flstfirider63

My daughter has a 2005 civic Hybrid. It is overheating erratically. This all started with a fan blade shearing off and going into the radiator. Which ruined the radiator and overheated the engine. We replaced the radiator and the fan. Several months later, erratic overheating began. The car will have heat coming out of the vents, but then then the air goes cold and the temperature gauge starts moving to the top. It does not appear to have antifreeze in the oil. The thermostat has been changed and system flushed, with OEM antifreeze going back in. Still overheating. Answers on other threads are pretty much in agreement that it is a head gasket issue for the normal civic. Would it be the same for the abnormal....er....I mean the hybrid civics? Or could it be something else?

ezone

An overheat can and will damage any engine.

You described symptoms that typically occur when there is a head gasket failure, so I'd expect to find that upon inspection and diagnosis.

Yours was (likely) damaged during the fan/radiator overheat episode, even though it took a while for the problem to rear it's ugly head.
(I've witnessed engine damage that took a full year to make it's presence known too. More than once.)


I'd suspect (expect) the head gasket is blown, along with the cylinder head is now warped.

It's NOT a routine failure on the hybrid engine, not the same way it's almost expected on the regular 1.7 engine.
BUT your particular engine suffered an overheat, so this sort of failure (damage) can be expected.

HTH

flstfirider63

Thanks for answering. It looks like I will be replacing a head....

ezone

Not necessarily, it's gotta be pretty extreme to need replacement.

Take it apart and have it measured for flatness at a machine shop. It's likely still useable if it gets resurfaced perfectly flat again.


There are specs for these procedures. Flatness and machining limits. Get a good service manual that actually covers the engine in the Hybrid.

flstfirider63

I am having her download the factory service manual. No one seems to want to work on hybrids, which they are saying is due to the voltage. One place told her more than $250 to put in a thermostat. That was actually a pretty easy thing.

ezone

There is no HV at the front of the car when the key is OFF and the engine isn't running. It's safe enough for me to pull the head off without worry. If someone is really worried, you can pull the back seat out and turn off the battery pack main switch. JMHO


On that engine, the head gasket job (just by itself) in a shop, labor charges would probably start at minimum 10 hours and go up from there, depending on needs.