A friend of mine with a Civic forgot to add radiator fluid , ran the thing out bone dry. Don't know how long he ran it like that till he noticed the tempature in the red. Anyways we added fluid and ran it around, it was ok for a bit but now today when we were going to school, it was getting hot.. pretty close to the white thick line right before red. Sometimes it'd cool down but im sure it's not suspose to get that hot. Theres still some room in the plastic resovoir, but the radiator seems to be filled. Will adding more fluid fix this problem, or did he seriously screw something up? Thanks,
Matt

Oh yea, his car is a fifth gen coupe if it matters.

 

It isnt good to run it like that..try adding a little more fluid and if that doesnt work try checking the thermostat...if it overheated the thermostat may have failed...next time buy one that fails open....

 

I would think it wouldn't work at all? It would just be my guess. I don't really know a lot on this subject. It's constantly getting real hot, then he turns on the Heater and amazingly it works wonders, pulls all the hot air out of the engine bay. I didn't belive it until we did it about 5-6 times. Cooled the motor down about 1/4 the thermoitor. Anyone else have any ideas? Thanks again,
Matt

 

I friend had one overheating on him all the time too. He changed the head gasket and it has been fine .