mclld

I have an 01 Civic, about a year or so ago I had my timing belt, water pump and head gasket replaced and all has been fine until a couple weeks ago when it would get hot at slower speeds. I noticed my radiator and the ac part in front has a really big dent on the lower passenger side. I have replaced the thermostat and no luck. I took it to the shop who did my repairs last time and he says he doesn't think it is my head gasket.

I can drive drive several miles at highway speed and will notice my temp rise when I slow down and go back down when I hit a certain speed. I am thinking of buying g a new radiator to see if that might be my issue but I fear it is the early stages of a bad head gasket.

mikey1

could be head gasket, however check the obvious first....

how is the coolant level in the rad?

how is the coolant level in the overflow?

rad should be FULL at all times, overflow should be filled to about the max line, if either are not at the proper levels, top them up with OEM honda coolant,

drive the car again and see what happens, if it starts getting hot check the fluid levels again, but DO NOT open the rad while its hot!

Sea Bass

I had this exact same issue with my 02 Civic about a year and a half ago.

The car would cruise down the interstate at 80 mph and run a little hot but not overheat. Every time I stopped at a toll booth, the temp would sky rocket. Once I sped off it'd go down again.

I searched online for all the information I could for this problem and didn't find much info at all.

I then had 3 qualified mechanics look at it, and I got 3 different opinions. One said I had a leaky radiator, the other said I had a leaky reservoir, and the last said I had a leaky condenser (why would this matter?!).

Since I had some front-end damage from an old collision, I figured it'd be good to switch out the radiator and coolant reservoir anyways, but that didn't fix the problem. I then replaced all the hoses and the thermostat. Still didn't fix the problem.

After replacing every component of my cooling system, and exhausting the knowledge of all local mechanics, I caved and took it to the dealership. They told me what I had feared--I had a bad head gasket. They charged me about $900 and that fixed the problem.

I heard all sorts of things from the other mechanics as to why my car was overheating at low speeds and not at high speeds. They tried telling me that the airflow through the front end at 80 mph was enough to cool it down. I thought that was utterly ridiculous considering the condenser and bumper cover sit in front of the radiator. I try to avoid the dealership but in this case I think they were right.

Hope this helps (it's my first post...still learning the ropes!).