I'm trying to sell a car and would like to sell it in the best condition. I believe there is some coolant loss. When I start the car, a lot of water comes out the exhaust. The car has been sitting for a few months and I thought this might be the cause.

When I drove it out today, I made sure the coolant was at the max level in the overflow. After driving for about 20 minutes, the coolant level had raised. This leads me to believe the head gasket is bad. The thing is I put a new gasket on this past summer.

My question is, what could be the cause of all the water in the exhaust. Might I have done something wrong w/ the install? Possibly the head needs to be planed or the gasket didn't seal correctly. Or could it be something else?

I would just feel terrible if I sold someone a car knowing that there was something wrong with it. Thanks for any insight into the problem.

 

What do you mean a lot of water? I mean in the winter months, condensation out of the exhaust is to be expected. Now if it comes out like a faucet, then you have a problem, but just some droplets or a little that comes out is okay.

 

Does the car overheat ? If not than i doubt that you have a bad head gasket.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jmunk &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Does the car overheat ? If not than i doubt that you have a bad head gasket.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That's not a giveaway at all, actually. If your idle is rough, your oil is milky, you've got white billowing cloudy smoke from your exhaust, and your car smells sweet after you drive it, you're probably running on a blown head gasket.

The car doesn't have to hydrolock or overheat or explode for a headgasket to be bad.

 

very true Archidictus

 

Quite a bit of water comes out. When i give it gas, it blows out and forms a small puddle on the ground.

It doesnt overheat, but that isnt a problem until enough coolant burns up.

I will check the milky oil, forgot that. Last I checked I dont think it looked too bad.

Thanks again.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MLogan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Quite a bit of water comes out. When i give it gas, it blows out and forms a small puddle on the ground.

It doesnt overheat, but that isnt a problem until enough coolant burns up.

I will check the milky oil, forgot that. Last I checked I dont think it looked too bad.

Thanks again.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm sorry! We didn't ask a very important question: is it shooting out water or is it shooting out coolant. The problem could be very minor with one and very serious with the other. Get back to us .

 

I had a similar problem like that with my Crx. When i reved it had a line of water drops coming from the ehaust shooting out. But i also had alot of white smoke. My headgasket was bad as well. Sounds like you could be?

 

It looks like water and it doesnt smell like coolant.

What about the increase in the overflow container?

 

The coolant expands as it heats up and will thus push some out into the overflow. If you look on the overflow it may even be labeled with a max hot and a max cold levels for this exact reason. Like everyone else said. Sounds like you have a pretty healthy car. Condensation and even water droplets coming out of the tailpipe are normal. Especially after the car has sat for a while.

 

ok so you said you made sure it was at the max level right? did you do that when the engine was cold? if so that would explain why it raised a little after driving the car some...the level should be at the min. mark with cold and then when the engine is hot it should no go past the max mark..

 

Oh, I never knew that about the min and max levels. Thanks for all your help, it sounds like the car is fine.

 

how much do you guys think it would cost to replace a headgasket in a stock DX engine?

 

It depends on what you do while you have the head off and if you are paying someone to do it. If you do it yourself and you just have the head checked and possibly planed, it can be done for around $200. If you add valve job, new timing belt and water pump the cost will jump up to around $600. If you have to pay someone to do it they will probably charge about $600.

 

As long as you have some mechanical ability and a helm's manual, doing it yourself will be pretty straight forward. If you do have to have some else do it, it will be expensive.