Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me narrow down what's wrong with my 2002 Civic EX.

I recently bought it used. Not too long ago I discovered the heat doesn't work right. What I mean is that it takes a long time before it will start blowing hot air. I can let it idle for 20 min and it still won't blow hot air until I drive it. Even then if when I'm stopped at a light, the air starts to blow colder until it's no longer warm at all. Eventually it will blow hot air continually after driving about 5-10 min.

Two nights ago I was sitting in my car with it idling. It had probably been idling about 15 min or so. I started smelling odd fumes. Not quite like exhaust fumes but similar. A few minutes later I noticed white smoke coming from under the hood.

I immediately cut the car off without even thinking to check the temperature gauge, though I don't recall seeing any indicator lights lit up on the dashboard (and none are lit up now).

I waited until the car cooled down before opening the hood. By then I didn't see any white smoke coming from anywhere. I checked beneath the car and there was a small stream of fluid near the front right of the engine. I touched it, and it felt a little slimy and was mostly clear (ie - it didn't look like oil), hard to say as it was dark and on the pavement. I checked the radiator and could see fluid near the top. The overflow looked empty. I sniffed near the radiator and the smell was similar to the smell of fumes in the car.

I went and got one of the large cups from inside a Burger King (the big plastic ones, that are 32oz?). I poured the water in the overflow and it took almost all of the water.

I drove it back home and fortunately no issues, and the temp gauge was in the middle where it should be. I'm taking it to a service station tomorrow to have it checked.

Btw, the people I bought it from had the AC replaced, though they didn't say why other than that it was a "freak" thing.

But I wanted to get some ideas of what I might be looking at since I don't have a regular mechanic.

Thank you!!

 

You might want to read through this, it's from the FAQ's ...

 

Thank you I've been searching the forums, but am not sure what key words to search on and so haven't had much luck.

 

Follow up: So I took my car to a local Firestone. They did a pressure check on the radiator, but said they couldn't find anything...no leaks, fans came on when supposed to, temp gauge was normal. Also checked other parts of the engine to see if maybe something else, but didn't find anything.

They said should be fine to drive, and only thing they could recommend, which was maintenance, was flush the radiator. I went ahead and had them do that since I've no idea when, or if, it was last flushed and I wasn't sure what the coolant/water ratio was.

I didn't get a chance yet to see if heat is working properly, but will test that out tomorrow and post an update. The car was already warm after getting it serviced so I knew the heat would work then, and I didn't use it before getting it checked just in case using it might of caused further damage.