I have a 1995 Honda Civic Ex. I was driving at 40 mph when my car made a pop noise (radiator hose split open) and a small amount of white smoke went into the air and I began to smell antifreeze/coolant. I pulled over in less than a minute and lifted the hood to find that antifreeze/coolant had squirted in small amounts within the hood. I immediately took it around 7 miles to my mechanic to have it looked at because at the time I didn't know what the problem was but I was surprised that the car was running the whole way there. When I got to the mechanic and put the car in park (idle) heavy amounts of white smoke started to pour out of the hood. The mechanic show me clearly where the radiator hose
had tore substantially and showed me how some kind of way the engine have VERY LITTLE OIL. He said that I should have called a tow rather than to have drove it there and concluded that I had damaged the engine and needed a new one rather than just replace the radiator hose and do an oil change??? My question is if my car accelerated up hills just to get to the mechanic proves that the engine is still good. All he would have to do is replace the hose and put oil into the engine and the problem seems as if it would be fixed in my mind? why would the mechanic deem the engine bad when after the smoke cleared under the hood EVERYTHING looked perfectly fine. No white milky or foamy antifreeze or nothing. Do you think my car might have a chance? What could be wrong or what can be done?

 

If you overheated it it'll never be the same again. Seen it done way too many times. Aluminum block engines don't like heat at all.

 

Hey Thanks, when you say it will never be the same again do you mean it could be a total loss or loss of thrust etc.?

 

Well first off, it's you car, not your mechanics. If you feel that your engine is fine, replace the hose, refill the fluids, and drive it. You have every right to take your car and keep driving it if it works fine. If you come to find out that something is wrong and you do in fact need to replace it, then so be it. Did he tell you what was wrong with the engine? Unless it has a knock from running it on low oil, I'd keep driving it personally.

 

Its going to burn oil and you'll be replacing headgaskets every 6 months to a year. When you get in a situation like this STOP shut off the car immediately and have it towed. Theres no grace period for this.

 

Great Point! He did not say whats wrong with the engine neither did he even get into the car to check the temperature gauge or anything. He judged it specifically on the amount of white smoke that came as a result of the radiation hose tear and the very low oil level.

 

True I would have definitely towed if I had known. Hopefully the engine wasn't damaged because when I looked under the hood after the smoke completely cleared the only thing that looked out of the norm was the torn radiator hose.

 

^Where was your temp gauge when you made it? The white smoke could've been steam from coolant hitting the engine.

 

The temp guage was on cool the entire time the smoke was white and smelt like antifreeze/coolant and the liquid substance under the hood that came from the radiator hose was very airy and It wasnt much of it. But there was smoke galore.

 

Well I can guarantee that the white smoke is just from the coolant burning off on your engine, the question is how hot your car got before you arrived at your mechanic's shop. If it didn't overheat then you should be fine.

 

I would agree that the smoke was probably from the coolant because that is all it smelt like also there was no burnt smell. But something that would probably would be notable is I light tractor like noise the engine made at speeds at 25mph and idle but seized after around 30mps

 

This would have been useful info in the begining. If it never overheated then yeah you're fine. Er wait, on cool the entire time? Define cool. Temp guage should as soon as the car warms up (about 2 miles) be just under halfway on the gauge and basically should never move. It it was right down at cold then your coolant temp sending unit is probably bad.

 

I always thought it was weird that the car never moved past C so yeah its definitely a bad sensor now that you're telling me. I hardly thought anything about it because this is the only car I ever owned so I figured being on C was a great thing.

 

^...uh. No car staying on C should ever be a good thing. Well, now it's pretty hard to assume your engine isn't bad if your temp. gauge is bad. I guess this is why you drove on it while it was blowing up.

 

I would still say that the engine was in ok shape after I dropped it of becuase she still accelerated great like most v tecs do and she had normal thrust going up hills.

 

So did my friend's b7. Smoked like a bitch in the power band though.

 

^ this. It may still seem to run fine, but it will blow a headgasket if it hasn't already and it will burn oil, especially if you replace said headgasket.

 

So hopefully there will be some hope. I guess he'll be done fixing it by tomorrow, but I'm not sure how long it would take to do that kind of repair. Ill test drive her and post some results (if the car is even drivable when he's done.

 

^Hm. I'd be afraid of what he's attempting to do with that engine. And by afraid, I mean that you'll probably be displeased with the final result and bill...

 

He said he would replace the radiator hose that busted for $85 and change the oil for $25. And I guess he would have to replace the coolant and let the car run and hopefully the smoke will stop and the car will be all oiled up and cooled down.

 

Dude...

 

What...what more could have been done about a ripped radiator hose

 

I'm talking about how he just robbed you by doing some of the simplest things you can do at home.

 

Well jeeze I guess you're right but also you got to remeber that as this happened this was the first time I ever had car give me trouble while driving so I panicked and made a big deal out of it.

 

^Well, yeah but if he told you what he was gonna do at what prices, you should've grabbed the keys off of him and asked for a friend with a diesel. Buhhh, hopefully it fixes your problem.