kae

Hi everyone,

I have a 2005 EX manual sedan with 128,000 miles. Over the past few months, sometimes when I go to leave in the mornings, all of my coolant is in a puddle under my car and both the radiator and overflow are completely empty. This has only happened three times, but whenever I check my overflow it's completely empty. The only place I see coolant is on the flat horizontal metal piece under the overflow, radiator, fans, etc in the front of the car.

The guy that changes my oil at Midas said he tested it and it's a bad head gasket, but my oil is clean and there's no smoke. I bought a new radiator cap this summer, and have been getting oil changes every 3000 miles. I also bled the coolant system in July and that didn't seem to make any difference.

So, I have a few questions:

Is it bad for the overflow to be constantly empty? My car has never overheated.

Is ~ $1000 a reasonable price for a new head gasket?

I was told this isn't a problem that needs to be fixed immediately, and that I can wait for the head gasket to worsen before getting it fixed, is this true or is there risk of damaging my engine?

And most importantly, does this sound like a head gasket issue or something else?

Let me know if I can clarify anything or provide any more information.

Thanks!

mikey1

what specific tests did he do on your engine to come to this conclusion?

i wouldnt trust the opinion of a "wanna be" mechanic at Midas, take it to a real mechanic, if its leaking coolant you need to find where its coming from first, a bad head gasket normally raises the temperature signifigantly,

cracked or leaking radiator?

maybe your coolant overflow tank is cracked?

check the hose that connects the bottle to the rad

check all the cooling hoses in that area

what you are describing does not sound like a bad head gasket, but i cant see anything from here

kae

I believe he did a block test (there was a chemical that started out blue and changed to green.)

I filled up both my radiator and overflow this morning. Currently after 25 min of driving and six hours of being parked, the overflow is completely empty and there is no puddle under my car.

I thought if the overflow or radiator was cracked there would be a definite puddle. Hoses also look good as far as I can see.

One of my coworkers said it could be the thermostat or heater core, is there any validity to those suggestions?

mikey1

if the heater core is leaking you would have coolant leaking inside your car, is the carpet wet on the drivers or passengers side of the floor?

i would remove the spark plugs and see what they look like, to see if its burning the coolant, but i find it hard to believe it would be burning the amount of coolant you are describing,

you could also pull the timing cover to inspect if the water pump is leaking

OneJzSupra

Another thing if its the thermostat you would be able to see as it sits at the top of the engine and very clear to see. How does your engine oil look? does it look like oil or milky? also have you done a visual inspection of your block? have you gotten under the car at all to see if you can see where it might be leaking from?

kae

Definitely not the heater core, both footwells are completely dry.

Could be the spark plugs since I've never had those replaced and the car is nearing 130,000.

The water pump was done when I bought the car two years ago so that should still be going strong.

Oil is fine, I've had it changed since this first began happening and everything was normal.

Everything I can see looks ok but I'm not very familiar with cars.