Tracecross30

Hi my honda pros.
I have a 2002 civic ex vtec, I was on my way to work Saturday and I realized that my engine lost power and shortly after I saw smoke like coming from my transmission side of the car, I checked my heat gauge in the car and it was above the normal read,like way up. I pulled over and open my hood ,I saw coolant on some parts and on inside of the hood . i got towed home and have it checked out, a clamp from a hose under the air cleaner box that wasn't clamp the hose,the camp put back and I thought it's fine now. Now I was going back to work and at a shorter distance the same problem again , I let it cool and turn back and for the third time again it started to overheating and I pullover for the third time take my tome drive home.i check to see if the coolant was circulating through the radiator and it was.now I bought a kit with timing belt,tensioner and water pump, installed them and put coolant in,starting and turn the heat on in my car so it could take the coolant through the heat core and get rid of the air in the system, for about 20minutes and more the fan won chip in and the engine was very hot and the fan still did chip in,but if I turn on the Ac the fan work pretty fine and the engine is still overheating. Can someone please help me resolve this problem? I dont have cash to go to Mechanic at the moment, if someone could explain in detail to me what to do I will try my best to fix it..please someone give me some advice.

Colin42

something is not causing the fan to kick on, bad thermo switch or something
you've probably blown your head gasket now,

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

Tracecross30

Hey, I appreciate the info but everything is working pretty well on the very next day..
When I bought the car,the replace the valve cover gasket and head gasket, they said ,but didn't do a flush which I did myself and everything is fine. I'm having residue of oil on the radiator cap ,but when drained the coolant and replace the water pump the coolant was nice and clean so I dont how I'm having residue of oil on the radiator cap.

Wankenstein

Maybe there were air pockets in the coolant that needed to work their way out of the system and finally did so. When you replaced the coolant did you bleed the air per the service manual?
* Raise front end of car on jackstands as high as possible.
* Set climate control to max heat, recirculate, and fan off.
* Idle engine, top up coolant as needed, run engine (idle) until the radiator fan engages twice.
* After engine cools completely add coolant mix to radiator and reservoir to proper level.

Did the person you bought it from who claimed to replace the headgasket and valve cover gasket say that they bled the coolant of air after they did the headgasket replacement?

Tracecross30

No, they didn't say..I didn't raised the front of the car but I turn the heat on while adding coolant until its full

05ex1.7

Test fan switch. But 95 percent sure it is your headgasket i have exactly same problem

Slumpertcivic

Possible your overflowing coolant took out your cooling fan, we have seen coolant spray also mess up ground connections.

Coolant is meant to be inside the engine, not everywhere else.

Tracecross30

Well, it didn't spray any near the fan before but its working ok now. Thanks though..I have my input shaft bearing to do in a few weeks..I never done it before , but I'm going to do it though. I cant pay to do it so I will be doing it myself.

Tracecross30

So I changed water pump,thermostat and take the car to the dealership for a deeper and better checkout,but eventually they told me that they didn't see anything wrong with it. They did check for head gasket damage but didn't find nothing.the funny part is that they they told me that its $120.00 diagnostic and when they finish the guy told me that I dont owe nothing..now it left me to think that they hiding something from me. If you work you would charge, right?

Colin42

Did they explain how they checked the head gasket?

Wankenstein

Compressed air injected into the cylinders at TDC with radiator cap off and looking for bubbles is the only valid method to rule out a head gasket breaches.