Chiclalis09

Hey! We have a 2002 Civic LX with 98,000+ miles. My boyfriend got it in March and around June it started to overheat. My boyfriend drove it to work everyday, about a 30 min drive, and when he was getting close to his job it would start to overheat. When we used the a/c it would heat up even faster.
I would use the car to drive into downtown to the hospital area, about a 30 min drive, and it never overheated for me. But in the past 2 months, we were only able to drive the car for about 20 minutes, without the A/C and 10 or less with the A/C. Now, it can barely drive 10 min without the A/C.
My boyfriend put the fan directly to the battery so when we need to drive a high distance we connect the fan so it won't over heat as fast. It lasts longer like this but it will eventually do the same thing. The transmission light will turn on, and then if i have to make a stop, the engine will turn off. I have to put the car in park, turn the key to off, wait a few seconds and then turn it on again. And when on, it'll runs at no more than 5mph. I have to let it sit, open the hood and let it cool off for about 30 min. (You have no idea how hard it is to push this car in heels all alone!)
We've taken it to many mechanics and they all say the same thing- "It's the catalyzer"...
The Catalyzer is NEW
Oxygen sensors are NEW
the fuse for the fan is NEW (cause it wasn't working so it wouldn't automatically turn on)
the thermometer is fine
AND IT STILL DOES THE SAME THING!!

A friend told me it may be a package in the motor that eats away when the car is ran up to red on the thermometer. Anyone know anything about this??
Any suggestions, ideas or advice will be greatly appreciated. Even if you know a mechanic here in Houston that can help, we're open to suggestions. Thanks!

lazlong

Sounds like a bad headgasket but, could be a bad water pump or the cooling system is clogged somewhere.

BTW: You're 20K overdue for a new timing belt, tensioner, and water pump.

MindBomber

+1 bad head gasket.

Have a mechanic test the coolant in the radiator for hydrocarbon levels, if that's not it, there's probably a clog somewhere in the AC cooling system preventing or slowing coolant flow.

Chiclalis09

Water pump and thermostat work fine. What kind of coolant does it need? just anything in general? I will have to check all the other things though

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

eeeerm... what are your coolant levels?
also chek here...
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...reference.html

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

are the lower and upper large radiator hoses too hot to touch after driving the car? if so the thermostat is good. if the lower hose is only warm or cold, bad thermostat. is the coolant overflow (plastic white tank) full of coolant and leaking from the top? when overheating, does the temp gauge go down if you turn the fan to max and temp to HOT? does hot air blow from the vents? the radiator fan actually does very little to cool the motor unless you are stopped in traffic for long periods of time in the summer. you can also try to feel different areas of the radiator to see if certain areas are cold, which would indicate clogs. also i think you two drove the car way too much and caused a small problem to become worse. im not sure what a transmission light is, these cars dont have one unless you mean the engine light, or the D icon was flashing. have the code checked for free at the auto store and post back what it was.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

^ i will quote ye in the "sticky" thread soon enough, you know?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the easiest way to figure this stuff out is start small and work your way up. head gasket should be the last thing to worry about, altho they seem to be pretty common on these cars. i have a feeing its due to people inadvertently (or on purpose, thanks honda owners manual) driving their car in winter til the temp gauge reads in the middle/normal, then cranking the temp dial from cold to hot. on this particular gen, this opens a large heater hose valve and allows ice cold coolant sitting in the heater core and dash hoses to go straight into the hot engine head. as you can guess, this is really bad for the engine. instead, leave the temp dial on hot for the whole winter and just turn the fan to OFF before the car warms up. this allows the car to still warm up fairly quickly, and you will have all the coolant circulating already when the car is warmed up. then adjust the fan speed to your liking or leave it off and air will blow in when driving on its own. on the freeway, i doubt you even need the blower fan at all.

anyway, ordered list of overheating checks:

1. thermostat. drive the car til its fully warmed up, at least 30mins. open hood and feel top and bottom radiator hoses (the big ones). top should be hot, bottom should be hot. this means coolant is going to the radiator and everything is normal. if bottom hose is cool or warm, thermostat is either stuck closed or not opening enough. can cause overheating under certain conditions. solution: replace with oem honda thermostat.

