04 civic ex loosing coolant, but no leaks

[Terah]

I bought a used 04 Honda Civic on 09/17/2016. Everything was fine for about a month, then I noticed that the engine was running hot. When I took off the radiator cap, I saw a type of brown sludge. I then take my car for a radiator flush, but noticed it was still running hot. I have been adding coolant into the radiator, but I see no leaks, but I have to put coolant in the radiator everytime before I drive. Can someone please help me to understand what to do next?

 

[XpL0d3r]

Brown sludge? Either that coolant was very old, or you have oil leaking into the coolant. Any smoke of any colors coming from your exhaust?

 

[Terah]

Brown sludge? Either that coolant was very old, or you have oil leaking into the coolant. Any smoke of any colors coming from your exhaust?

I haven't noticed any smoke. Ill make sure to look today though.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Check your oil for coolant as well. If you see coolant in there, head gasket is likely bad and needs to be replaced.

 

[ifish4tuna]

I had a coolant leaking issue that I chased for a while.

It ended up being a head gasket issue. Here's what happens....

Small leak in the gasket causes over pressure in the radiator. The radiator over pressures, and fills the overflow tank. The reverse pressure valve on the radiator cap is incapable of recapturing the volume of lost fluid transfer, and as such the radiator continuously is under filled. Eventually the radiator will get so low that it will not provide heat and cooling to the car, and risks over heating. Before this happens though, you will begin to experience loss of heat unless the car is in motion (enough water pressure to circulate the water through the tubes).

The pressure from the head will eventually cause the overflow tank to over fill, and it WILL show signs of fluid at the bottom of the overflow tank down under the starboard side headlight. For me this process took about 200-400 miles of highway driving for the symptoms to become visible (fluid overflow).

If found all this out after a local shop replaced a bunch of parts thinking first it was thermo, then radiator cap, then radiator, and FINALLY the headgasket.

ALSO - the head needed to be sent out to a machine shop to be resurfaced (to take the warp out). The warp occurs due to the engine running to hot due to lack of radiator fluid.

Cost about $1400 for the head job.

Ed

 

[Terah]

Thanks so much for the information guys! I really appreciate it. I dont get paid for abother week and a half...is it possible to drive the car until then???

 

[SeBreeze9000]

I had a coolant leaking issue that I chased for a while.

It ended up being a head gasket issue. Here's what happens....

Small leak in the gasket causes over pressure in the radiator. The radiator over pressures, and fills the overflow tank. The reverse pressure valve on the radiator cap is incapable of recapturing the volume of lost fluid transfer, and as such the radiator continuously is under filled. Eventually the radiator will get so low that it will not provide heat and cooling to the car, and risks over heating. Before this happens though, you will begin to experience loss of heat unless the car is in motion (enough water pressure to circulate the water through the tubes).

The pressure from the head will eventually cause the overflow tank to over fill, and it WILL show signs of fluid at the bottom of the overflow tank down under the starboard side headlight. For me this process took about 200-400 miles of highway driving for the symptoms to become visible (fluid overflow).

If found all this out after a local shop replaced a bunch of parts thinking first it was thermo, then radiator cap, then radiator, and FINALLY the headgasket.

ALSO - the head needed to be sent out to a machine shop to be resurfaced (to take the warp out). The warp occurs due to the engine running to hot due to lack of radiator fluid.

Cost about $1400 for the head job.

Ed

Literally sounds exactly like what is going on with my vehicle atm, I appreciate this write up it was very informative.

 

[ifish4tuna]

Literally sounds exactly like what is going on with my vehicle atm, I appreciate this write up it was very informative.

Your very welcome. Hopefully you didn't chase and pay for the ghosts I did before getting to this point. Still love the car. Such a nice ride and economical.

 

[lunder03]

You don't need to take a head in and pay $1,400 to be resurfaced. That price is ridiculous...especially, when you can do it yourself for less than $100-120. How, you might ask???

Plexiglass, sand paper, spray-tach, feeler gauges, super square, dust mask and some good ol'elbow grease.

Get a piece of plexiglass roughly 4'x4', sand paper of varying texture 80-150 grit (or go as high as you'd like), spray tach (can be found at home depot or lowes in the carpet dept.), super square (again home depot and lowes), dust mask same place and feeler gauges (auto parts store).


After you've aquired these items and presumably the head is off your vehicle...use your super square and feeler gauges to check the extent of the warpage. I believe 2 thousandths of an inch is acceptable according to the "Haynes" manual. Anything greater than that needs resurfacing. If your head is more than 7 thousandths off start with 80 grit sand paper.

So, place your plexiglass on a flat surface and crimp down. You can place it on the ground (provived it's a flat surface and hopefully concrete), and you stand on it or secure it from being able to move. Next, glue your sand paper on in rows butted up to each other. Place enough to set the head on and be able to move back in forth 6-8 inches.

After giving it 5-10 min. to dry place the head on the sand paper. And start moving the head back and forth pushing and pulling. Let the weight of the head act as the down force. It is possible to place extra weight on the head, but why risk it...

Remember to check the head often with the feeler gauge and super square. You should notice almost immediately a change in color. The areas that are flat or parallel with the ground will have a machine like finish, while the low spots stay dirty and may even still have headgasket debri. Sand until you're within 2-3 thousandths of your goal and then up the sand paper grit. By that I mean, spray a new area and place higher grit sand paper. You may go as high as you like, but if you're like me and like to use the copper spray-a-gasket, I recommend stopping at 150 grit? This will give the copper gasket spray a little bit to hold onto once you place the head back on the engine block.

Good luck, oh...USE A DUST MASK. Aluminum dust is extremely bad for our lungs.

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