lukeman3000

I seem to have a coolant leak somewhere in my system. It has existed for quite awhile, perhaps a year or so.

However, it used to be a very slow leak because I could go months without noticing a problem. More recently, however, I have found that I have to refill my radiator almost on a daily basis or else my temperature gauge will raise to unhealthy levels during normal operation.

Plus, the reserve tank is full and is not emptying into the radiator for some reason. My dad put a hose into the reserve tank and blew into it, and we verified that the reserve tank is capable of emptying into the radiator -- it's just not happening during normal operation for some reason.

My dad and I have changed the thermostat and the radiator cap. Neither have seemed to help.

Plus, we were going to change the water pump, but we decided that it may not actually be the problem. The reason for this is that we saw some "splatter" under the hood on the battery and some other areas (mainly on the left side of the car when looking at it head on) -- white spots here and there that we assumed were dried coolant spots from the leak.

However, the splatter occured on the oppostite side of the engine that the water pump is located on, so we assumed that the leak was not at the water pump. The splatter is on the passenger side, mostly front and top. The water pump is more on the driver side and not as close to the top.

Also, we rented a radiator cap test kit from our local Oreilly's, but we did not notice any leakage when we pressurized the system. We pumped it up fairly high, too.

Where do we go from here? Would the next logical step be to get some UV dye and a light so that we can (hopefully) see where the leak is coming from?

I don't understand why we weren't able to see/hear a leak with the cap test kit, as it is obviously losing quite a bit of water. After a day or two of driving, I have to pour a pretty fair amount of water into the radiator to fill it back up. So I wonder why we weren't able to find a leak with the test kit..

Any ideas?

Edit: I just read the sticky talking about the head gasket. My knowledge of cars is quite limited -- I have no idea what a HG is or what it does. But based on my description of the problem, could it be a HG issue?

My reserve tank is full, but I do not believe that it is overflowing. I seem to be losing fluid out of the radiator fairly rapidly. The engine will start overheating in a matter of just a few days if I don't keep refiling the radiator.

Also, I'm almost hesitant to mention this because it may be completely unrelated, but every so often, my check engine light will turn on. I had the codes read, and it says that I have random misfires on cylinders two and three.

As such, I have replaced the spark plugs and I also swapped the ignition coils around to see if that would make a difference (because cyliners one and four have not thrown any erros) -- It didn't. I still occasionally get the code.

I can tell that something is wrong because occasionally when I start up the car, it feels like it's not running properly for a few seconds, and it vibrates kind of strangely. Then, after a few seconds, it starts running normally. This doesn't happen all the time and it only seems to happen when the car is first turned on. I don't experience any problems after I start driving.

anibis

Unfortunately it does sound like a bad HG.

The splatter you saw most likely came from the overflow tank getting too full and spraying out because air was getting in the system from the leaky HG.

The misfires and not running right at start are also a common leaking HG symptom in these cars. Coolant is leaking into the cylinder overnight and the spark plugs are having trouble firing because they're wet. Once that coolant is burned off the spark plugs work as they should.

If it's hard to start/runs like crap when you first start it in the morning I would try removing the spark plugs before you attempt to start it. You can either get a turkey baster with a tube and see if there's any coolant in the cylinders. You could also crank the motor (with the plugs out) and see if coolant sprays out of the plug holes.

If there is coolant in the cylinder this would confirm a bad HG.

You could also take it to a Honda dealer and have them apply shop air pressure to each cylinder and see if the coolant rises. Non-dealer mechanics who don't have a lot of experience with Honda's usually have trouble diagnosing a bad HG since the normal tests (ie compression test) typically don't show any problems w/these cars.

dred

does your coolant smell like exaust.
probably have a white plug or 2.
sounds like head gasket....
I have to wonder if there is an EM2 that hasn't
had a head gasket issue

cpbennett

I had the same problem as the original post, down to every word and repair.

Thermostat change, rad cap change...still overheated.

Resevoir ALWAYS full.

Coolant splashed out of resevoir all over battery and fans.

It was the head gasket.

New Pump, Thermostat, Rad Cap, HG, machining the head, new timing belt, and labor...$1,500 total. OUCH. BUT, I decided to do the same as everyone else on here and invest the money in the car vs buying new and having a payment.

YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME.

I lost this one.

Maybe some good karma is coming my way....