pliskin8

iTrader: (1)

I have a '97 civic, recently i've had alot of problems with it overheating. sometimes it will run without any problems, just last week i drove it from Vegas to L.A., and then back and the temperature never went up, but other times if i'm just driving around i'll look and it'll almost be at a boiling point. when i check the radiator most of the time it'll be almost dry, but there's still fluid in the reservoir tank. I've checked for possible leaks but have found nothing. I've reached a dead end, any help would be appreciated.

ke98248

iTrader: (1)

Thermostat may be bad... Try replacing that.

You might have small air bubbles in your coolant, try bleeding the system; or flush all coolant out and replace with new.

you aren't leaking any coolant are you?

95ProjectEJ1

iTrader: (5)

Lets start here....

1. Let the motor cool in your driveway
2. Once COOL, undo the rad cap and check the fluid levels... fill up if needed (base of the neck)
3. Start the car and let her idle with the rad cap off (burp the system)
4. After 15-20 minutes your fan should activate, watch your temp up until this time.

This will eliminate air bubbles in your system and also tell us if your fan is working. If your fan doesnt activate then come back and we can go from there.

95dsol

thermostat

pliskin8

iTrader: (1)

I tried it - the fan is working - now i just have to wait and see how the car does. thanxxx 4 ur help

95ProjectEJ1

iTrader: (5)

NP, if you let it warm up with the cap off you also burped the system so that eliminates air bubble problems.

Just check for any leaks on the radiator and hoses. Also check your overflow tank for any black film. This is said to be attributed to a leak in your HG, which allows exhaust gases to mix with your coolant. Lets us know

jenson40

x2

pliskin8

iTrader: (1)

no leaks found, no black film in the overflow tank, burped the system yesterday morning the car was fine from then until now, it's still overheating.

Syndacate

Why the **** is everybody always talking about air in the system? I've never seen air in the system do anything bad, it's not a hard process, just start it with the cap off, there's no need to "burp" the system.

I have never in my entire life ran into a situation where a car was overheating and "burping the system" fixed that. ****.

@ OP:
Check the petcock (rad drain) at the bottom of the radiator, make sure that's tight. A VERY COMMON problem with civics is that the lower radiator hose leaks at the radiator, well it's not just civics, a lot of times what happens is somebody installs a new rad hose or radiator then after driving it around for a month they don't bother to re-tighten the clamp, so it starts leaking.

Obviously the leak can be coming from anywhere in your coolant system, but check with the petcock and lower rad hose clamp first, make sure it's on all the way too (the hose). My '95 was leaking outta the lower rad hose for like 2 months and I couldn't find what the problem was (it was leaking so slow, about 2" down on the res tank every ~500 miles. It was leaking so slow that I thought it was burning it, not leaking raw - turned out it was leaking raw outta the lower rad hose, new hose + new clamp + retighten after one month, never went down since .

Syndacate

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pliskin8 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have a '97 civic, recently i've had alot of problems with it overheating. sometimes it will run without any problems, just last week i drove it from Vegas to L.A., and then back and the temperature never went up, but other times if i'm just driving around i'll look and it'll almost be at a boiling point. when i check the radiator most of the time it'll be almost dry, but there's still fluid in the reservoir tank. I've checked for possible leaks but have found nothing. I've reached a dead end, any help would be appreciated.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think a lot of people that responded here observed this part of your post.

Either leaking or it's burning, it's not air in the system...