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I have replaced a few of those over the past few years. Let me share with you my experiences with replacements from places like Auto Zone, Advance Auto, etc. I have had one that worked for a week, then turned on the low oil pressure light. I have had one that worked for a few days, then leaked, I have had one that leaked from day one, and had one that lasted for about a year, and then turned on the low oil pressure light. Good luck with the inexpensive replacements!
In all reality, if you have a bolt of the proper thread to go into the accumulator, and a nut that fits it you are set. Thread the bolt in, cut off the head, and then use the nut and you have your own stud. As long as the mating surface on the accumulator is flat, and the threads in it aren’t screwed up, life is good.
In all honesty, 3 PSI one way or another isn’t going to make any difference as far as leaks go. As long as the cap you have is releasing at the proper pressure, you should be ok. Does the leak seem to be from the front of the engine compartment (like where the radiator is) or further back?
Might not be a bad idea to go over all of your hoses and make sure they are in good condition, replacing anything that is suspect. Might also be a good idea to borrow a cooling system pressure tester, and see if you can’t hunt down your leaks with it. If you continue to lose coolant after repairing all visible leaks, it might be a good idea to move on to compression, and / or leak down tests to be certain that you don’t have a failed head gasket.
Clear the code, and start the engine. Generally if the code comes on at idle or under 4000rpms it electrical, either the Vtec pressure sensor is bad, it has a bad connection, or a damaged wire. If the code doesn’t come back until the engine runs at or over 4000rpms its usually oil pressure related, meaning you have a low oil level, clogged screen, or the Vtec solenoid has gone bad, etc.
Hope this gives you a direction to look in.
The further I go, the more I learn 🙂
I was thinking this morning, and thought that I remembered wondering if the condenser fan was working properly when I was working on the system. It seemed to me at the time as though the fan didn’t appear to be running at proper speed, so I fired up the engine, and AC, and watched the fan. Turns out, not only was it running pretty darned slowly, but more importantly, after the first minute or so, it just stopped working all together. Out of curiosity, I tapped the relay a few times, and the fan sputtered to life momentarily while I was tapping the relay, so I guess a new condenser fan relay is in order. I suspect that the system will cool MUCH better at idle once the new relay is in place.
Since your mustang has a solid rear axle, alignment can’t be an issue. As long as you are certain nothing is bent in the rear suspension (no impacts, HUGE pot holes, curbs etc) then I would say maybe it is the result of those shocks just not being well matched to the spring rate in the rear of the car.
My first thought is it’s an Odyssey with high mileage, the transmission is taking a crap, perhaps torque converter is locking up, and not releasing. This is a pretty common problem with the Odyssey’s.
What codes were stored when the CEL was set? If it was the P0740 I would be very suspicious of the trans. Have you considered exhaust restriction, such as a plugged up catalytic converter? Just a thought, but I would thoroughly inspect the trans, and be absolutely sure that isn’t the problem before looking elsewhere. It is pretty unusual for an Odyssey of that vintage to go much over 150 – 160 k miles without the trans failing.
Agreed on needing to see this. It is going to be impossible for any of us to guess what might work without really seeing how this is set up.
I would start with the radiator cap, replace it, preferably with an OEM piece, make sure the system is full, and then see if it happens again.
Time to post a follow up here.
I couldn’t get my brain past the fact that I had 200 plus PSI on the high side, low pressure on the low side, and what appeared to be no cooling. It just didn’t make sense to me . . .. . until . . . .
Today I was driving my wife to work, and noticed that with the A/C turned off, temperature knob all the way to the cold side, and set to fresh air with the fan off, I was feeling hot air coming through my vents. It wasn’t terribly hot outside, at least not THAT hot. I flipped the temp knob back and forth several times, and could clearly hear the air door hitting the ends of it’s travel. I then opened the hood, and checked the coolant valve. Indeed, it was moving, but not a lot, so I reached down in there, and turned it towards it’s closed (pointing forward) position, and surprise, it was able to move another quarter of a turn beyond where it was when the temp knob was at full cold.
Next surprise, though it still doesn’t cool a lot sitting still, at 40 MPH it will blow 40 degrees at the vent. The temp still rises to near 60 when the car isn’t moving. The condenser fan looks like it might be running a bit slow, so that is something to consider, but the seemingly too high pressure on the high side is also something to consider. I still think that there may well be air in the system from being topped off many times, and that may be contributing to the high pressure, and poor cooling performance at low vehicle speeds.
Now that I know the system is working, as soon as I have the time, I will install the evaporator, and condenser that I have, as well as the new expansion valve, and hoses I have. While I am at it, I will replace all of the O rings, and then properly evacuate, and recharge the system, and I assume at that point, I will be good to go!
You might be in a spot where a press would be of help. If a shop press isn’t an option, perhaps you can get a bolt style “on the car” bearing press and set that up to remove the hub / bearing assembly.
When I did mine, I used longer bolts, threaded them in from the back of the hub just a few turns (no impact) and then used a hammer to beat on them, hitting each one just a few times before moving on, and worked the bearing out that way. That isn’t going to be an option for you though, so a press kit is probably going to be the best way to go.