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I first purchased my Civic in Jan of 2015. My first car had terrible over heating problems so I decided to get rid of it for my civic. Turns out, my Civic has the SAME problem. I decided to take it down to Daytona for a road trip when I bought it and halfway there I saw it was all the way on the H. I stopped at a rest stop (thankfully) and this really nice guy put water in it and told me I had absolutely no coolant. I thought, okay that's fine, I'm an idiot for not checking, it should be fixed. Well, when I got to Daytona I took it to my Uncles house (he's been a mechanic for years) and after a little research we decided that I needed to replace my thermostat and my radiator. we also took out my condenser. but low and behold, that has not fixed the problem. I've had diagnostics run on a lot of things and everything has come back working just fine.

WHAT ELSE COULD BE THE PROBLEM!?

I put coolant/water in it every single day before I drive it and it's been fine for a while, and there are no leaks, my oil is not milky, and my exhaust is fine. PLEASE HELP! I want to keep my car, thank you!

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  • Welcome to the site. How's the radiator cap?
    – Zaid
    Feb 20, 2016 at 6:09
  • I'd suggest buying a test kit that will check for hydrocarbons in the coolant. If you're adding coolant everyday it's going somewhere. How's the reservoir level? Is it constantly low?
    – Ben
    Feb 20, 2016 at 13:52
  • My radiator cap is fine and no it's not necessarily low every time I put coolant in it cause I do it every day. Some days it takes more than others but it's never to the point where it's like completely dry.
    – Taylor
    Feb 20, 2016 at 14:29
  • But I have just been putting water in it. Because I don't want the coolant to just keep going to waste by going somewhere.
    – Taylor
    Feb 20, 2016 at 14:31
  • 4
    Possible duplicate of The mysterious overheating honda civic
    – David Winslow
    Feb 21, 2016 at 3:45

1 Answer 1

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If you are loosing coolant, it has to be going somewhere. You are either leaking it or burning it.

You can get a radiator test kit to help determine where the leak is. Basically you put a small pump on your radiator, add some air to increase the pressure to about 15 psi, and look/listen for leaks. Listen in the valve cover and cylinder hole to determine if it is a head gasket.

Otherwise, you can start your car and let it heat up. While it is nice and hot with good pressure in the system, look for a leak. Since you say you do not see a leak, pay special attention to coolant hoses on the back of the engine. There should be some coolant lines going to the intake somewhere. Be sure to look closely at those and any gaskets. Leaks on the back of the engine may not be obvious if you aren't looking right at them. You may need a mirror to see everything. It is also possible is it leaking at your water pump. I believe this is connected to your timing belt, so this may be difficult to see. Certainly look around the timing belt area and crank pulley for wetness.

The easiest way to check your head gasket is to do a compression test each cylinder should be within 10% of the others and at least 120psi. This will not test if you have a break between coolant and oil, but since you do not have milky oil, it is unlikely it has blown in this way.

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  • Head gasket failure is a very common item on this engine. A chemical "block test" is the best test to confirm it. They to not usually get bad enough to show on the compression test.
    – Fred Wilson
    Feb 22, 2016 at 6:43

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