Civic20042009

Hello,

Our 2004 Civic EX with 190K miles has been overheating. My wife told me the temp gauge had been occasionally rising above normal, sometimes to the H and sometimes between half way and to the H. It typically didn't remain above the normal operating range for very long and would drop back down. I found that it had a bad fan so I replaced it. After that she said it wasn't overheating anymore.

A few months later I was driving the car and the temp gauge shot up and fluid was shooting out and blowing back on the windshield. After letting it cool I couldn't get more than a couple miles before needing to pull over again. I changed the thermostat on the side of the road and found a small leak in the front of the radiator near the fill cap. At this point I was able to drive it home without the temp rising at all above normal.

Next, changed the radiator, new cap, new fluid, bled system. I've been driving the car for the past 2-3 weeks with no issues - one eye on the road and one eye on the temp gauge. Driving in traffic, sitting at red lights, about 30 minutes each way to/from work, no issues.

Last night the temp gauge started rising again. I popped the hood and saw what seemed to be a lot of fluid that leaked from the overflow reservoir. Now the temp is rising consistently again. If I drive about 50-60 mph it seems to fall back down; otherwise, it's hitting the H. I haven't added new fluid since the overflow last night because I thought it may have been purging excess fluid (I filled it a bit high when replacing the radiator).

Based on what I've read in the Sticky and in other forums, it's really starting to seem like a bad head gasket. I haven't done a pressure test or the combustion gas test yet, but read that they aren't always reliable.
Are these my next steps? Or should I jump right to the cylinder compression test? Any other recommendations or thoughts?

Thank you!



UPDATE:
I just drove home from work (About 30min/20miles) and had absolutely no problems with the temp rising. Not sure what's going on...

mikey1

this is the number one symptom of a blown head gasket,

very common on these engines,

you are not alone,

i am.......read above

ezone

^I second the motion.

If you get no results with the blue fluid check (or whatever color it is) then skip ahead to my method of proving the breach. It's in the first post of the overheating sticky.

Zed

Just skip to the part where you stop fooling yourself and change the headgasket. It's a hard pill to swallow, I almost choked when I had to face mine. Just get it over with.

alex_nyc

get one of these & jack the car up when you add coolant

how long you had the car? and did you ever change the HG?

Civic20042009

Hi, thanks for the replies. For the past year we've been talking about getting a new car. We have a 7 month old so the 2-door is somewhat of a pain. Maybe now is the time instead of dumping more money into this car...

I bought one of those funnels when I changed the radiator. Works great!
My wife bought the car new in 2004. I've never changed a head gasket and I haven't started with this one yet. I'm still debating on what to do at this point with the car. I believe it's only worth a couple grand, according to KBB. I figure a head gasket will be around a few hundred bucks and a boat load of time.

alex_nyc

maybe $500 with timing belt & machine shop work plus your labor

Wankenstein

+1. That's a solid estimate.