Rep Power: 0

Looking for some advice for a situation with a 2003 LX with 145K - apologies for such a long post, but wanted to supply all key details before asking my question. It's my daughters car - she lives just under 500 miles away, and I finally got a 2 week access to do a long-overdue timing belt change. Replaced the belt, tensioner, water pump, crank seal, and the 2 utility belts - everything with that job appeared to go fine. I was able to drive it for 4 days, about 5 miles to allow a good warm-up. Everything looked good - no drips or sign of any wetness on the floor. Then I went on vacation, and she drove the car while I was away. Came back to find a small puddle of coolant under the front passenger side. Spent her last day here driving it and trying to find where the leak was coming from, but nothing dripped at all, UNTIL this morning when I found another puddle, roughly centered just behind the reserve tank. Also saw coolant on the frame right below the tank area, so the leak is almost definitely coming from the tank or one of the nearby hoses. She had to leave before 6 am this morning, and it didn't look like the amount of coolant on the garage floor was a lot, so I didn't top it off. Just gave her a full jug of coolant, rags, instructions how to safely add it, and also told her to call me if the gauge went over 1/2. So a couple of hours into her trip she calls to let me know it had gone to 3/4 a "few" times. But she didn't think of calling right away because it went right back down again . But, this was definitely my fault for not topping it off before she left . After adding coolant, it stayed below 1/2 for most of her remaining 6 hours on the road, just going a tiny bit over at the very end. So, I'm thinking there is a decent chance I didn't get all the air out. But, of course it could also be a real leak somewhere that only shows up on cool down, or maybe even the dreaded blown head gasket (engine sounds fine - no misfire or other symptoms).
But the problem is that I can't do anything from 500 miles away - wish I had more time to check it out, but I don't. I think the right thing to do now is try to first continue to purge air before having her take it to a shop (which would probably do a head gasket job, replace the radiator, and all the hoses, just to cover everything). So, I'm looking for advice on how to have her try to bleed it, taking into consideration that she can't do anything extra, such as raise the front of the car. Should I have her idle it some with the cap off? Or just continue to top off and hope it works its way out? Or, something else? Also, roughly how long to keep trying to bleed it, before sending her to the shop? And, if anyone believes this definitely doesn't sound like air in the system, please chip in with that. Thanks in advance for any help with this - real PITA not to be able to finish this job properly myself .

 
Rep Power: 199

If she is at college there is probably a huge number of willing and knowledgeable guys that would be willing to help. Not that she couldn't do it but help is always nice, not only that its alot easier to explain to someone who knows a little of how things work. Even if it is just a bit of air and not overheating because of it, with winter coming soon her heater will suck with air in the system.

1 Install the radiator cap loosely. You can pull it off too, to check for bubbles, install loosely is precautionary mainly.

2 Start the engine and let it run until it warms up (the radiator fan comes on at least twice).

3 Turn off the engine. Check the level in the radiator and add Antifreeze/Coolant if needed.

4 Put the radiator cap on tightly, then run the engine again and check for leaks.


that is out of the manual

 
Rep Power: 252

Best to have the nose of the car pointed up when doing that(Park on steep hill or driveway)

 
Rep Power: 199

Good thought, didn't even think of that after he said no jack...

The idea is to get the filler neck to be the highest spot in the car, air goes up. It is of utmost importance to open the heater control all the way. If its not the heater path is shut off. If you get all the air out of everything else but still have a cubic foot of air in the core it will add said air to the system when you open it.

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for the suggestions guys. An incline is a great idea - I'll ask her to try to find one suitable for this job. I had originally refilled using the steps you wrote jdb, but likely didn't run it long enough and/or have the front end high enough (but did refill with the heat set on high). I spent a lot of time researching the timing belt job via the various DYIs, but didn't pick up that the coolant refill could be an issue. And then after driving it for 4 days with no coolant drop or loss, I thought it was a done deal, but obviously that was not the case. I'll have her try the same steps but with longer duration, and hopefully can get everything burped out (and not wind up being anything beyond that ).

 
Rep Power: 811

its one of my worst things to do on this car. took me 10 times of bleeding before most of the air came out, and close to a year of driving to work out the last small bubbles. these civics have TINY radiator and core passages like you wouldnt believe. never had any issues on other accords and rsxs ive done. just pour and go. what i do now on the civic for a coolant swap is pour new coolant into the radiator as the old fluid is being drained (with the heater control valve on COOL). that way i replace about 50% of the fluid and nearly no air gets in because i pour in at the same rate as it drains out. then i remove the overflow tank and change that coolant, so when im done its maybe 10% used coolant in the block and core. if the coolant is really old, you can always drive the car to mix the coolant, then repeat the process again.

 
Rep Power: 0

I was glad to see your reply GB - misery always loves company . From your info it sounds like there may be quite a few older Civics rolling around with under-filled systems, and perhaps causing engine damage in the process?. Wish I had read more on this before doing the job, but again I had no clue. Haynes has nothing about refill issues (I'm now at the point of using forum/DIY info 98% and Haynes 2%). Does the factory manual give any warning about refill/air purge issues?

 
Rep Power: 811

factory manual does list the bled procedure (basically leaving the cap off and running the car til the air comes out). much easier said than done in this case. even on an incline, while squeezing the hoses, i still end up spending hours to get most of it out and then i still hear the classic water rushing sounds in the dash. and yes, i assume there are many issues going around if you just refill the radiator and be done with it. air bubbles can cause overheating (air does not cool anywhere near as good as water), and air pockets can even cause an ECT sensor malfunction which can not only give false temp gauge readings but also cause the engine to behave differently (since the ECT is tied to the ecu and fuel maps).