Civic - Honda :: 2003 - Overheats Even Changed Thermostat / Radiator - Engine Clogging?
Sep 14, 2014
when it began overheating, and to be specific it is a 2003 Honda civic ex, automatic. I took it back to them after having to pay towing expenses. They said they didn't know it had issues (bull) they said it was due to a radiator, so they installed a new one. When I got it back it drove fine then it began exhibiting the same symptoms soon after. I decided since I loved the car I wouldn't even bother with the people I bought it from, big mistake and I should have just returned it...I didn't because I was sick of looking for a car and school was about to start. This began the routine of having to fill it with antifreeze every day before and after class, if I didn't it would most certainly overheat and then I'd have to blow hot air all day.
So I took it to another mechanic who figured it must be something wrong with the cooling system and said the fan was acting slow, so he replaced the fan-switch and thermostat and said that it wasn't the water pump. I was hoping this would do it, but it did not. He then tested the head-gasket twice and it came back negative. Then they tested the catalytic converter, came back negative. This mechanic, then proceeds to tell me the people who sold it to me may have put a sealant in which gummed up the engine and is clogging things so it can't function correctly, or put on the head-gasket wrong or any number of things to the engine. Although, wouldn't this still make the head-gasket test fail? He tells me I may need a new engine because to figure out if it truly is an engine problem that would cost as much as a new engine. I don't know what to do or where to go I am at a loss here. Spending my money just to have mechanics tell me there is some mysterious "undiagnosable" problem with my car is the most frustrating thing ever. No one can fix this car it seems.
View 19 Replies
Advertisement
my EX is a 2000 XLT 6.8 4WD I have 146,000 on it. Last week I replaced the expansion tank with a new one, went just fine no leaks, new prestone at 50/50, today she overheated to the red so I changed the thermostat, still overheating, no leaks fluid level good. What am I missing ????
View 14 Replies
Ok I have a 97 f150 4.6L. My radiator has been bad for a while. With brown rust color. I replaced my radiator, thermostat, new upper and lower hoses. Everything runs great but I have no heat. I flushed everything including the heater core. Core is not leaking into cab, and both heater hoses are cold. What should I do next FYI heat worked great until 5 days ago.
View 14 Replies
I have a 2003 Civic EX with 160K miles. The car runs great but it will sometimes over heat in traffic. It does not always overheat so it so the two mechanics I have taken it too have been unable to duplicate. I have had he thermostat changed and the relay to the cooling fan. I also changed the radiator cap. Other facts.
The heater has been very slow to heat up even when letting the car run for 15 minutes in the winter. It will heat up only once on the highway. This started at about the same time as the overheating.
It has never overheated on the highway even with 100 degree weather and the AC blasting.
Turning on the air will most of the time lower the temp.
Today after traveling 30 minutes I came to a stop and it overheated(temp gage on H). I tried to turn on the heater to attempt to cool it down and it blew cold air for about 3 minutes and never warmed. I then pulled into a lot andneither cooling fan was running. I did not have the ac on as I am thinking the fact that the heater is so slow might be a clue to the problem.
It would appear it could be something with the cooling fan but neither mechanic thought it was that as they couldn't duplicate the problem.
View 6 Replies
I changed the radiator and thermostat, changed the coolant, and my fans work. however, whenever i take the car for a short drive, the temp goes up. I stop the car and shut it off, it steams near th coolant tank. it sounds like its almost boiling..
View 5 Replies
I have 2003 Civic, 125K. I am having an issue that the hose that connects radiator and coolant reservoir keeps disconnected at the top of radiator. I am sure this is due to pressure build up in radiator, and radiator cap functions. I also have seen lower level of coolant in my radiator but reservoir is full (of course the hose I mentioned above is connected!). I took my Civic to a shop and they bled radiator but didn't fix the problem. I am certain there is a blockage somewhere in between reservoir and radiator. Would flushing the cooling system fix the problem? I just want to give bit more specific information to my shop.
View 12 Replies
Honda civic ex 2001 w/ 202k miles.... 1 month ago was driving on highway, the a/c started going, then I began losing power, temp went hot, pulled over steaming hood, wouldn't take much water.
