Mv7fd

Today I was sitting in a parking lot and my temp gauge went all the way to hot and staying there and I had no heat the fan work and I didn't notice any antifreeze and the oil isn't milky is it a head gasket or just a thermostat

Poopies

iTrader: (4)

How long did you drive it with the needle like that?! You should take it to a (good) shop so they can determine if you f'ed up your engine.
Barring that, you can look at your coolant and oil for traces of oil and coolant, respectively. You can also do a compression test and combustion test. These would check the gasket. Look them up.
If you have extra coolant on hand, you could also temporarily remove the thermo to see if the car still overheats. If it doesn't, then that's the problem. Just remember to put it (or a new one) back in when the engine cools down.

mikey1

check your rad overflow bottle, is the level really high, or overflowing?

if so, its your head gasket

Mv7fd

It happened just when I was sitting there

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Let's see. There are a lot of things that could have caused this.

Stuck closed thermostat could cause heating issues, but you'd have heat. Like Poopies mention, you can pull the thermostat and see if you still get heating problems, but there's also a way to check proper operation. Requires a pot, water, and, if you'd like, a thermometer. Toss the thermostat in a pot of water and heat it over a stove. When the water heats up, you should see it open, take it out and let it sit, it should close. You can use a thermometer to make sure it starts to open/full open at proper temperatures if you know them. IIRC, it should start to open at 170 or 180F.

Air pockets in your coolant, which can be easily fixed and checked for, but can be a sign of bigger problems. Easy way to check: park with the front of your car elevated a bit (extra assurance that the rad cap is the highest point in the coolant system). Pop off the rad cap and check level. If it's low, fill it. I'd burp the system while you're at it (start the car with the cap off and let it run for a bit with full heat on your HVAC system. Every time level drops/air bubble surfaces/etc., top it off).

Compression/leakdown tests can be kinda spendy, unless you have the equipment for it. A compression test just requires a compression gauge. Leakdown requires an air compressor and a leakdown test rig. I've personally been quoted at $120/$250 for a shop to perform the tests, respectively. A compression test will give you a go/no-go test of whether you have leakage in a cylinder by comparison of pressure among your cylinders (or if all 4 test low, too). A leakdown test will tell you by how much you have leakage in a given cylinder.

In my opinion, the likely culprit is some sort of blockage in your coolant system. That, to me, would explain the lack of heat while the engine's overheating. A coolant flush would help solve your problem. I've had success buying the $15 bottle of coolant flush crap at AutoZone. Drain your coolant, dump the bottle in, top off with distilled water, and let the engine run for.. 10-15 minutes at full heat. After that, drain and refill with 50/50 coolant/distilled water mix. Make sure you burp your system to ensure all the air's out.

Mv7fd

So I went out and popped the cap and overflow and didn't see any antifreeze I know that I just topped it off maybe two months ago if that. I have not smelled any antifreeze no white smoke that I'm aware of and have not seen Any puddles

ezone

What are you going to do next?

Mv7fd

Put antifreeze in it burp the system and let it run and check for leaks

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

we listed most of them here:

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...reference.html