I have a 94 legacy that recently started to overheat. I changed the thermostat (had the original t stat...go subie) which seemed to help. Right now it is only overheating sometimes. I can let it idle and nada but once i start driving it overheats around 10 20 minutes, sometimes less. The kicker is i lose heat when it starts, ill keep my fan on and once my air goes cold the needle quickly goes to h. Any ideas what kills the heat and causes overheat at once?

Hm maybe pull over when you notice losing heat and pop the cap on the radiator overflow and see if it looks like it is boiling (bubbles blowing into it), that would be signs of a head gasket failure. Not super common on a '94 2.2L, but with these vehicles nearing 20 years of age and enough mileage, they can and do fail sometimes.

 

Hm ... other thing maybe is if the water pump is somehow slipping against the back of the timing belt for some reason ....

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/overheating/index.html

Above is a link of symptoms and likely causes.

do two searches on this forum for the words burping or burp and you should find your problem. the lack of heat is a big indicator. probably air in the heater core or engine. check it out.

the loss of heat suggests either:

 

1. low coolant levels

2. headgasket

 

have you checked coolant level?

Oh right good point on the air being trapped. Since the thermostat was changed the coolant of course had to have been drained. If you just pour in the new coolant through the rad cap with the vehicle level on the ground it almost guarantees it will trap air. You really need to get the front of the vehicle lifted up a little bit and pour the coolant in the upper rad hose initially. Then the little burp plug on the pass side can help somewhat too. There's some other tricks to making sure it doesn't trap the air.

Oh yeah, they got it - my comment about "low coolant level" is a bit off - it should read "low coolant or trapped air".

water in overflow has been completly cold when i checked b4, no bubbles will check again and burp thoroughly. Something has been causing my belt to squeak when i start it and off and on while at idle.

 

thanks for all the replies

You have the classic signs of a head gasket leak sorry to say. To verify it you can have the coolant checked to see if exhaust gases are getting into it. Hopefully I am wrong about the trouble.