Mechanic did: replace thermostat, therm gasket, new radiator fan temp switch, pressure test.
Ran fine for 2 weeks, then heat began to rise again & overheated. Each time it overheated the top small hose on radiator popped off(like a 1/2 in. hose). Back to mechanic: did pressure test, did a full cooling system test all were great...Only thing he found was a small radiator crack....thought it just took a week to lose coolant. Replaced radiator/ecu temp sending unit/refill and pressure test.
1 week later, temp spikes to hot, so I bring it back....he tested pressure/flow no leaks again...he can't figure it out.One note: for about the past 3months, right after starting, I would come to my first or second stop, then accelerate and hear a squeal that lasts like 5 seconds or so...this happened intermittently for about 3 months, and is still happening(I can drive very short distances now). A friend thought the issue was the belt that controlled the a/c and 2 other things
View 5 Replies
I have a 1997 Honda Civic with 275,000 miles on it. After driving for an hour or so, it starts getting hot when stopped or nearly stopped. It goes back to normal temperature when I start driving. It does cool down if I turn on the heater. I just changed the timing belt/water pump and put it a new radiator and changed the thermostat hoping it would solve the problem, but it hasn't. I checked and the fan does come on when stopped. Could it be a cooling system clog that a flush might be able to solve or might it be the head gasket?
View 9 Replies
I have a 2004 Honda Civic Lx and I was driving one day and I look down to see if I was speeding or not (easy to do) and I see that the thermostat is almost all the way to the red line. So I pull over to a store and check my fluids. The oil was low so I put two quarts in. There are no signs of leaks anywhere. I also topped off the coolant. Ever sense the care has been fine so could of it been the low fluids?
View 5 Replies
My husband owns a 2005 Honda Civic with 192K miles on it. For the past 3 months, the thermostat has been floating to hot (H). He took it in to a mechanic who could not reenact the problem and could not find anything wrong. The mechanic replaced the thermostat indicator. The problem persisted without any sort of consistency. It would go to hot on the highway when he was going at high speeds and back down again and would also do it while idling at a stop light. We took the car in again and, again, the mechanic could find nothing wrong. Since then, the problem has become more frequent. Additionally, while the AC is on, when the thermostat goes to (H), the A/C is impacted...it starts blowing warm air versus cool. Again, it does not remain this way. A moment later it could go back to the midpoint and the AC then starts blowing cool air again.
View 3 Replies
I just received this car as a freebie but it has come with an issue or two. The most pressing is a cooling issue. They gave it to me with the words, "The radiator leaks". Upon some testing this doesn't seem to be the whole picture.
1) If I fill the radiator up, leave the car parked over night, the next morning the radiator is still full. so I assume it is leaking from steam venting or from something else.
2) The car overheats very fast when the AC is on and the vehicle is stopped. Within about 10 minutes it went through every drop in the radiator.
3) When driving with the AC fan on medium speed, it can go a solid 30-45 minutes with no issue.
4) If I turn the AC fan on to high it takes a matter of minutes for it to begin to over heat.
A friend mentioned something about a weeper valve? I know very little about cars. So if there was any insight as to what it may be that would be excellent.
View 13 Replies
My 1998 Honda Civic has oil in the radiator. And even stranger, the oil winds up in the overflow coolant reservoir. What is the most likely cause of this?
View 10 Replies
92 Honda Civic, it has been steaming under the hood when i drive it and it's going into the overflow tank. When I pull the cap off after it's cooled down and then refill it. I watch to see if it's flowing and it's not. My initial thought was maybe a bad water pump, however I spoke with someone today that said it could very well be the head gasket. I am tending to lean this way now as well, as there is fluid on the ground after I park it. I put down some cardboard so the next time I drive it, I can see where it's coming from... Before I spend any money I want to exhaust the basics. I know I can get a combustion leak test kit to ultimately determine it.
View 9 Replies
I have a 99 Honda civic LX 4 cyl. There is an oily residue in the coolant reservoir an on the fill tube but when the radiator is opened the coolant is clean. The car is using oil but not running rough or hot. There is no tailpipe smoke or evidence of leakage. I am planning to do a compression check and look at the plugs.
