jacobeckstein

Hello! I'm new here and this is my first thread. I've been reading a bunch of articles on here and haven't gone my exact problem so I decided to post a new thread.

I have an '02 Civic EX coupe. 5 speed MT.

3 days ago, my car was running rough so I pulled over and checked engine oil. I was low. I have had a small oil pan leak for about a year but it has never been bad. Mechanic said one drip leaked over a 12 hour period. Anyways, my car was overheated and wouldn't start back up. My mom brought me one quart of oil and it started right up. I drove it right home, probably a 4 mile trek. From that night, it has been overheating no mater what. AC or heat on/off/idling and everything. Always overheating. Took it to mechanic the next day and they replaced thermostat. Drive about 75 miles at various speeds with AC on and off, heat on and off and temperature gauge held steady in the middle or just below. Seemed to be fixed.

I pulled up to my house after driving and I was sitting there with the car on and the AC on full blast. Car started overheating. It wa about between the middle and hot when I shut the car off. Popped hood, got out and I heard a pop and saw steam from hood. Opened hood and saw cap was blown off radiator reserve tank and it spewed coolant all over engine (explains the steam).. Let engine cool down and filled up with water. Drove back to shop just fine. Gauge held steady in the middle. It seems it only overheats now when idling with AC on so the thermostat fixed one problem but now I have another. Mechanic said he did compression test(?) for leaks and everything was good.

Could it be air bubbles someone that caused pressure to build up and pop off radiator reserve tank cap? What could it be?

Thank you in advance!

ezone

Blown head gasket. Quit driving it, get it fixed. Figure out if there is a root cause like fans inoperative or something other than the usual gasket failure.

jacobeckstein

That's what I'm thinking, but they said they checked gaskets and all "looked good"

ezone

It's blown. Hopefully you can find a shop that can figure this out.

There are probably a dozen different ways a head gasket can fail, but most people only know to look for a couple symptoms...that won't fly here.
When the failure is small, this engine will pass almost every head gasket check most people think of.



Prefer to prove it yourself? Got tools and time?

jacobeckstein

I don't have time or tools, sir. Are there test mechanics are able to run to diagnose a blown HG? I also have one of the two fans that fell off the motor that turns it and it's kinda just sitting in the cage that it's installed in. Could that be it, or no?

ezone

Read all the info contained in the first post of this thread:
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/3...reference.html

One of the fans fell apart? That's bad. Don't ever ignore stuff like this, it makes things unnecessarily expensive.
Fan failure could be a root cause, could be a contributing factor, or it could be the entire problem.....definitely needs fixed then see if the overheating and coolant loss continues (sounds like it probably will, probably too late to save the head gasket now) Fix it and cross your fingers.

jacobeckstein

Hopefully not, but I will make sure they know to check that fan out. Thanks, man.

5.0Thunder

I'd replace the obviously broken fans and see if that fixes the cooling issue, then proceed with head gasket diagnosis if problem persists.

jacobeckstein

It was the fans. One had a blown circuit and was rarely cutting on. The other one, the motor that spins it stripped the inside of fan so it wasn't spinning at all. Got new circuit and a fan from junkyard installed. Running like new.

5.0Thunder

Nice, glad it was simple for you. These engines are apparently pretty delicate when it comes to running warm so anytime it's not a head gasket, i consider it a win.