Last week, I had bought my first car, and it was a 1990 Honda civic! I feel very lucky to come across a car like this, and she still runs decently well for her age! But I've recently come across a problem where she tends to overheat when driving for 5+ minutes, and coolant has been leaking from her.

A picture of a coolant leak and currently my only picture of this situation (it was honestly quite a bit)
I currently have little to no experience when it comes to auto mechanics but I want to learn to be able to repair and maintain her (and later do some projects). As of right now, It seems that there is something possibly wrong with the idle air control valve, and one of the tubes attached to it seems to be swelled, my dad had also suggested that it could be a head gasket problem? I'd you appreciate if I get any source of help!

Heres the car! Ain't she a beauty?

 

so your first car is a civic 4 dr
that pretty much makes us family
im uncle Marky b baby uncle marky b .. haha (a little transformers joke)


okay the first thing that needs to be done here is you need to find out where the coolent or antifreeze is leaking from

you top off your radiator
put the cap back on and turn the car on
then you feel around all over untill you find the wet spot
and with that amount of leakage you showed in the picture it shouldnt be hard to find the leak

if your lucky it could be just a hose that needs replaced

good luck and let me know what you find out

 

Might as well assume all the coolant hoses are the same age and replace all of them. It's a bummer to find the leaking hose, replace it, and a week later be overheating again because another hose split.

 

Thank you! I'll be sure to check that out, hopefully its just the hose!

 

Get a new thermostat too, it might be stuck

 

Was working on the car, found out that one of the hoses that had the coolant going though it was split! We replaced it today, and the cooling has improved quite a bit! Got new spark plugs for it too cause it had a rough idle, shes running suoerbwell, thanks for the help!