03 honda civic 185k miles. car is overheating really bad often. changed thermostat, thermostat housing, seal, upper radiator hose. two years ago i had two radiators blow the bottom out of them and happened again just the other day. fixed it literally yesterday and not sure what but something by the front driver side is leaking. its like the engine is building to much pressure causing hoses to leak or radiator to go out. the upper radiator hose wanst split, it was just pushing coolent out the end of the hose connected to the thermostat. just tightend the clamp, it was not lose to began with. but after doing that is when the radiator blew out the bottom. its my daily driver, i have other cars to drive but they arent meant for daily driving. doesnt smoke so we dont think its a head gasket but im running out of options.

 

Changed your radiator cap? How about your overflow tank, anything in there?

 

It has a new cap. I bought a new one a couple months back and it's still happening.. the over for was having issues. The lines kept blowing apart and I put hose clamps on them. It doesn't appear to me the over flow tank is actually holding or doing anything, but sense it doesn't appear to be leaking from there I haven't paid much attention to it. How should the over flow tank function.? Should there be coolent in the tank.?

 

Go smell what's leaked under the front driver side, I'm betting it's coolant leaking from your water pump... Pretty sure that's on the driver side.

 

 

 

But it doesn't over heat all the time... Sometimes it'll go few thousand miles, nothing then one day I give it to much gas it go to high in rpms ( past 4500 ) it starts over heating. ( Not ever time)

 

But is every one agreeing or at least somewhat agree it's not a head gasket.? Or anything internal like that...?

 

Check that leak, go from there.

 

 

prior to it blowing up this most recent time, we change some bushing and during that time the car actually was over heating and so i filled it up with coolant and let it run a solid thirty minutes with the cap off waiting for the coolant level to go down and it never did. it got up to running temps. the coolant level stayed the same. and for the next three days i made sure to top it off ( i drive roughly 35 miles to work and then back. only about a 30-40 minute drive. but still. it over heats a lot of the time when i have to give it gas to pass someone or if i accidently miss 3rd. going from 4th to 3rd. itl rev past 4k ( no it doesnt seen much over 5.5k when it happens. im pretty good at pushing the clutch in when i miss )) but itll some times do it then or at least start leaking someplace .also having problems with it blowing hot air. it wont stay hot. if your not on the gas it blows cold air. so when i have the heater on cruisng at 3000 rpms 3rd gear or so. i let off for a stop light itll start blowing from hot air to cold air untill i get the engine going again. sense day one with the car ive had theses issues but like i siad sometimes itll last thousands of miles without issues then one day the radiator blows up or it just over heats. i replaced the heater core a long time ago hoping that would have fixed my heater problem but it didnt. keeping the coolant level full will allow the car to warm up faster and blow hot air constantly.

 

my dad said after replacing the radiator this last time. if it keeps doing these weird things the water pump is what he was going to replace next. so im assuming that is what he is doing. i have some good knowledge on cars. built and boosted prelude. and a s2000.... but this problem is one i cant figure out and my dad is a little to busy to help me at the moment. he wanted to replace the water pump sooner, but i said no sense it doesnt over heat all the time and its never leaked in that area, but after replacing damn near everything else, it almost has to be it.

 

Excess pressure in the cooling system combined with intermittent-mysterious coolant loss = combustion gas leaking into the cooling system from a warped cylinder head.
The cylinder head on my '02 Civic was warped and the cooling system BLEW THE CAP OFF the overflow tank at highway speed! :-)
Instead of throwing parts at the car, diagnose the problem. This will be more satisfying and less frustrating.
Consider a block test (to detect combustion gas at the radiator filler neck). If there is a cooling system leak, you MUST find the location. It could be an INTERNAL leak. Very common on these cars.

 

I was afraid the head had been worpped after over heating so many times.... How much does that cost to get fixed.? Small engine, small head, shouldn't cost to much...

 

If I do the head I'm going to do the timing belt and fix my ac and do everything else to the engine. On eBay the water pump and belt kit is only 35-50 bucks. Orilleys it's 109... Is eBay okay to go with.? It's so cheap I don't feel that it'd be as good.

 

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I did this job myself recently. I have many years of experience in auto repair. I spent about $197 for an OEM (Honda) head gasket set, $26 for a new OEM (Honda) timing belt and $45 for the local machine shop, for a total of $260.
There are MANY sources for OEM Honda parts on the Web. I like the low prices at www.hondapartsguys.com
I estimate that a local auto repair shop would charge AT LEAST $1,400 for this repair, and they would use low quality (aftermarket) parts.

 

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I've had some VERY BAD experiences with aftermarket parts used for Honda cars & motorcycles. WRONG parts, low prices but also low quality. At this point, my policy is to use OEM (Honda) parts EXCLUSIVELY on all Honda motor vehicles (live and learn).
I REFUSE to pay brick & motor Honda dealer prices. There are MANY sources on the Web for OEM (Honda) parts. One example is www.hondapartsguys.com (Nice LOW prices)... :-)