Civic - Honda :: 2003 - Significant Overheating Event While On A Highway
Jul 10, 2014
I've owned this Civic since new, now at 153K miles. This is a recurring problem that I've been having for over a year. First symptom was there would be no heat coming from the heater at idle with the motor well warmed up. Add some rpm's and the heat returned. The reason was not enough coolant in the system, filled up radiator and all OK. Then it happened again and there is coolant in the overflow tank, but pull the radiator cap and no fluid under cap. Fill radiator and all OK, but it kept happening. I replaced the OEM radiator cap with a new "Slant" brand for an '03 Civic. No better, no worse.
Last week I had a significant overheating event while on a highway. I pulled into a "Dollar Store" parking lot, went into the store and bought 50/50 coolant and shop rags and let the car cool off for 30 min. When I pulled the cap, it was a steamy mess and I let it cool some more. Eventually I put in the coolant and finished up the drive with no more overheating. The overflow coolant container was at the "full" mark all during the overheating event.
At this point I took it to my trusted mechanic. My mechanic determined that the overflow tank was clogged and he blew out the line. So, I hoped all was fixed. But I don't think so. With the car cool this morning I pulled the radiator cap and got a swish noise indicating some pressure release. The level of coolant in the overflow contain hasn't moved. It still seems coolant is not being pulled from the overflow container back in to the radiator when the car cools off. I blew into the radiator top (where the cap goes) and that did produce lots of bubbles in the overflow tank. It seems it is no longer plugged - but why isn't the coolant behaving properly?
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I have a honda civic 2000 and recently I noticed that it overheat only after exiting a long drive on highway. The car does not overheat for my normal daily commutes (within the city).
I tried the following:
- Checked coolant on bot radiator and overflow tank.
- Changed the thermostat- No leak on the ground in the garage where I parked the car overnight
- No noise to lead to an eventual issue with water pump
- Radiator fan is kicking ok
- Had a mechanic do the chemical test for the head gasket: negatif
- Found that there is air in the cooling system:tried to burp the system 2 times but air is still in the coolant system. Not sure where its coming from !!?? Might be that this could be causing the overheating ?
- Found a crack on the manifold and changed the manifold then tried to get rid of the air (burping the system): no success. The air is still not removed completely.
- Changed the radiator cap.
What can I do next to diagnose the overheating condition that happens only after exiting long drive highway?
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My '97 Honda Civic overheats when driven at high speed on the highway for more than an hour. I've changed the thermostat and the radiator fan, but it still does it.
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This has been happening intermittently for a little over a year now. When sitting in traffic, my car begins to overheat. I've had two different mechanics look at it - the first swapped out the radiator cap.
The second said my coolant levels were low, but he pressure tested the system and found no leaks. He recommended I check my levels before taking long trips - so this weekend, before driving 380 miles to Phoenix, I checked my levels. They were a bit low, so I topped everything off with coolant and everything was fine on the drive out.
On the drive home, however, stuck in traffic, the car began to overheat. I pulled over and checked the reservoir and it was mostly full of coolant, but I added a little more, let it sit for a while, and then made my way through the traffic and home.
Also, I tested the fan, and it comes on.
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I have a Civic that is overheating after even short drives (ca. 30 mins). Today the heat gauge went up to 3/4 after 20 minutes, and was still rising when I stopped. The radiator fluid is topped up, oil was just changed and is full and not cloudy. No white smoke has been seen out of the tailpipe. The following repairs have already been attempted. New thermostat (replaced 2X), new radiator, timing kit, coolant temp sensors (both), water pump, AC condenser, AC refrigerant. It is still overheating after all that. Why?
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My 98 F150 4WD with 83k on it has a significant pull to the right most noticeable on the highway. I have to keep the wheel turned to the left to be able to go straight. It use to be intermittent but now is constant. Had a frt end alignment done twice with no change. Recently after a long drive on the highway on a crazy hot day, I pulled into a rest area & noticed the L/F wheel was very hot to the point where I thought the plastic center cap might start melting.
The R/F wheel was only warm. This makes no sense to me because with something causing the L/F wheel to heat up I would think it would pull to the left. This has bothered me so much that I've driven with 10psi less in the L/F wheel hoping it wouldn't pull to the right so much but it had no effect. I did recently have the left upper control arm replaced because it was clunking. It was doing this pulling prior to that & it continues.
