Rep Power: 0

Hello there


I have a 2003 civic that started overheating on my way to work couple of days ago. I stopped at a gas station and filled the radiator and the resorvoir with cold water. After driving for about 15km when I got to work I noticed it was overheating again and probably water smoke coming from under the hood. I didn't had time to check so I took a shortcut to come home after work. Car wa overheating again but I kept driving to get to a safer spot. After few kms the engine started shuddering and car came to a stop. I tried starting the car but it wont start. After waiting for about an hour I tried again and it started and I got home. Once car was cooled down, I opened the hood and noticed the rwservoir and the rediator were empty. I poured water into the resevoir and then into the rediator. Surprisingly water was disPpearng right away fro the radiator. I checked under the car and found no external leakage.

I kept pourng more water into it and then muddy sludge started forming on the top while water was disappearing within sconds. On starting the car, I noticed thick white smoke from the exhaust pipe. I drove the car for few kms and it stopped again. The water in the reservoir wasn't moving at all.

I am suspectng that head gasket and the water pump is gone. Could someone please help me diagnose the problem? I got the timng belt, water pump and the thermostat changed less than two yrs ago.
Pls help.

 
Rep Power: 209

pull the spark plugs and see how they look, sounds like its consuming/burning the coolant, on a side note, you should never put water into these engines, you should only be using honda OEM "blue" collant

 
Rep Power: 517

A water pump leaks to the ground. You would have seen that.




I'm going to speculate for a sec....


At first this only had a head gasket problem, normal and expected.
But you kept on pushing it after it got hot...
Yours has now been overheated to the point that the engine quit running on its own.
Bad, very bad.
Now the head is warped and cylinders are actually filling with water almost as fast as you can pour it in.
Bad, very bad.
Water is passing through the cylinders and exiting through the exhaust.
Do I need to say it again? Ok. Bad, very bad.
I bet the plastic timing cover has been melted from the overheat.
Bad...........you know it.
Head is now warped past the limits allowed for machining flat again. It's now a paperweight.

The engine would now be replaced in this shop.
Used or new, it gets replaced.

If you want another choice, you can go be pissed at someone else when their head gasket job doesn't fix it, or it uses all sorts of oil, or has misfire codes that won't go away due to low compression.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks so much for the feedback...I know it's really bad bad bad but didn't think it will cause that much damage...oh well..lesson learned....thanks for your invaluable input.

 
Rep Power: 517

I gave the average scenario that plays out after someone runs the car overheated and keeps trying to push it until it just won't go anymore, it quit running on its own. Sometimes they can literally melt the aluminum before it quits running.
It's not worth (monetary) trying to save the engine, it just gets replaced (used engine) because that is the faster and cheaper option.

It will almost definitely need a radiator too. Very likely to need a few hoses. I'd only get NEW for these items.










Having to buy a major car component because someone wouldn't quit driving after there was something obviously drastically wrong: It's called a "tax".