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A bit of a overheating issue

2K views 25 replies 9 participants last post by  JoelEspinoza  
#1 ·
hey d-series !! im having a overheating issue with my 96 civic sedan auto bone stock. its my work car. for the last couple week or so the car releases all the antifreeze from the reservoir tank and then my car starts to overheat. i changed the thermostat and nothing. there isnt any leaks cuz i checked over and over. usually when it happens all i gota do is refill the radiator and ill be okay. but this morning when i went into work, it did this 3 times. im thinking maybe its the water pump or the radiator. any inputs would be greatly appreciated. thanks.
 
#4 ·
Check all hoses, the radiator for cracks, and the water pump. If its not any of those its probably a headgasket failure or a cracked head/block. If you dont have time to worry about it right now dump in some alumiseal. Thats what the guys who sold my GF her car did, and it worked for a couple months.

My GF's 1998 d16y7 was doing the exact same thing, turned out to be a cracked head. So good luck!
 
#5 ·
im experiencing the same thing (loss of coolant but no leaks) and i just replaced all hoses, thermostat and radiator. the thing with my car is it doesnt overheat, but i find myself constantly adding coolant to the overflow. is this just becoz of the winter or is my HG blown?
 
#6 ·
If that was the case you would be having some overheating problems and there would prolly be steam in the exhaust. (alot of it)
 
#7 ·
If you've got steam in your exhaust, oil in your coolant, or coolant in your oil; I'd say it's the HG.

If you're over heating a bunch, have already changed out the thermostat, and have verified that the fan is coming on; I'd say hoses and Radiator.

Last thing I'd replace would be the water pump. It's kind of a job to replace and they RARELY go out. Usually when they do there's some kind of drip marks or bearing noise associated with it's demise.

GL
 
#8 ·
#9 ·
well i checked all the hoses and there is no leaks. the car doesnt smoke at all and there is no antifreeze in the oil. the car only heats up because of loss of antifreeze. and it only comes up through the reservoir bottle. its fucking weird. im gonna take out the thermostat (after i just f-ing changed it !!) the fans stay on cuz its direct. this thing is driving me insane. im thinking about just changing the radiator and cap but i dont want to change it and then if it happens again go to the shop so they cud tell me its the water pump or worst the headgasket. what should i do ?

P.S. - thank you everyone who has posted there input, i truly appreciate it.
 
#10 ·
If it keeps puking out the reservoir bottle then I'd be willing to bet you need a new rad. Mind did the same thing, the radiator got clogged so it wouldn't let water flow out as quickly as it came in. This caused a pressure buildup in the line which would continuously raise temp and blow the top off the reservoir bottle...
 
#13 ·
well i spoke to my cousin and he told me to take the rad cap off and see if the coolant is circulating. i did that and it was very slow. then he told me to give it gas and see if it goes up and sucks back into the radiator. did that and another negative. it stays up and slows drops down after a while but its all bubbles. the top hose is warm and you could still squeeze it while the bottom hose is cold and is squeezable. any other suggestions? im thinking it might be the rad and the cap as i was reading @bodyguyneedsmotorhelp thread and im going through the same situation. i need this crap working so i can go back to work tonight =/ well lets see what happens. ill keep everyone posted. on a sidenote - @Rusty Ratchet where can i buy this block tester?
 
#14 ·
rep for me? ;) lol

i was told that the bottom hose is supposed to be cold and that means the system is cooling correctly.

also my problem was the kinked hose (which wasn't the right hose to begin with) it was keeping the coolant from flowing. i fixed it and didnt have any problems after that. there is a possibility you have a clogged radiator. was there any debris of any sort in your overflow tank after all the antifreeze backed into?
 
#16 ·
^ mines not fully bled, youll just hear bubbling noises and your heat will burn your legs lol. i dont think not bleeding it will cause it to overflow quite that much.
 