View 5 Replies
About a month ago, I smelled a very faint smell of radiator fluid inside the car while the air was on. This happened twice, once on the highway when RPM's were running fairly high/engine temp was slightly higher than usual, and once on sidestreets when I was driving at high RPM's/in lower gears than normal (manual transmission). When I stopped the car it cooled down to normal level immediately and smell went away. I added coolant to the reservoir.Then I noticed nothing for about a month, so I figured everything was OK.Last week, my engine was running hot (usually is at 50% on the temp gauge, it was at 75%, where 100% is red zone), driving at low speeds.
About 5 minutes before that, I had the heat on but noticed the air blowing in the car was not heated even though the engine was warmed up (I assume due to lack of radiator fluid flow through the engine). The car did not overheat, because I pulled over and added water, and later added some coolant. During that incident I did not notice any smell inside the car. At the end of the week, I noticed the car running slightly hot and checked the reservoir. It was low--most of the coolant I added had disappeared in just one week.
Usual things to check:-radiator and all hoses are new-no leaks under the car-no white exhaust/smoke or smell outside
Other things about my car: It is a 1997 Honda Civic. Has never had any major problems, and it's running smoothly, but it does burn oil. The first time I noticed the smell, it was just after I had driven on the highway with slightly low oil level (still on the dipstick, but slightly below the bottom dot. Not too far on the highway--about 20 minutes). Not sure if that could be related.
View 11 Replies
My son has a Mustang GT 5.0 that is overheating. I replaced the radiator with a heavy duty 3 core radiator. It had underdrive pulleys so I replaced them with stock pulleys. I put dual electric fans on it. I flushed the block and put a new thermostat and replaced all the hoses (made sure the bottom radiator hose had wire in it so it wouldn't collapse). I put a new water pump and drive belt but it still overheats when sitting in traffic and overheats when driving with the A/C on.
View 14 Replies
I have replaced a head gasket on my 2001 civic LX recently. I have drain the coolant and put it back on again. Now I have idle issues, the car starts fine with high RPM (because it is cold) about 5 min latter the RPM changes, it revs low and high (about 2000 rpm) when it should be idling normally. I have taken the radiator cap (before i start the engine) and run it a while with the cap off to purge any air pockets, no luck. Another thing I have realized that there is a pressure build up in the upper and lower radiator hoses when it is running with the radiator cap on. How to fix this problem?
View 13 Replies
I have a 2003 Honda Civic coupe (EX) that makes a loud squeal. It starts when I just get going in the car, maybe two or three minutes into the drive. The squeal seems to come from the engine, and lasts for 15 to 30 seconds, before abruptly stopping. I seem to think its a belt, but not sure why its doing it or how to stop it.
View 5 Replies
I have a '03 Civic DX 5 speed. It has 128000 miles on it. I've notice now that it is getting colder, my engine ticks when it is warm - I can hear it at idle and low rpms, but not at higher rpms. It sounds perfect when it's cold, but once it is warm, it has a "tic-a-tic-a-tic-a-tica..." sound. Tom and Ray talked about a Dodge Dakota that made the same sound when the engine was cold (about 8 episodes ago). So what does it mean if it only does it when warm?
View 9 Replies
Recently, my 2003 manual honda civic accelerates very slowly, even the engine speed goes up to 4000 rpm. Usually it takes up to 1 minute to reach 60mph on high way. Is the clutch getting bad?
View 5 Replies
1995 Ford Van E150. So I've been trying to solve my overheating problem for months now. One morning I walked out of my house and all of my coolants was on the street. I could not completely detect the source of the leak after running more coolant through it. I also checked the dip stick and coolant on the ground for any sign of oil/coolant mixing. I started by replacing the thermostat.
I did a more thorough inspection and found a crack at the bottom of the radiator that I replaced less than two years ago. I replaced the radiator again and while I had the belt, intake and fan disassembled I switched out the water pump as well. The old water pump was gunked and the gasket was almost completely worn off. The van is still overheating and spitting out coolant at a much higher rate. I'm guessing because of the new water pump. A friend said it could be the intake manifold because of where the steam was coming from the motor.
View 5 Replies
