Rep Power: 0

Hey, I have a honda civic 2002 lx with a whooping 525,000 miles on it. Yes this is not a misprint. All highway miles. The problems that I am having. Recently the car stated to overheat. I am losing coolant (I believe the coolant is coming out of the resouvir overflow, as everytime I drive the car was a little bit it becomes full and I have blown off the little plastic cap on the bottle before. I was having problems with my cooling fans coming on but I manually hookup those up to a switch to manual turn them on. I have no water in my oil, no white smoke coming out of my exhaust, no loss in milage, and the car is not running bad at all. I have checked for leaks and the mechanic was not able to find anything. The car only overheats after I have dive it for about 160 miles one way and then I have to add fluid to it. Also one other thing I am noticing is that while I am sitting idle or going ver low speeds I loss heat from my heater and then when I pick up speed the heat comes back. Could someone help me with this?? ANy advice would be much needed. If you need anymore infomation I would be happy to give it to you. Thanks Dax

 
Rep Power: 277

Wow, thats got to be the highest mileage 7thgen ever.

 
Rep Power: 0

i don't like being the bearer of bad news, but someone had problems similar to this last week (sporadic coolant spray in the engine compartment and no cabin heat at idle) and it turned out to be a blown head gasket. i'd take a good look at your oil and coolant to see if there's any cross-contamination going on... maybe even consider having your engine pressure tested.

if all that checks out, maybe consider replacing your thermostat. it could be gunked up 'causing it to stick open or closed intermittently... but that's a long shot.

i'm curious to know how many times you've done a timing belt replacement... that is typically when you'd also replace your water pump (also a cause for concern). other than that, your heater core would be the next place to look, but if you don't smell coolant in your cabin air then it's probably one of the other previously mentioned problems.

holy crap 525k miles! i'm still trying to comprehend that.

what kind of oil do you use? mobil 1?

 
Rep Power: 362

crazy ... 525k miles! ... that means you drove around 130k miles a year! ... or approx 356 miles per day, every day... crazy guy ..

anyway yes ... that sounds exactly like a blown headgasket ... might want to get that checked out ...

 
Rep Power: 305

holy ish thats alot of miles. Have you had any other problems besides this?

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks guys. I was thinking it might be a head gasket. Only thing I was wondering is how would I test the water pump? How would I tell if this was good or not?? I will change the thermostat just cause it is very easy to do. I usually drive about 500 miles a day 5 days a week. I actually have changed the timing belt about 80,000 miles ago and the water pump was changed at that time or so they say it was changed. No real other problems, i mean shocks I think are shot but with a car with that many miles I deal with it. Also this is the orginal engine just so everyone knows and I only burn a very small amount of oil in between oil changes. And other than the overheating the car runs great.

 
Rep Power: 362

damn .. 500 miles a day? ...

why not just move closer to your work? ;P

 
Rep Power: 0

I drive for a living. I deliever bank bags. So my office is my car.

 
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Have an Oil Analysis performed on your Oil. Info can be found here. I confirmed my suspicions when coolant was found in my oil through an Oil Analysis. I had no white smoke coming from my exhaust, or milky substance (coolant) on the oil cap.

Definately worth the $20.

 
Rep Power: 811

often times a faulty radiator cap can cause head gasket like symptoms. i'm betting on the cap first.

 
Rep Power: 362

oh I see .. that's interesting.

it's good you don't have a huge SUV then, huh?

 
Rep Power: 299

Its really good to see this car lasting like a honda should cause after all the tranny/engine probs people have had it makes me a little nervous. Honda should use ur car in an advertisement like Toyota was doing with high meilage cars for a while. Good job on keeping the maintenence done. Sorry this is off topic but is your car an auto or manual?