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My daughter's 2002 Honda Civic is overheating unless you drive over 60 mph. The heater is also not working - it blows air but the air is cold. It is full of coolant - we checked. The thermostat was replaced about 2 months ago.
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I have been driving my 2002 Honda Civic for about 6 years now. For the past 4 years its been all highway, driving 50+miles a day. I have just moved to a small town where its all town driving.
When I would get off the highway before, I would notice a burning type smell, but no smoke and no signs of overheating. Once I moved here where the winter has been significantly colder than what my car is used to, and I am doing all in town driving, I have noticed smoke coming from my engine, but my temperature gauge shows all is well. I have always done regular oil changes etc on the car. I will be making a long trip this summer back home and i am not sure if I should be worried about the car overheating. Should I try and find someone to investigate this problem further or is this just some engine gunk burning as the car gets hot?
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I have a manual 2000 Honda civic that is acting up. When I drive it after about 15mins it gets really hot. Then right before I pull over it starts to cool off if I have the heat pumping . It also seem to over heat when ever I am sitting idle . I replaced the radiator and thermostat but I'm still having the problem.
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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?
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Can this make sense, or is this just some weird coincidence?
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'04 Honda Civic-1.7LFirst the car started overheating only it was sitting in idle. As soon as you would go or if you revved the engine the needle would immediately drop after a few seconds. Replaced the thermostat. It seemed fixed, but started doing it again, put in a new thermostat incase other one was faulty. Still having same problem.The system was pressure testing and everything was fine. Then had the system flushed and new thermostat put in. It worked for about 150 miles and started doing the same thing.Brought it in for the water pump, the old one was corroded and warped so it seemed like the problem.
After about 100 or so miles still overheating when idle.We had the radiator replaced, the old one was complete junk, thermostat replaced too. I drove it like normal in town for a day, the next day it started overheating, this time it was doing it while driving, got to about 3/4 up. Turned the car off for a bit, and it didn't do it anymore on the way home.Today I was driving and it was fine for 4 miles, I sat idling for 1 minute, after driving 1 more mile it started overheating, temp gauge got to halfway.
I parked it for a bit and started driving, there was no heat coming from the heater, I had it full blast, nothing but cold air. The car started overheating again, once again halfway. Parked for about 3 minutes and then turned it on, temp was fine and it was blowing full heat out, the car temp was fine the whole way home, no more overheating.
The next step we will take is to replace the head gasket and/or heater core. Is there anything else that this could be? Literally the same week the overheating started, the rear lights were having issues and one time there was no power to the windows. Then the door locks would stop and then work again intermittently. The door locks no longer work at all. Not sure if it is just a coincidence, maybe everything is breaking at once. But there has been no loss of coolant and the oil and coolant consistency have been normal too.
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I have a 2004 Honda Civic. I just drove the car to Texas this weekend, 1800+ miles. On the way home it started to overheat if I was going slow, 45MPH or less. I pulled over, shut it off for about 2 minutes, started it up, the guage read about normal. I drove for a little while and it worked fine. Awhile later it started doing it again. I turned off the A/c and let the engine build up temp. At about the normal reading, both the fans on the radiator started cycling (I think one is the A/c cooling fan, and the other is the radiator cooling fan). So, both fans are at least working. I checked the fuses, they all looked good, and the fan relay worked as well ( I switched it with the horn relay, and they both seemed to work the same). What should I check next? Does it sound like a thermostat issue, or a temp sensor, or the fan switch? And how could I troubleshoot this further?
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I have a 2004 Honda Civic ex coupe. I have changed the thermostat (twice), fan sensor, temp. sensor. The fan works and when doing an oil change the oil looks normal. No white smoke coming out of my exhaust and I got two radiator flushes, no dirty coolant, and I have replaced the cabin filter. The car doesn't overheat as long as I keep my temperature on hot. If I were to change the temp. to cold it seems like the coolant goes into the reservoir, but it seems like it doesn't go back into the engine. The mechanic that did the flush said that the hoses doesn't to be clogged because the coolant that was removed was green. They stuck an air blower in the heater core hoses and to show that was not clogged as well. The AC worked, I haven't checked in about couple of months. Also when the car overheats there is no smoke coming from the engine. radiator has been burped as well.
