue in the first place. Did they show you where it was leaking?