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Ok, so I have acquired a relatively high mileage sedan, 144K, from my girlfriends son. He ran the car hot a few times and we think it has a slow head gasket leak or small crack in the head. He is not a car guy at all and does not turn his own wrenches but I do so...I have a "new" car to drive. Looks like the things must be leaking internally into one of the cylinders because I never smell any coolant. Seems like around town it is always OK but when I get out on the highway and run 20-30 miles I will have to add about an inch of coolant to the radiator the next day. Is this something that is normal with these cars? I found the original leak at the upper radiator hose when I first got it and that is now fixed. Would love to be able to drive this car a while and maybe fix her up but for now just trying to get it stable for traveling back and forth to work! Lovin' the Honda so far though!

 
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Hello,

Welcome to Civic Forums !

144k is not that high car is still a baby. my hatch had 280 000 miles before i swapped motors car still ran strong just burnt oil.

good cars run for ever as long as regular maintenance is done.

After fixing the leak are you still loosing coolant ?

 
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Yeah, like I said in the original post, the cat is OK around town but when I get on the highway I have to add coolant the next day. All I can assume is that it is leaking internally and being burnt off. Nothing in the oil at all. Does this sound like a common head gasket problem? Thanks and glad to be a part of this forum!

 
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I have never encountered an issue like that or heard of it usually you can tell if coolant is being burnt (white smoke/Sweet smell) I mean really you would probably have to do a leak down test. I would triple check all your lines make sure you are not leaking.
if oil is fine and coolant is clean then I doubt it could be a head gasket issue. I mean it might just be and intake gasket as coolant runs through there. Id check the lines and maybe do the intake gasket (should be like 20 bucks) If the car had been sitting might have air pockets in the cooling system and its working the air out and requiring for you to add coolant?
Do you notice anything strange with the car abnormal temps
funny idle
or sluggish performance (more sluggish then a stock civic)

 
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Nope, car never sat more than a week or so while on vacation, no smoke, runs great... think I'll just keep driving it until the problem gets worse and I can tell where it actually is...