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I have a 96 honda civic that I can't seem to figure out why its overheating. I've changed the water pump, thermostat, radiator cap, and cleaned the system a number of times. It only seems to overheat when I'm on the free way and up to speed. When I get to my destination I see that the water overflow is full of water like to the top of the filler, so the water is being ejected out of the system. It also seems to have a lot of pressure in the system.
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I have a 2000 honda civic ex that I recently bought used. It ran fine with no problems for a good month then the check engine light came on and it started overheating. I could smell burning oil and see smoke rising from the hood. I checked the coolant and it was all out. So I filled it back up. Drove about 20 miles and during the drive when sitting idle the car would shudder and jolt around for a second, after about 20 miles I could see the coolant that I just filled up was all gone. I could hear some bubbling sound, all of the coolant had burnt away and was steaming. I did some research and it could be a blown head gasket, but I'm not sure and was seeking how to fix it or to clarify if it was a head gasket.
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I drive a 2004 Honda Civic. About a month ago, my car started to overheat. The next day, I took it into the shop,and they said the thermostat was sticking,and I had a small leak in the radiator. I got a new thermostat, radiator (they did not have anyone to repair), and flushed the system.
A few days later, the car started to overheat again, and quickly went down. We thought it was a fluke. A few days later, it did the same thing and we took it back to the shop. They said nothing was wrong and let the car run with the radiator cap off for a while in case there was a bubble. Since then, it has has started to overheat a few more times. So the, problem is not all the time, just every so often. Several parts have already been replaced, as noted.
What we have found in common is that each time it starts to overheat, we are in stop and go traffic. It has always been hot outside too (but it is summer). When we begin to move at a regular pace, the car temp goes down. I live in a city, so it is impossible not to get in stop and go traffic on a regular basis. Not everytime we are in stop and go traffic it does this, but since the repairs, it has never overheated while moving at a regular pace.
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I have a 2002 Honda Civic with about 167,000 original miles, I had my transmission rebuild about two months ago. Two things happened after: 1. The engine started to heat up. 2. Started to loose coolant for no reason. Well, after adding and driving for 8 weeks it stop losing coolant and cool to normal. Today I got a surprise on my way to school and work. It has started to over heat and the transmission is slipping on the 3rd gear. I do drive about 100 miles every day as I commute to work.
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I drive a 2001 Honda Civic EX and have over 248,000 miles. Almost at a quarter million! Recently, the engine has been overheating. The coolant has been leaking and the coolant reservoir would becomes full. I've checked out the fan and the fan relay and both seem to be fine. The temperature seems to increase (to redline) during traffic jams and any times of idling. When I blast on the air conditioning, the temperature seems to decrease, but would later increase when the car idles. The temperature also decreases to normal when I sustain my speeds over ~60mph. Also, the temperature will fluctuate from cold to hot to cold. What does this all mean?
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Alright, car's overheating, but generally not at under ~55mph or so. When I hit the highway and accelerate, the thermostat climbs and hovers 3/4s of the way to red. But only sometimes. Sometimes, often when I'm going down a hill, it will swings down to normal. Once it's gotten hot, if I take it off the highway and am idling or driving in the 15-40mph range, the temp gauge will spike. But only sometimes. Sometimes I'll hear the fans kick in while it's idling/overheating. The temperature will go back to normal, and then rise again and stay there or spike (seemingly randomly). It's never reached all the way to the red, but it toes the line. And I take the darn thing into the shop and it refuses to overheat.
I've taken the radiator reservoir out and there seems to be green fluid (antifreeze/coolant?) in the water (have flushed it repeatedly)...and over the course of several weeks, the water level itself will go down. Both fans and the thermostat have been replaced in the last 6 months. Additionally, the timing belt and serpentine belt have been replaced within 5 months, as have affected pistons.((S/N--RPMs are really....low? ~2500 @ 75mph? but don't seem to correlate w/temperature. would they effect it?)
I took it into my shop and they said "we ran all the tests and couldn't find anything wrong." Cool? I'm at a loss..
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My 2005 Civic is overheating at random times. My mechanic couldn't find the problem so I took it to the dealer and they replaced the thermostat and a fan switch. That didn't work so now they tell me I have a blown head gasket ($1,458)... but there's no water in the oil and no gray smoke. They say the coolant leaks into the block until there's not enough circulating and it overheats. Then, when it cools, the coolant goes back into the reservoir and that's why it never seems to be low on coolant. I've seen other Civic overheating letters (including a 2005 that sounded like my exact problem) but I never saw an update about what fixed the problem.
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