Hi All,

I have a '95 civic, automatic, 1.5

For the past couple weeks I've been losing alot of coolant - also notice that the coolant "bubbles" in the overflow. Radiator fan stopped working shortly thereafter so I rigged up a toggle switch temporarily until I can get the other issues resolved.

From what I understand, this generally means that there is air getting into the cooling system somewhere...

There is NO coolant in the oil, no coolant in the exhaust (nor any white smoke). The hoses do not appear to be leaking.

Also, heat is very sporatic at best and an intermittent coolant smell when the heat is turned on.

It has overheated a couple times(as soon as I noticed the needle start rising, I pull over and top up the coolant, which always seems to fix it)

I have lots of power, runs quite smooth for a 15+ year old car.

Its been suggested to me that it quite possibly is a minor leak in the headgasket, as there doesn't appear to be any other way that the air is entering the system.

OH, and I noticed that on the last couple fill-ups, my gas mileage has gotten atleast 15-20% worse, not sure if its a symptom, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

Coolant bubbling into the overflow definitely sounds like HG issue as you have mentioned. If you are having to refill the radiator constantly, it would seem that you are leaking coolant somewhere, or burning it. Do a compression check and a leak down test to check the HG.

If the radiator fan stopped working, but works on a toggle switch, it sounds like the switch is dead. You can pull the plug to the fan switch, stick a paperclip into the plug, turn the key to accessory, and the fan should turn on. If it does, the switch needs to be replaced.

Not enough heat coming from the climate control sounds like a thermostat issue, or the heater core could possibly be clogged. You can pull the thermostat and test it by dropping it in a pot of water, bring the water to a boil (the Tstat should start to open by then), and then letting the water cool back down (the Tstat should be closing by then).

The gas mileage thing could be unrelated. Any CELs?

You can check out this overheating guide I put together for work to help you diagnose the cause of the problem, too.

http://www.mishimoto.com/how-to-guid...ing-guide.html

 

Wow. Thanks for the ideas!

I already have another thermostat ready to drop in, thats no biggie. And have a head gasket too. They were relatively inexpensive. Its the labour costs that'll make me wanna cry.

Not sure what you mean by "CELs"...

...reading your guide now...

Thanks!

 

CEL is the yellow "check engine" icon light on the dashboard.

Heater doesn't work well or at all if the engine is not full of coolant.

Get the cooling system completely full, then start the engine (cold) with the radiator cap off and rev it up. If you see steady bubbling in the radiator, bad head gasket.

 

Yup, its the Head Gasket

I'm curious - has anyone tried those head gasket liquid fixes? (Bar's leaks has one, and Loctite too I think - amoungst others). I've heard mixed reviews.

I ask because i don't think I'll be keeping this car past the winter - its up for inspection in march and it will need a fair amount of body work to pass again, so a HG job is just throwing cash out the window. A $20 temp fix would be best, even if I only get a few more months...

 

Started noticing ALOT of smoke coming from UNDER the engine the past few days. Went through 14 litres of Antifreeze yesterday!

Anyway, I'm no mechanic (and I dont have the spare cash to run to a garage until next payday), but my guess is that a hose underneath popped off(or came loose - it's snowing here, so I can't climb under the car right now).

Any other possible causes for excess smoke from that area? (Its somewhere around the center of the engine right behind the front tires. I do know that I have to replace the catalytic convertor soon as it has a couple pin-holes, I just had one given to me off an identical car that was scrapped, but its an hour-and a half round trip to go pick it up and i'm not comfortable with the car making it there and back.

I did try one of those head gasket sealing liquids yesterday, car seems to run great, atleast on the highway, except for the excess smoke and at speeds below 50 KM/H.

 

I posted on here a couple of months ago with the same problem(head gasket leak). I put in some Bars Liquid Copper Block Seal and it fixed it. I have not had a problem with anything associated to putting the Bars in either(ie, my heater is not clogged - works great).

 

The radiator stop leak stuff is all I know about. Never researched the other stuff they have.

Simply put, do not use the bars stop leak stuff for your radiator. It is meant to plug small holes. It also does a great job of plugging up small coolant lines which would cause even more issues later down the line.

 

Also..good luck trying to get that "Stop Leak Copper/Gold Liquid Gasket" out of the system. That stuff is only activated by antifreeze...meaning...if you replace your head gasket later on & want to flush your system afterward with water..you won't be able to with water...You'll have to flush it with I don't know how many bottles of antifreeze to get it all out.
So it's like this:

Liquid Copper + Coolant = Liquid copper flows freely
Liquid Copper + Water = Liquid copper sinks & sticks to all inside walls

 

I guess I'm no Bars Stop Leak professional like everybody else, but can't I just replace the gasket if need be and then refill the antifreeze and go on with my life?? Just let the copper stuff keep flowing through the system?? It's doing fine like that now, why would it matter if the gasket was fixed??