Endub01honda

o it was snowing a couple months ago and I slid off the road in my civic I bought a few hours earlier. A bunch of snow got pushed up around the fans\radiator\ac condenser. At the same time my drive belt snapped and I popped a tire. So I changed the belt and the tire and when I drove aity I noticed I was overheating.

So I had this problem with a Camry when I slid off the road and it ended up just being the thermostat. So I changed out the thermostat and it was still overheating. This is when I noticed my fans weren't kicking on.

So the car is good for about a 100 miles before I have to add coolant. But when it runs out it becomes air locked, and it's a bitch to get all the air out.

When it's overheating the upper hose is bloated and hot and the lower hose is warm, but not hot or bloated. Also, there is small black flecks floating in the coolant but they disintegrate between my fingertips. I feel as if I can almost smell oil/exhaust coming from the radiator while I purge the air from it. I don't know if it's my imagination or not. There is no white smoke coming from the exhaust. But the coolant overflows from the reservoir at high rpm. I'm not sure if the same happens from the radiator because I haven't gotten around to checking. Also, the radiator empties out while the overflow still has fluid in it. I smell coolant while driving but I think it's only because of the overflow from the coolant reservoir. As I write this down it sounds more like a head gasket leak mixing with the exhaust. Oh and the car runs and starts like a champ. Oh and my heat works until I overheat and then turn the car off

It's an 01 civic ex coupe vtech 1.7 5 speed with 160k on it. Thoughts anyone? Could it be overheating with no fans? And the bloated hose is from the boiling coolant and water? Or is it the head gasket?

I know the next step is a pressure test or the dye kit and to see if it's the fan or fanswitch that's shot. Is there anything I am missing or forgetting to do?
Edit

holmesnmanny

My theory is that you damaged the fan wiring. The fans stopped working. Your car then overheated with no fans. The head gasket gave way in between a coolant jacket and an oil flow.

It's possible a compression test will show a low 4th cylinder, which is the first cylinder to go south when the head gasket leaks, but it's not always the case since it's possible for the head gasket to leak solely from the coolant jacket to an oil portion of the gasket.

You need to idle the car and then when the lower hose starts getting hot the fans should come on shortly after that. If they aren't coming on, or even with the ac on(provided the ac works), then you need to trace the wires.

fcm

Ditto the above^^^ sounds like a blown HG. 94