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So… for the past three months and a bunch of cash later, I have had the radiator, radiator cap, belt, water pump, thermostat, AND headgasket replaced. The 2001 honda civic still overheats. I do not have heat in my car. The heat has been slowly dying out since spring. However, since it was getting warmer weather, I decided that I could deal with it once cooler months arrive. At the end of April, it started to randomly run hot, but the problem seemed to go away, until at the end of July when the poor radiator exploded with fluids and smoke. This was the beginning of my life’s dependency on cabs, good friends, and towing companies (obviously haven’t found great mechanics… until Eric “The Car Guy”). Do you guys think it could be a clogged heater, that (over time)just slowly started melting the gasket?
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The reservoir is supposed to be air tight. I suspect your reservoir cap is not sealing or the tank is cracked near the top or you removed the cap with the engine hot. You must leave the system sealed reservoir and all. If you would squeeze the radiator hose you can tell when the pressure is off and it is safe to open the reservoir and radiator cap. Idling does not create a significant load on the engine so it might take a while or require driving to get the fans to come on depends on the outside temperature and the whether the heater is on or off.
B) Hey hey… I got heat! That was some nasty stuff coming out of that core! Bled the system and light went off and it runs better than ever. I am still kinda wondering if air got trapped around that planet-x type sludge letting it out little by little over time…(it’s all connected with coolant) KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! I will give ya an update in a week (or before if the light comes back on) 😉 I really appreciate everyone’s posts. Y’all are a bunch of helpful guys! 🙂
While reading I was practically screaming ‘air in the cooling system!’. The forum was on it though. I still have my doubts that you bled the system correctly, if the symptoms come back LEAVE THE RADIATOR CAP OFF, put a pan under the front of the car, turn the heat on high with the fan off and run the engine at 2K till the cooling fan comes on. ANYTIME you open the cooling system for service like a head gasket or something like that this procedure must be followed or air will remain trapped in the system. Bleeder valves are only there to make filling the system easier, to bleed the air out you need to follow the above procedure. Keep us posted if things change.
Ahhh! It’s Eric!! Haha…. Sad to say, the light flicked on going to work yesterday morning, but I was lucky to be able to drive it over to a shop (mechanic #3). They vacuum tested it. The hose that goes from the radiator to the reservoir was collapsing- easy fix. Those guys felt so bad that I soaked so much dough into the car that they didn’t charge me.
I checked it this morning and the radiator was full of beautiful neon green coolant! 🙂 To me, it was like Christams morning. I am so happy! I can go places! … and without mini- heart attacks! Lol.
I have been trying to find a video on how to do a vacuum test. I am curious of what they had to do.
I can’t say enough for this site. Y’all are my heros! Everyone has been so supportive and the videos are awesome! Thanks so much!;)
Thank you for sticking with us until the problem was solved. Whenever you have a difficult diagnosis, you can make wrong turns on the way to a solution, especially if there was a chain of mechanics who didn’t talk to each other. In retrospect I wonder what, of all you replaced, could have been avoided.
Specifically, in retrospect, could the original problem have been just a collapsing hose coming from the reservoir? During normal driving and right after a short trip, the hose would probably look and function normally. A positive pressure test of the system (and even that hose) would be normal. So, we are NOT talking about a diagnosis that should have been easy. After you leave the vehicle sitting for hours, cooling-induced negative pressure builds up in the system, which should siphon coolant backward from the reservoir into the radiator. The hose collapsed and fluid couldn’t return. If the mechanic was lucky and he examined the car at that time, he might find a collapsed hose.
In retrospect I wonder if the mechanic who decided to replace the head gasket had enough evidence to justify that procedure. We made the assumption that he did, but now I have my doubts. I wonder if ANY of the other parts that were replaced were bad at all. What an educational story!
This harps back to the common theme on this forum. You must gather as much evidence as you can before taking a shortcut to replace parts. I think the hero was the mechanic who found your solution, for free.
Well, I would say 40% of the replaced parts (HG included) came from mechanic #3 who in fact changed out the hose and made me happy. I thanked him a billion times 🙂 … this has been an ongoing problem for the past 3 months. I can say that through the suggestions and videos I have learned a LOT about this topic. Hopefully, the next person who has this issue will stumble across this post and learn a few things to! It has definitely made me appreciate the the industry.
Yes, it would have been nice to save a bit, (a large bit)of cash, but it’s not just about getting back and forth from work for me. It’s about being able to live a normal life of things that I regularly do other than work… all of the side projects that have to be put on hold when my car isn’t doing so well. It is imparative to keep learning new things. Life just isn’t fun being one-dimensional and a good running car is a requirement!
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