Hello,

First time posting here and I really hope I can find the answers I'm looking for. I'm not car savvy (shouldn't have skipped out on the auto-tech classes in high school ugh), so I hope you fine people can point me in the right direction.

I have a 95 Honda Civic and have been experiencing overheating problems. I've taken the car into a local shop and had them replace the radiator (it was bad & leaking from the top), replaced the cooling fan (wasn't turning on) and finally had the thermostat replaced.. Welp! The car is still overheating.

The car stays cool when driving down the road, but when I have to stop at a light or just stop in general, the car starts to overheat. When it does this, I noticed it's boiling in the coolant tank, sometimes leaking out the top of the coolant tank cap. I called a different shop than the one I took it to originally. That shop told me it sounds like my fans aren't working. They look & sound to be working, and the original shop is adamant that the fans work. But what do I know?

The original shop said there could be issues with the heads. I understand head gasket fixes can be rather expensive. I don't have a lot of money to work with & hope to avoid this problem as much as possible. Is there anything else I can do? Am I missing something?

 

1. Did the radiator come with a new cap? or are you using the old cap?
2. Did the shop burp / bleed the coolant system?
3. Did they pressure test the new radiator after installation, to check for any leaks? and probably a good indicator if you're leaking internally (i.e. head gasket)
4. Did they run the car in the shop until the cooling fan come on? You can do this check yourself.
5. There is a temperature sending gauge and a fan switch - check both of them.
6. Thermostat - was that Honda OEM? and positioned up-right?
7. Ignition timing on the car - check that its not way off.

 

Probably a blown headgasket if its backing up into the reservoir. A block tester will tell you (get one at the autoparts store).

 

Thank you both for the suggestions. I will update once I have more info.

 

UPDATE:

Took it in to a shop that specializes in cooling systems (I should've done that to begin with instead of randomly replacing parts; lesson learned). Anyways, they did some testing and found that it is indeed a blown head gasket & will be around $1,000 fix. Ouch.

I don't have the money to fix it right now. Not sure if it's worth it (paid $1,500 for the car a little over a year ago & have already put $1,000 into it). I guess it might be worth it, since I'm already so invested in it & it is a 20 year old car, so I should expect some work to be done on it. Car has 180K. Starting to wonder how long it'll last with the blown head gasket. Sorry. Putting rambling thoughts onto this thread now, ha. Hope this helps somebody out there. Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

Too bad you're not auto tech savvy because have you seen the price for a new head gasket? Do you have any friends that are auto tech savvy? I wouldn't pay someone a grand to replace my head gasket if I only hand one arm. Unless it's not just the hg and they're adding additional things in there.......and to answer you're question, it won't last too long with a busted hg. That would probably create more headaches in the end anyway. Where are you located?

 

Honestly, I heard the $1,000 quote from a couple shops & didn't bother looking into the cost. Looking around online, I see head gasket sets range from $50-$250. That's not bad. I assume the $1,000 pricetag mostly comes from the $80/hr labor fee most shops around here charge. I think if I ask friends & family, I can maybe find somebody who will do it for little more than a case of beer & free dinner I live in Salt Lake City. Thanks for mentioning the cost. I had pretty much given up on it & was gonna bury it in tarps in the backyard till I won the lottery. Now I know it's a little more reasonable as long as I can find somebody with the know-how to fix it.

 

I'm no mechanical wonder, and I managed to change my head gasket (technically twice, but you'll only need to do it once if you do it right). Get a copy of the service manual and study it... should give you an idea of what's involved. There are many write-ups and videos available online, as well. If you have the space, tools, time, and preferably a buddy who's not drunk, it's quite possible!

 

Ah damn that's a little too far for me haha I was gonna say if you were close I would just show you how to do it. I understand business is business but loopholes are always fun to have naahhhh mean?! See if a buddy will do it for the case of beer, but give it to them after they fix it haha just out of curiosity what model 95? Is it a hatch?

 

Yeah, I'll see what I can do. And I'll make sure they drink the beer after the fix haha! Thanks for the help! It's an EX, 4 door sedan.

 

Good luck with it, if it was a hatch I would say I'll take it off your hands for a pretty penny