I have a '90 Legend which seems to be getting worse by the day. I have to crank on it a bit to get it to start up, and it idles a bit rough. sometimes at stoplights i'll put it in Neutral so it idles a bit more smoothly, but in N the RPMs go up and down. Once in a while the car is neutral the engine will die.
After driving for a short amount of time my engine gets really hot. The temperature gauge goes all the way up after about 10-15 minutes, but my coolant is full and I haven't been losing any. After driving about that long, i decided to check my oil once and realized there was quite a bit of steam coming out of where my oil is.

I'm just a girl that doesn't know much about cars so if somebody could help me figure out what's wrong with the car, I would really appreciate it.
Also I've had the car for maybe a month and a half with nothing but problems, I would love to have the car running better if possible, I can't afford a new car.
Thanks

 

You need to get your car to a shop b4 you burn the motor up. If it's running hot, you will do internal damage that will cost big bucks to fix, or a new motor. Have this checked ASAP. Are you in NY?

 

No I'm in Florida. I just had my plugs and wires changed which temporarily fixed it, somehow a couple of my cylinders weren't working so it was dying on me. I do have one dead cylinder so my car isn't going to last forever and it has about $1400 to fix, which isn't worth it considering it's twice what i spent on the car. I'm better off getting a different car.

 

i'm just about to buy an old crappy legend for transportation. i'm a 240 guy, but i'm having to downgrade. here's the thing though, all cars are basically the same.


there's a thing called the Idle Air Control Valve that sustains proper idling and coldstart idle. but that's only half of what an engine needs to operate. engines burn an air/fuel mixture, so you have to methodically go through all the air and fuel components seperately to get it to run right. this is true on all cars. as is true that all cars' performanceis the sum oftheir parts... meaning, if one thing is bad it can effect another and a dominoe effect happens. on old cars, several things need to be repaired.


there's such a thing as jimmyrigging a car to run ok, but it will always bring back issues until you trully fix the components that operate the car.


this includes vacuum lines so that certain self-tune operating valves work. say like... an egr valve or whatever.. solenoids (magnetic valves that operate by clicking electricity on and off to open and close valves) ... solenoids operate certain valves that will open up the vacuum tube and as the engine intakes air creates a suction or vacuum (hence the term vacuum hoses).


so in order for you to get your car to idle and stay idling correctly, you have to methodically check things like... fuel filter, fuel injectors, fuel regulator to get the correct amount of fuel. ..and.. the air filter (just keeps stuff out of the engine but on rare accounts can clog), your throttlebody and cable attachment,the idle and vacuum and throttle adjustment hoses and valves and solenoids, and then you have paper gaskets that keep the intake solid tight to where the engine is only getting the amount of air your gas pedal designates. (your gas pedal opens the throttle *the butterfly valve that opens and lets air in* and then the throttle position sensor tells the ECU *engine computer unit... or the box with the computer board with the rev codes and instructions for the valves when the sensors tell the the ecu what's going on*.... once the ECU knows how much air is being let in, it then asks what position the crank is at *where the pistons are and when they are getting air and fuel* and what RPM the engine is going and then tells the injectors and sparkplugs when open and fire.


it's all a system that works together.


again.. you press the gas pedal, air is let in and the throttle position sensor says it's letting in so much air, the ecu figures this-along with the crank position sensor-and that determines when the injectors spray and the sparkplugs fire.


that's how a car idles... in general terms. there's a ton of more info on how it works.








as for you having steam coming from your oil. very very bad thing. if you have water in your oil, that means the coolant is leaking into oil... means the oil will not properly lubricate your crank bearings and once they are spun out of shape the crank will literally throw a piston rod through the side of the engine block and when the engine becomes out of time from the timing chain breaking, the Valves will bend... leaving you with a piece of scrap that was your engine.


this is most likely a head gasket.. not a cheap fix if you don't do it yourself. this requires you to take off all of the top of the engine, and then have to mechanically time everything again when you put it back together. it's not that hard once you learn how, just very very time consuming. not to mention, you need special tools for the job... specifically a torque wrench for the Head bolts.


however, there is a couple other major threats that could be possibilities of water in your oil.. cracked block from overheating. this means your engine is scrap. it could be a cracked Head from overheating... block is salvagable, but Head's are no where near cheap.


you begin to understand why it takes so much effort for us Tuners to get a sick import that goes fast as hell. [img]smileys/smiley2.gif[/img]


now... if you can afford to keep doing oil changes and filling coolant levels, this car will continue to run... but only for a while.


maybe you should look into finding a cheap engine replacement vs. fixing that one... this is why so many of us just swap engines.. it's generally cheaper to just buy a cheap okay engine vs. spending time and money on every little problem on an old messed up one. it's fun learning, but not spending.





also, one more thing... before you said there was steam coming from the oil, i was going to tell you that the good chance the reason your car is overheating rapidly is because there is air in the coolant system... particularly where the thermastat and water pump is... you have to understand that a coolant system is like any other hydralic pump (sorta), in the way that if there's air in the system the fluid is not flowing... it's just sloshing aroudn in the same spot.. this is why when an overheated engine cracks... it happens away from the water pump because the water pump is still moving the water a little bit, but it's not continously flowing through the engine... cooling it all off.


the way to remedy the air in the system is when you're pouring fluid into the engine, you 'massage' the upper radiator hose... here's how it goes... you pour coolant in til it's full... you're not done.. massage the upper radiator hose... air will start to come out of the radiator and the fluid will drop... pour more coolant in and repeat over and over until the fluid no longer drops down. i'm not too sure on these Legends until i start working on mine, but for the most part this takes out enough air that the rest is small enough to just flow to the radiator and stay there.





i know... lots of info. and that's just some of the basics to making an engine run.

 

wow thanks a lot for all the info. I've taken my car to a couple shops and gotten various answers to what is wrong with my car, so i'm trying to learn as much as i can. Also i have mechanic family members 1500 miles away, but it's as hard to diagnose problems over the phone as...well the internet I'm sure.
...Here's an update since my first post.
I got my plugs and wires changed. I didn't think it would help but if it didn't, the mechanic said he wouldn't make me pay for it and he'd fix the actual problem. My car runs now without stalling out on me. The only thing is it does chug a little bit, but it's because I have one cylinder that's not working. So it's a temporary problem with definite problems in the future, just trying to save up enough money for a new car, because an engine swap is worth more than i paid for the car itself.
The one thing I can't figure out is my oil. Yes, if my car heats up enough (if i drive it over 10 minutes) I will get steam out of where my oil is, and when i check my oil it does seem diluted with something, but i think it's water. My coolant level has been at full for a month now, I've been checking it. I've been told by a familiy member to check the "PCV Valve", because that's probably the problem. The thing is, I have no idea what or where that is. Either way, I'm just trying to keep my Acura running until i can find a more reliable car.

 

pcv valve on a 90 legend is under the front valvecover plate it bolts in and is unique to this modle.

your problems could all be due to a oxygen sensor reading rich (aka too much fuel) when in fact it is not. if its telling the computer to reduce the fuel when its already too little then a lean condition can occurer lean by 3-4% will double the engine temp and a perfect cooling system cant keep up with it.

tune up is a good place to start
AFTER it has been confirmed that the engine is sound. (hate to put a tune up on a bomb going to the junk yard)