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2001 Honda Civic
A few weeks ago, the heat on my heater would only work when I was driving the car, cold air would come out when the car was idle.

I then read up to turn on the car, remove radiator cap, rev the engine to 2500 rpm, turn the heater on half way, this will allow any air that is trapped to come out , it worked but the problem has came back up again.

I got the dealer to do a air pressure test and they said its the head gasket, $1300. I dont have any visible coolant leak and engine temperature is fine. They did say I dont have to do it but I may want to consider doing something before winter starts

Anyone got any suggestions on what I should do.

Thanks,

 
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it's not an air pressure test, it's gases test - that means your combusted gases are passing through the head gasket to the coolant.
It is not related to an external leak, it's internal to the engine so you will not eyeball it
there are head gaskets DIY threads around the site. use the search button in the top menu and enter the search key words headgasket DIY

 
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They are right I have a 2001 Honda civic did the same thing. Their is no way around it. I did the headgasket my self its not bad just alot of stuff to do the gasket kit was $38.00 and make sure you have the head check because they warp from the getting to hot. Good luck

 
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The dealer said they would machine the head, not sure what that means but if I were to do it my self should I go to a shop and get that machined ?

 
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read reply here, some minutes ago
No, filing down the head yourself will not do.
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...s-problem.html
And yes, it's pretty common on our cars, being that you are the 1000,000 th persons asking the same thing over and over again. a quick search on the forums should prove that. you will find also how to remove the head to take to a machine shop - no, again, filing it down yourself should take days at the best with not a too good a result. should end cheaper if you remove the head yourself and take to the machine shop.

 
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I had a machine head shop do mine and they also replace the valve stem seals and the seal on the camshaft they charged me $220.00