#17 ·
well i have an update !! lol today i took off the thermostat and there was pressure in both upper and lower radiator hoses. they both got warm compared to yesterday the upper was hot and the lower was cold. i looked in the radiator by where the cap goes and the coolant is flowing like never before. now only one thing is left. i noticed that when i filled the radiator back up with coolant, foam and air bubbles started coming out through the radiator neck and didnt stop. i let it do this for about half hour and it was still going. how do i bleed the coolant system for an auto? i know that the manual motors have a bleeder valve right by where the upper hose goes connected to the head. i also changed the oil and it had no traces of antifreeze. ima gonna go back to work tonight so hopefully it doesnt overheat. god am i gonna freeze my ass off tonight here in nyc. damn i wish i had my thermostat. like always thanks everyone and can anyone show me how to rep?
 
#20 ·
like always thanks everyone and can anyone show me how to rep?
To Rep:

you go below someones name and stuff on the left hand side very bottom of the post box, it will have 3 icons. The left icon will tell you if they're online, it will be a green square and says "ON". Next to that is the Green arrow, thats the rep button. And on the right, the yellow caution sign is to report a post.
 
#18 ·
if you already took off the thermostat there is this product you can get that can seal the engine block and head gasket (its not alumiseal, i forgot the name). you will need 12 hours though to let it set. it's called nanotechnology seal or something lol you add it with hot tap water.

that's just something you might want to do to be sure. if anything, it sounds like you have a clog to me. defective thermostats don't usually lead to overheating. it doesnt seem like you have a leak either becoz you say the coolant is forced out into our overflow tank. hopefully it's not the water pump but you might wanna check that too coz it might not be letting coolant flow into the motor, therefore being pushed out into the resevoir. goodluck!

oh and one last thing, and i might be wrong on this one but it never gave me any problems: to bleed your cooling system, you can just keep the rad cap off and let the engine idle. all bubbles should be pushed out.
 
#19 ·
oh and im sorry to change the topic on this thread but i think that this info can be useful as well:

my car is losing coolant from the overflow. i replaced all the hoses, radiator, cap, and thermostat. my car does not overheat but yeah, coolant is definitely being lost and there is no leaks. water pump was replaced about a month and a half ago.

here is the question: if the car doesnt overheat, can it still be a blown head gasket problem?
 
#26 ·
my car is losing coolant from the overflow. i replaced all the hoses, radiator, cap, and thermostat. my car does not overheat but yeah, coolant is definitely being lost and there is no leaks. water pump was replaced about a month and a half ago.

here is the question: if the car doesnt overheat, can it still be a blown head gasket problem?
Yea, if you have a leak that is allowing gas under pressure to enter your cooling system. You can have a blown headgasket allowing compressed gas from the combustion chamber into you coolant, or a crack in the head that is allowing exhaust into your coolant system.

This is what mine was doing about a month after I bought it. It worked just fine as long as I kept water in it, but even at an idle there was bubbles coming out of the radiator fill. When I stopped it after driving you could pop the hood and see the water spewing out of the overflow tank.

I changed my headgasket and found the system full of alumiseal, also the headgasket was goobered to hell, like someone was trying extra hard to get it to seal. I cleaned everything, installed the new headgasket, and the issue was the same as before. I took it apart again and swapped on a new head and the issue was fixed.
 
#21 ·
but im not too sure where the bleeder on an auto is, hopefully someone else can give u that advice. maybe gogle search images for a few minutes something like "96 civic coolant bleeder valve". You're probably at work or something...like me, but i dont do shit here hahaha so ill see if i cant find u a pic.
 
#22 ·
#24 ·
bodyguy...... lol (ur user is too long) i have that bleeder on my manual car but this one dont got it. yea i was working so i cudnt search for an image. my hours are from 1 am to 4 pm =/ . well the car actually lasted today at work. i was surprised myself. im thinking maybe it was that the thermostat was defective or the wrong one? all i know is that at least it didnt overheat or lose antifreeze, thank god =) just wanna say thanks to everyone for helping me out. d-series for life !! =)
 
#25 ·
hahaha, i know, but surprisingly not the longest on this site so im good there lol. and those are some crazy hours. glad i dont have that job DAMN! I work 7am-3:30pm and you get a good 6 hours on me everyday lol. but glad u fixed it, now we have 2 threads for this coolant issue.