Hello, My 03 Civic is having a plethora of issues, it has a grinding sound while upshifting and when it downshifts it seems like it doesn't know what to do. Engine has serious hesitation, especially going uphills. I did a valve adjustment and changed the spark plugs which seemed to help for a little bit, but it's really sluggish AGAIN. And the last issue which has started more recently, is random overheating and going through coolant. I couldn't find any leaks, fans are working, I'm not sure if it's the headgasket starting to blow or if it has other issues. It has a code for the evap canister, but I wouldn't think that would effect it at all. Thoughts? It has 206k so I don't want to dump a massive amount of money and parts into it. All help appreciated.

 

You can check the condition of the catalytic converter to make sure it isn't plugged up, but I'm fairly sure based on your symptoms it's a dying headgasket. Is your coolant reservoir filling up often? My buddy's 02 is doing the same thing right now and we've taken it off the road. You can also buy a tester kit that looks for exhaust gases in the coolant to make sure. A compression test may also reveal a low cylinder, or pair of cylinders that are low.

If your transmission is an auto, it might actually be on its way out, too. You can dry a drain and fill of Honda Genuine ATF, but honestly it's looking like a money pit at this point.

A bad HG makes the car run like **** because it can push the coolant out of the system, then the coolant temperature sensor doesn't know what actual temperature it's running at. It can also make the car loose compression in certain cylinders depending on how the HG fails, and burning water doesn't usually bode well either.

It's time to start saving up for an engine/trans swap or get another car entirely. I don't recommend doing a HG by itself since a used engine can be had for about $400 bucks, and you usually spend more machining the block and head.

The evap code can be a lot of things, but very likely a loose or bad gas cap depending on the code.

Edit: Read your other thread. It's probably time to go car shopping if you can't do an engine/trans swap yourself.