nihan87

OK so I just bought this car last week and the day after i got it i started getting the coolant temp pinned to H. Pulled over and the car was not overheating. I proceeded to my girlfriends house and her father is a mechanic so he took a look at it. My recovery take was alittle low so we filled that and replaced the coolant temp gauge that is on the t-stat housing. problem persisted so we felt the radiator hoses.

The top one going from the engine to the radiator was pretty hot and the hose from the radiator to the engine was cold. So we replaced the thermostat and still had the sensor overheating. The hoses were fine now, both close in temp.

So we figured it was an electrical problem and it was nothing to worry about at the moment.

I forgot to mention that the fan stayed on for a good 10 minutes when i turned off the car.

Brought the car to work (work at an airport) and one of the kids here is a mechanic so he looked at it. lifted the hood and my hoses were collapsed. Low on coolant. took off the cap, it hissed and pissed a bit and the hoses filled back up to their normal state. He said that my radiator cap was busted and needed replacing.
he then took out the thermostat, replaced the cap and im driving it without the thermostat in it.

So this morning i start it up, drive down my road and the "Check Engine" light came on. pulled over, turned the car off thinking it needed antifreeze i loosened the cap, after all the pressure was gone i took it off to find half the cap missing...
drove it home pissed as hell and drove our civic to work.

Now my question is what should i do next? do i get a new radiator? there has been talk about a head gasket which i realllyyy hope its not.
Any help would be great guys.
thank you!


(sorry its so damn long, wanted to be detailed)