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Hey guys, Ive been searching around this forum for something that sounds similar to my problem. Here is the problem (Car is 05 Civic EX, has 51111 miles to date)

I do not have heat in my car over 50% of the time. Originally thought it was coolant, put 50/50 into the car, seemed to work fine. 2 days later again no heat. Friend of mine instructed me the proper way to put coolant into the system, drained air bubbles, filled both the area where cap is, and plastic area behind cap. Worked for a day, and back to not having heat. Sometimes I get heat, sometimes it seems if I turn it to cold, then hot again I'm fine... other times it doesn't matter.

I've confirmed this time that at least I can still see there is coolant in the plastic area. I didn't remove the cap because last time the pressure blew coolant over me. My friend says the two areas are connected, so if I was losing coolant somewhere I'd notice it in there.

My car has also been having a "general mis-fire" issue. I will start the car up, it will stutter a bit, sometimes the check engine light is on, sometimes off, sometimes flashing briefly. After a few seconds it corrects itself and I'm fine again. We replaced my spark plugs, and noted that at the base of the porcelain towards the middle of the plug, all four had very heavy burn marks... car seemed to operate fine after replacing spark plugs, next day same thing, general mis-fire, believed to be coil pack next.

After reading a few posts, I see some users describing a head gasket issue, and that the issue both had relations to the heat issue, and the general mis-fire issue by leaking coolant into where the spark plugs go, though I found out that the part that's burnt wouldn't be touching the coolant, especially all four plugs.

Today was a really long night, after leaving police academy early due to hazardous weather, I attempted to drive home, heatless of course, and noted that throughout the entire trip, my temperature gauge would go ALL THE WAY TO H, and then back down again. I never got any warnings from my car, never smelled anything, and at one point pulled over to shut off and start the car to see if that would fix it... I am a computer guy by trade. No go. I will be getting it checked out again hopefully tomorrow, but does anyone have any possible ideas you can throw at me that maybe not the head gasket? Should I go outside, and try running my car with the cap off to see if there is any more air in the line?

 
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headgasket is a possible cause, but more likely is the thermostat, and plugsarent likely, but coil packs are a possibility, but not likely

 
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at first i thought your heater switcher mechanism might be broken (the thing that tells whether the temp dial is cold or hot), but after reading the rest its def very likely a headgasket problem. this is exactly what happened to me with the misfire and everything. let me guess, it does not misfire once the car has been running for a while right? i think this may have started as a small problem like a broken thermostat that eventually got bigger. if the temp needle went to H and you drove like that, there is a good chance the head got warped and blew the gasket. first thing i would do is a coolant system pressure check, that will tell you if coolant is being lost. you could also take the plugs out and look inside to see if theres liquid inside on the piston. also check the plugs for any white residue before starting the car next time, because thats burnt coolant. check in your exhaust pipe too. and if you can, pull the header and look for white patches in the runners and collector. those are all signs of a slow headgasket leak. if you are losing coolant, you may not notice it for a week or more. and you have to open the radiator cap to check whether the level is still at the top or if its fallen.

now just in case its none of this, i would first just buy a new radiator cap from the dealer and try that. get the simple solution out of the way because a loose or faulty seal on the cap could lead to headgasket symptoms. other things to do is compression test, but with a small leak they will prolly all come back normal. does your oil look like it should? not milky? ignition coils almost never go bad so its not that, and i doubt its the plugs either. does the car take a long time to warm up from a cold start?

 
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Greeen,

For the mis-fire that is what was originally anticipated was the coil packs, however being that it was a general mis-fire per the codes the mechanic recommended replacing the spark plugs first... now I think that I have to buy a coil pack, and gradually switch it out until we find the culprit... unless there's an easier way of finding which specific one and if it is the culprit?

I hope it isn't the head gasket, it's a shame that all of these problems are happening to my car in her short life... I can't afford to replace the headgasket right now. I hope it's a thermostat, because I hear it's cheap, but again could that affect the temperature gauge going up and down repeatedly while I drive?

Also, are there any instructional guides online that show where the thermostat is in my engine and how to replace one?

 
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follow the upper radiator hose to the block, it will lead to the thermostat housing, which will have 2 bolts, remove, replace thermostat, then install new gasket maker, and done

 
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Gear,

After sometime less than a minute the car is running fine, sometimes with check engine light on, off, or flashing briefly while the problem is occurring. Also, the temperature gauge never went to H before tonight, and I've been having this problem in upwards of a month... and it went down and up repeatedly.

I have one of my old plugs in front of me, and I don't notice any white residue with the exception of the black burn marks on the ceramic before the part that the lug nut holds on to pull them out. Nothing else out of the ordinary. I can try checking the exhaust pipe tomorrow however that will be incredibly difficult.

Regarding the car warming up, I would venture to say that the car does not take any more time to warm up than it normally should. My morning drives are short to work, about 2.5 miles and by the time I'm there the temperature gauge is just getting to where it normally is.

 
Rep Power: 811

yeah my check engine light didnt come on all the time when it misfired, even tho you obviously could feel the car shaking and sputtering. im almost positive its a small gasket leak. what happens is you turn the car off, coolant leaks into the cylinders, then the next day you goto start it and the plug misfires, but the engine starts and burns off the coolant inside, then it runs fine. you dont have to fix it right away, but be aware it could get much worse and ruin the motor eventually. just keep an eye out on the coolant level and if it goes to H, pull the car to the side and shut it off.

i highly doubt its the coil packs,but if you wanna prove it to yourself, pull them all off and test each one. go get a multimeter for $20, set it to measure resistance, and then connect the + and - leads to the coil pack metal prongs in the part where the connector plugs into. there are three prongs, so you gotta try a few combinations before you get some value to appear. the value itself is not important, but the values for each coil pack should be very close to each other when you get done taking all the readings..

