Dylan31493

Hello everyone! New to the site and decided to join and reach out to all Honda gurus... Bought my civic about 4 months ago at 169k and everything was going great for the first month or two. I keep with all maintenance, oil change every 3k etc etc... A couple months ago my car started overheating and steaming out of the engine and I am pretty good when it comes to cars. I found a hairline Crack at the top of the rad and instead of patching it up I replaced it in less than an hour and it was smooth sailing from there on out. So a few weeks go by and it starts overheating. Losing coolant, temp gauge bouncing up and down. So every few days I'd add coolant it would be fine for a couple days and then right back to overheating. Since then I have replaced the radiator, cap (twice) thermostat, sender unit, upper hose, temp sensor, all that jazz... I'm sure you all get the idea and the amount of frustration I have with this car right now. I don't have any milky oil and no smoke from tail pipe. My dad is a mechanic and said it could be head gasket. Also noticing my fans not kicking on. Only come on when I jump switch and they hardly ever come on. So I'm stumped. I'm losing coolant somewhere, and it's not external unless if it's boiling out the overflow when I drive and just spitting all over the place... someone please chime in and help! Like I said I'm pretty good with cars I just need some tips and a pointer in the right direction. Thanks!!!

Former User

Has your dad explained why he hasn't pressure tested the cooling system for leaks and used a block tester to detect exhaust gases in the radiator?

Dylan31493

Sorry I may have forgotten to mention that... He did in fact do both of those and found no leaks or anything like that I was with him when he did it. He didn't have much time I brought it down to him while he was working and he took a quick peak at it... I'm hoping it's not a head gasket. If I remember correctly when I changed the thermostat it seemed really stiff and I bought an autozone brand, so maybe that could be the culprit? I put my hand around the lower hose and it gets warm but nor that warm. And before I changed that it wasn't doing what it is now, is it possible to get a faulty thermo? I was told I should buy OEM Honda thermo... I'm sick of throwing my wallet at this car with no positive results.

Former User

If he's doing the work on your car, have him post in this thread. It's hard to troubleshoot and get accurate information when details are communicated through a middleman.

Dylan31493

He hasn't done any work to my car, he doesn't have time to really help me either... And he doesn't help much he just throws opinions at me and tells me what I should do. He wouldn't write anything here because he doesn't use computer much... I was just looking for some second guesses. I'm leaning towards a head gasket but who knows it could be a bunch of other stuff.

Former User

Okay, describe how you pressure tested the cooling system and performed the block test.

Dylan31493

Well for the pressure test he hooked up the tester to the filler mouth of the radiator and pressurized the system and found no leaks, and for the head test he hooked up the tool into the spark plug wells and everything came back normal...

Former User

I thought you said you did the work?

The second test is a compression test not a block tester kit. Go to the AutoZone site and search for block tester kit.

Dylan31493

I thought you meant the work I did to my car sorry. I guess I'll have to go and do that tomorrow when I get a chance... Thanks