Hey guys. Yesterday my friend sold me his 04 civic lx for 2400$ 120k miles clean title bcus he didnt want to deal with the overheating and coolant leak issue of his car. Im thinking it might be the headgasket but i wanted to make sure since if it is i might just resell the car as is.

Car has:
Always been changed with synthetic oil
cv axles at 90k
control arm bushings.
Tranny fluid flush a couple times.
Overheats at time
Car leaks coolant but not on the ground.

 

If the leak is in your head gasket there will b coolant in your oil check your dip stick after driving there will b bubbles and white oily residue on it

 

No oily residue on oil stick nor was white. Fans work fine. Getting it pressure tested. Do you guys think the head gasket since it's such a common problem with overheating civics?

 

Firstly, you can have a blown head gasket and will not have the oil and coolant mixed together. You can also have a blown head gasket and not experience the "white smoke" from the exhaust.

Check your plugs and look into the cylinders. Do they look like they've been steamed?


If you're overheating and losing coolant, but you are not visibly leaking any coolant, then the odds are in favor of a blown head gasket. Especially if coolant is being forced out of the reservoir next to the battery.

Since you've mentioned that your fans work, we'll skip that part.

Here, read through this thread. https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-2001-2005-78/01-05-civic-cooling-system-q-overheating-fans-inoperable-etc-2889523/

It's all been pretty well covered before.

 

Okay thanks a lot for your help. The pressure test showed no signs of leaking, and we kept the engine on and i drove it about 20miles and it didn't seem to overheat. There seems to be no problem with car at all. I call my friend to tell him that it wouldn't overheat and he said it would eventually.

 

They have been known to deceive people in the past. Some people on here had tried every test imaginable, but to no avail. After tiring of their headache, they pulled the head and, low and behold, they had a blown head gasket.

Check the other things first, though. Make sure your coolant is flowing as it should, and that there are no obstructions of any kind in the radiator or heater core; that your thermostat is working properly, that your radiator cap is also working properly. Many people have gone as far as to replace all of these things only to find out their gasket was bad.

Best of luck to ya.

 

Did it blow the surge tank hose off the radiator? That is the classic sign of an intermittent head gasket leak on the 01-05's. It will hold pressure on occasion, and then it will just start pushing air into the radiator, blowing the hose off generally after the surge tank fills up.