 
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and what puzzles me is how this could happen so early in the cars life. the dealer told me my aftermarket exhaust caused it (lmao), but seriously, it could either be that you drive the car hard all the time, or in the winter if the heater was not turned on until the car warmed up, it could have caused a crack in the head. its always good to keep the fan on the first notch and the heat dial to hot while the car warms up, otherwise if you wait, you will end up introducing icy cold coolant from the heater core into a hot engine which is not good.

 
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Thanks gear, I already have a multimeter and it's cool to know that I can test the coil packs.

I'm just curious about something... you're saying that it was a small gasket leak. Is this the kind of thing that's going to cost $300+ to replace a "head gasket", or is the gasket that I'm thinking of one of those flat things with the weird shapes in them that fit over top of the header to make a seal, the things that cost $2 themselves?

What I'm asking is how much will this cost to fix.

Do you have any explanations as to why the temperature gauge will continually go to H... and then continually go to regular, then back to H, then back to regular? What on earth would be happening inside the engine that could cause this? It just makes no sense that if my engine were overheating, the gauge wouldn't resume to normal while I am STILL driving.

 
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My mechanic took a look at my car last night. He noted that two of the hoses (I was not there for this meeting so I don't know his exact wording) were different. He said the top hose was hot, and the bottom one was cold, when they both should be equal. I know I read about that somewhere here. He said for me to go to the autoparts store, and get a thermostat. My girlfriend (who took the car) says that the mechanic mentioned that I don't have one... which really makes no sense.

I am going to call him to get more information from him today. I'm looking on Autozone.com, but I don't know what to buy. Any ideas? He also mentioned something about a gasket, not sure what to get for there. I think I found what i needed from Autozone, it's going to cost me about $25 for both the gasket and the thermostat...

 
Rep Power: 358

An '05, don't you have warranty left?

 
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To tell you the truth sir I am not sure. I don't know what the mileage warranty was or anything... I wonder if I can call Honda and check. I just might do that.

 
Rep Power: 811

looks like you may have a bad thermostat too if the temp goes up and down. the only reason it would overheat is if coolant is not circulating properly around the engine. the head gasket is just like the header gasket, except much bigger. and labor usually runs cheapest around $450-600 to change it cause like i said, everything in the bay has to come out to remove the head and swap the gasket. and when the head is pulled, you better have a machine shop test it for compression and also make sure its not warped. otherwise you just did all that work for nothing and it will blow out again.

also make sure you change the timing belt and waterpump when you have the head gasket changed. this will take care of the possible problem of water pump getting stuck as well. and everything is off so its not gonna cost any more to swap those parts on.

 
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Thanks for the update Gearbox. Fortunately this problem is out of my hands. I followed up on the warranty question. I have an extended warranty for 100,000 miles or 6/26/10, whichever comes first. I took my car in which they said all of the problems sound like a broken head gasket. All I have to pay is a $50 deductible for them to fix. They also gave me a rental car.

Sounds like a win win. Oh, and the temperature gauge only went up and down one day; Tuesday when it was snowing and the roads were dangerous... every other day it's been fine. The service rep asked if it over-heated on the way up, which I explained the gauge needle only did that Tuesday and for some reason I don't think the car was physically overheating.

 
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awesome! let them fix it then lol

 
Rep Power: 358

Good luck. Glad to hear it's only going to cost you $50.

I've never not gotten my monies worth from an extended warranty on a car. You can pretty much guarantee that at some point before 100,000 miles you'll be needing something fixed on it, good purchase.

 
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Yeah I just hope it's covered under the extended warranty. They were asking me questions such as making sure I kept up with my maintenance, that I didn't abuse it, and that when my remote start system was installed that it was done professionally and no wires were spliced. So far so good. The mechanic told me if I knew it was leaking anywhere, and I said no. He said somewhere underneath the radiator there was a pool of antifreeze there... I told him I did not know about it. I checked my coolant sometime on Monday I believe, and noted that the clear reservoir still had fluid in it.

 
Rep Power: 358

If the head gasket was on the way out it's possible it just dumped the rest of the way. The car doesn't have to be running for that gasket to let loose. Good thing you got it in before that happened.

Some extended warranties are bitchy about having all of your maintenence done. If you have receipts to show that you did the work or had the work done it's always a good idea.

If they whine about the maintenence use your computer to print up some invoices with the dates and services performed and turn them in as "proof" of complete services.

The extended warranties are usually 3rd party and for the most part are decent. There are a few that try to weezal their way out of everything.

Good luck

 
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my civic 04 sedan does that DX model. I dont know mines just seems to bee when im driving i get heat and when i come to a stop it just start giving cold air? It hapends some times not awlays but in the cold days it drives you nuts.


Anyclue?

Thermoastat?

 
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Read the above posts and search for other related issues. It seems like there are a lot of members that are all having similar issues.

 
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ya my ext warranty expired recently at 70k miles. it only covered $500 of alternator replacement, but i paid $1k for the warranty so i guess i lost out on that one oh well.

 
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Oh, no doubt you have to read and make sure you're getting a good warranty, because some of them out there burn you.

 
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Yeah I am waiting for a phone call today. I'm already starting the day out pretty badly, and now for some reason I'm waiting for more bad news. But they told me everything should be covered... let's hope.