2. fan motor, fan relay, fan fuse, or fan temp sensor. something is causing the cooling fans to not come on like they should when the car is at idle for extended periods of time in hot weather. turn the a/c on and see if both fans come on immediately. if so, motor/fuse/relay is fine. fan temp sensor in the coolant passage could be bad. on a hot summer day, outside temp of 90F or higher, drive the car til it warms up fully. park car and leave it running. within 5 mins the fans should turn on. if not, bad fan temp sensor. replace it and retest. a fan problem can cause overheating at idle in stop and go traffic, but not while the car is driving above 35mph (then the radiator will be doing its job).

3. air bubbles. can cause real or fake overheating. air in the cooling system is usually caused by doing a coolant drain and fill on these cars, since the radiator passages are so tiny compared to cars with larger engines. air bubbles around the cooling passages can cause hotspots to develop, which can cause serious problems with the engine. air does not cool anywhere near as good as liquid. air can also confuse the engine coolant temp (ECT) sensor and cause it to read a higher than normal temp. the sensor must be inside the coolant to work properly. to limit air bubble formation when doing a coolant change, you can turn the temp dial to full COLD before shutting off the car. you can also choose not to open the engine block drain bolt. note that doing these things will allow some old coolant to stay in the system. so you may want to do a second drain and fill later on once the new and old coolant mixes. after coolant change, make sure you bleed the majority of air out by following this procedure. drive car til fully warmed up. park on a sharp upward incline or jack up front of car. carefully remove radiator cap using a lot of shop towels to catch the coolant spray. leave cap off, start car, turn temp dial to max HOT. turn fan on one notch. feel the air coming out. if cool, you have a long way to go. watch the radiator and add coolant so that you can see the level near the top. keep watching for air bubbles for at least 30 mins, or until no large bubbles are coming to the surface. you can tap or squeeze the large radiator hoses and rev the engine to 3k rpms occasionally to speed up the process. when bubble formation has stopped, put cap back on and turn off car. go for a drive and turn the fan on. hot burning air should be coming from the vents. some water bubbling noises may be heard in the dash for up to a year afterwards, but these small bubbles will eventually come out. make sure the temp gauge does not go above normal.

4. radiator cap. a faulty cap that does not pop open and allow coolant into the overflow tank can cause cooling system pressure to rise above normal. this can lead to hoses failing, water pump leaking, and a variety of other problems that can make it seem like a headgasket leak. replace cap with a new honda oem part every 5 yrs to prevent any problems.

5. ECT sensor. already mentioned, this sensor is extremely important. not only does it tell you how hot the coolant is (via the temp gauge), it also tells the ecu so it can adjust how the car runs. usually you will get a check engine light for a bad sensor, but not always. replace this if you seem to be overheating for no real reason, and the engine bay does not seem to be hotter than normal and the coolant level is normal.

6. clogged radiator, cooling system, or other. if you have an older car where the coolant was never changed, chances are you have junk inside that could be clogging parts of the cooling system. you can check for radiator clogs by warming up the car, then using an IR thermometer to check the temp of various areas of the radiator. if one or more spots are very cool, you may have a blockage. if you drain the coolant and find any sort of debris, try a power flush of the system and hope that most of the chunks work their way out. it can be a huge challenge to clean up a cooling system like this because there are so many small passages where clogs can occur.

7. physical coolant leaks. if you are losing coolant and there are visible leaks, trace where they are coming from and fix the leak (hose, water pump, engine block, etc). failure to fix leaks can result in overheating when enough coolant is lost. if the overflow tank becomes empty, the cooling system can suck in air and make the situation even worse.

