Overheating Civic

[spas]

Hi guys. I'm quite a newbie with cars so bear with me. My 1994 Civic (EG) Vti had smoke coming out of the bonnet earlier this evening. the temp gauge was pretty high too.

Stopped the car by the road and lifted the bonnet. Realised there was green coolant in some places and on the bumper. There wasn't much coolant left under the radiator cap and under the backup coolant cap too.

Bought a litre's worth of coolant, topped it up and manage to drive 12minutes back home. When i got home it was almost steaming and again without much coolant left.

Did something burst? What would that something be and what should I be checking or looking out for?

Hope I've been explicit enough. I'm hoping to get some advice, and perhaps not head to the repair shop totally ignorant and maybe save some money buying some parts myself without being knocked off too badly.

Thanks mates in advance for the advice.

[fatboyz39]

firstly ill check whether the radiator fan works or kicks in @ 90 degree or so. Search around on the forum for testing the fan. If the fan works then check the radiator if its blocked or leaking.

Replace your thermo first, cheap to buy.

You might of done some damage to your headgasket so get that checked out and tested.

[czy_sol87]

Stopped the car by the road and lifted the bonnet. Realised there was green coolant in some places and on the bumper. There wasn't much coolant left under the radiator cap and under the backup coolant cap too.


his losing coolant...
so i would say there is a leak somewhere, have a look at the hoses if they are not busted, most likly a leak from the water pump...

[destrukshn]

water pump won't spit out water to the front of the car.
your radiator top tank could be busted.
if your hose was busted, then you'd notice that straight away, becuse the second you pour coolant, it would run straight out.

[czy_sol87]

^^^yeh thats tru if the water pump is leaking u'll notice a trail of coolant underneath the car on the left hand side

[dsp26]

- Turn engine on and let it idle
- Take rad cap off and rev car... does the water move? If not it's a water pump issue...

- Put the rad cap back on before it gets hot and coolant rises.
- While still cold test functionality of the rad fan by turning A/C on. if it does turn on then it's still only half working as you need to check if it turns on when hot.

- When it gets to temp and it starts Hissing/Leaking:
- check to see if both radiator hoses are hot.. if not then your thermostat is the issue.
- by this point your rad fans should have turned on already too.. if not then fan switch is rooted somehow wether the wiring or the actual sensor... however this is a minor issue and more a contributing cause.

My bet is on thermostat... when it cools down.. remove it and plumb everything back in and see if it all still overheats...

the leaks can only come from a few places unless it was that bad it damaged ur coolant paths in the engine. The common leak spots are:
- All coolant hoses
- water pump
- Radiator fins or end tanks

[BlitZ]

blown head gasket?

[aaronng]

If he lost a lot of coolant, adding in only 1 L was not enough as well.

[dsp26]

blown head gasket?
this can be tested for with a compression tester... in MOST cases a blow in the head gasket will happen between 2 cylinders.

otherwise you can check for:
- whitish residue under oil cap (when cooled down overnight)
- oily residue in coolant (check whenever)
- tiny bubbles in coolant (take rad cap off) when coolant is still cold.

Alternatively a radiator specialist has a tool that can test for exhaust gases coming out of the radiator + they can pressure test it....

[Drew]

I doubt that its the thermostat or the head gasket; that would cause the car to overheat but not leak so much water

My money is on radiator hose or radiator top tank...

If you're in Melb I can have a look at it for you and go from there

[bennjamin]

could be as simple as the radiator upper or lower hose clamp being loose or the drain loose / worn rubber grommet. Both lead to coolant loss. And all teh above...

[Tholakan]

Check along the seams of the radiator top tank where the plastic meets metal. It sounds like a split radiator tank. Happened to my ef8. I did a ghetto fix with epoxy putty which lasted for 6 months.

[BlitZ]

a thread that was overmoderated..

its moved under civic when its general technical...

maybe no other cars have radiators ;)