8. head gasket. you finally arrived. it wasnt easy, but now you are almost sure the overheating is caused by a gasket leak between the engine head and block. how can you make sure? lots of ways. a large leak can easily be detected by checking the compression of each cylinder. the stock rating is roughly 128 psi, but you are looking more for one or two cylinders that are very low compared to the rest. with a small gasket leak, compression can come back normal on all cylinders. if the oil looks milky, and the coolant looks oily, more than likely the two are mixing together. if you have a misfire when cold starting the car (whole car is shaking violently for a minute), that can be an indication of a slow leak where coolant is filling one or more cylinders. when the car warms up, the coolant burns away and car runs fine. you can have the cooling system pressure checked as well. lower pressure can mean a physical leak or also a gasket leak. pull all the spark plugs and look for white deposits that can indicate burnt coolant.do a gas test of the coolant that can indicate the presence of hydrocarbons leaking in from combustion. be complete and do as many tests as you can. a blown headgasket, if small, can be driven on for a while. but it will get worse and can eventually cause serious damage, even if you are not overheating right now. usually coolant that disappears from the reservoir with no reason always points to it being burned in the engine from a headgasket leak.


now some ideas if your car is not overheating, but there is no cabin heat from the heater vents. drive the car to normal operating temp and leave it on. look in the back of the engine bay where there are two smaller cooling hoses going into the dash. on one hose there is a black valve assembly with a metal lever and cable assembly (usually blue cable). inside the car, turn the temp dial from full hot to full cold. make sure the lever moves completely from one side to the other. this opens the cooling passage and allows hot engine coolant to come inside the cabin and heater core (small radiator in the dash). after a minute or two of turning the temp dial to hot, feel the two heater hoses going into the dash. they should both be warm to hot. it is okay if one hose is hotter than the other (this is hot engine coolant going into the dash). the cooler hose is coolant that has already been used to heat the cabin. if you have the fan blowing hard, one hose will always be less hot than the other. with fan turned off, they should be similar temps. inside the car, remove the driver side lower fuse cover and stick your head up on the gas pedal side. you should see a bunch of plastic gears and an actuator motor. turn the temp dial from full hot to full cold. the gears should move for a few seconds (they may not be smoothly turning, but they should move). now turn the temp dial one notch at a time. each notch should turn the gears very quickly for a split second. if you hear no noise and gears are not moving, replace the actuator motor. if gears are slow or struggling but motor is working, the engine bay heater hose valve may be sticking. spray it with silicone to see if it moves faster. if not, replace the heater valve. do not attempt to manually turn the heater valve using the metal lever. you can break it. if everything checks out but you are not getting hot air blowing, it could be a problem with either the blower motor or transistor.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i did not mention water pump because they very rarely fail (the oem honda pump that is). aftermarket water pumps are garbage. if the water pump somehow fails, you would know it. either by noticable coolant leaks around the pump area, or a car that dies and you see a shredded timing belt on the ground. very rarely will the pump fail internally to where it is not circulating coolant. this will cause the coolant to stay in the engine and not circulate thru the radiator or heater core, but is very rare.

Chiclalis09

While i take the time to review this and see if any of this is helpful...

And we know the car overheats because it wont run over 5 mph and the catalyzer is RED... yes... red...

AND.. we want a quick fix because we already have a buyer for the car

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

oh by catalyzer do you mean the exhaust manifold with built in catalytic converter? that could be a problem too. was the new part from honda or was it aftermarket? if it is glowing red hot, that is more of an exhaust issue, usually when the cat becomes clogged. is the check engine light on?

lazlong

^^Cat is new.

Sounds like it's runny very lean. Meaning very high temps, hence the red exhaust manifold/cat. What codes do you have? It wouldn't run like that without a code.

On a side note: If you continue to drive it like that at the minimum you're looking at a new cat very soon, if not a new engine. And if you bought an OEM cat you already know they cost a fortune.

em2maxamillian

My suggestion is that, until you figure out what's happening, park the car and don't use it. Reading your initial post, it can't be good driving it around having it overheat every so often. I realize it's your mode of transportation, but the more you push it in that condition, the more likely other things will go wrong, and the higher your repair bill will be.

Chiclalis09

It was the Camshaft Sensor (u.u)... my new mechanic charged me $120 for the fix and part. Thanks for the help and advice! We did park the car for 2 weeks but as a result of having the fan direct, we might have to buy a new battery