Civic - Honda - Oil - Valves - Gaskets :: Coolant Spraying From Sides Of Valve Cover
Jan 16, 2011
The car: 1991 Honda Civic, 4 cyl manual Bought a month and a half ago. Past: I have been dealing with a slow coolant leak in the car that up to this point I have been unable to locate. No puddles or obvious leaks. Small amount of smoke out back, nothing like a blown head gasket, but a little more than average for a car its age.
~Ran a block tester - head gasket fine.
~Checked spark plugs - look fine, not too clean or dirty.
~There does also appear to be water in the oil from time to time, this is not constant, and I do not put water in my radiator (beyond mixing with coolant).
Today: Looking around valve cover noticed it was dirty. Also noticed some sort of sealant/caulking like material that easily came out of the seal between Valve cover and lower engine. I then began to drive the car and noticed small amount of steam coming from the hood. When I opened it up there obviously had been coolant spraying on the left side of the engine. It was difficult to locate a leak point, but appears to be coming from the seal between the valve cover and engine. I have seen it suggested else where that coolant could not leak from a bad valve gasket, but could be leaking from the intake manifold and look like it was coming from the valve cover. Should I just try to replace the intake manifold gaskets?
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The car; 1991 Honda Civic Hatch back. Issue; Car starts but when left to idle quickly dies. Background; I just recently replaced the valve cover gasket as well as a pierced hose that was leaking coolant. Since then (ABOUT 3 DAYS) the car has taken much longer to start up; i.e. when you turn the key it tries to start from anywhere between 2-8 sec. Before doing work it started up easily and regularly. Has been driving fine for past three days otherwise. What should I trouble shoot first? I figure I would check the spark plugs when I get home and make sure they are still seated properly. Besides that, I'm not sure where to start.
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I took it to the stealership to get the alternator and some vac. lines replaced all under an extended warranty. They informed me that both valve cover gaskets and right side cam adjuster gaskets are leaking. By no means am I a mechanic or close to but I am trying to get this stuff done as cheap as possible so I am going to try to tackle this myself.
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So, weird smell that I thought was burning plastic or rubber is actually hot oil leaking from the valve cover and tensioner gaskets.
My car is nearly 8 years old (2003), and has about 70K. Should I go ahead and buy a timing belt kit and replace all that stuff at the same time?
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I have a 2006 Infiniti G35 base sedan. The dealer noticed oil on the engine and said that I needed to replace both valve covers and gaskets -- My question: Why is it necessary to replace the valve covers and not just the gaskets?
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I have a 2005 hyundai santa fe and the valve cover gaskets are leaking. We were able to change the one in the front but we cant figure out what to do with the back one. Need to find a video showing what to do...
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Own a 2000 Camry XLE 6-cyl. Both valve cover gaskets are leaking. Rear one leaks onto the manifold and causes stench. Have been quoted $350. to replace because the job is complicated. Have any of you done this on your own, and if so, would you recommend it or go to a qualified mechanic?
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Truck was running a little rough before valve cover gasket replacement. Replaced gaskets and it ran rougher than before. Found a burned out spark plug coil and replaced coils, plugs, and wire. Runs smoothly now, but there's very, very low power, probably tops out at 35 mph. What gives?
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doing injectors and pulled the valve cover, and noticed its not as clean as i expected. in the oil on top of injectors i noticed its got some grit in it. this cant be good and not sure how this debris got in there as i always change oil and air filter regularly( unless previous owner neglected). is there a safe way to clean this? Is this a normal find for you guys that have done injectors?
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I have a 98 Subaru Legacy Outback with 133K miles. It was leaking from the power steering pump and valve cover gaskets. My husband replaced the passenger-side valve cover gasket (which involved removing the air box) and the power steering pump (which required removing the alternator). When we put the car back together and reconnected the battery, it no longer starts! It "clicks" once but won't turn-over. The car does not have an alarm system (but it was an option on this model). We've tried jumping it. The battery is about 14 months old. The alternator is about 10 months old and the starter was replaced about 10 months ago too. We've double checked the wires that were disconnected and don't think we've missed anything.
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Ok I have a p1316 code so I was told to change valve cover gaskets so I did. Now starts for 4 sec and dies, what is going on....
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I've got a coolant leak here (I wiped away some of it before taking the picture):
Close up
This is the only place I can find coolant leaking and it's running down all the way to the water pump:
When I wiped away from just below the valve cover gasket it flaked right off and it doesn't appear there is any oil mixed in. I changed the oil today and it didn't appear to have any coolant mixed in either.
The coolant doesn't appear to have any oil in it's nice and pink as it should be. I started the car from a cold start and sat and watched the area waiting for it to leak but nothing ever came out, of course.
I know there shouldn't be coolant leaking from this area anyways but I don't know how else to explain the trail pictured. I definitely have a small leak somewhere as I've found coolant on the floor of the garage before.
Do I just replace the valve cover gasket and move on or is there something else I should be concerned with here?
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I have a 2003 Toyota Camry with 210,000km on it. Today I popped the hood, noticed the coolant was slightly low in the over flow reservoir so I looked around the engine bay. Now I know generally coolant does not go up that far and it's just oil... But this has got my head turning. There's a crusty coolant residue drip that looks to start at the valve cover. At first I thought maybe the water pump was leaking, and the pulley was spinning it farther up, or spraying back from a rad leak when driving. but the fact it's crusty and A clear line that looks like a drip that's a slow leak and has crusted over time makes me wonder.
I mean generally coolant wouldn't come out of the valve cover unless it was right full of coolant, causing enough pressure to push it out... Am I wrong ? Once I get to the shop on Monday I'm going to pressurize the cooling system and pull the spark plugs and the valve cover to look at the head, The highest spot I see the drip start is the valve cover, only thing I could think of is the intake leaking, and traveling over there but even then, it doesn't make sense to me. The thermostat housing is about 2.5" under so it can't be that... It's such a small leak, the reservoir is only down about maybe half an inch and the oil looks clean as can be.... There's some pictures below that you can somewhat see it.
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I have had a Jeep Grand Cherokee for about 4 years. Over the last year or so, I have been having coolant loss. At first, it was very little over the course of a month. Now it is about a half a gallon over a few days. We can't find any leaks. The oil does not appear milky. There is a bit of moisture under the valve cover. What could be the problem?
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My truck has a 6 o powerstroke. I noticed some coolant loss, which I've been monitoring since I had the truck studded 2 years ago. Today I was looking around trying to find a cause of the coolant loss and I noticed some crusty orange residue on a hose that runs under the coolant reservoir. The hose seems to go behind the valve covers along the firewall to the passenger side through a steel line, and then go in a loop back to itself?
I'm guessing it's for the heater core, but I didn't see where it actually goes into the heater core, or anything else for that matter. It is a molded hose that has one of those crimped transitions into the steel line, so I'm not sure if patching it is an option or if I should look at replacing the whole piece. I'm guessing it's going to be expensive. From the fact that it never failed before, I'm thinking it wasn't originally routed with it touching the valve cover and was just something that happened after having the body off during the stud install.
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I'm replacing the valve cover gasket on my 94 Honda Accord. I've heard all sorts of crazy opinions on what needs to be done while installing the gasket such as using various sealants or lubricants. Should anything be put on the gasket or should I just drop it in and screw the valve cover back on?
I'm also replacing the spark plugs while I'm at it. Is there anything else I should do while I'm in there?
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How much should it cost to have it replaced? car seems to be running just fine but leaking oil.
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So I swapped out the PCV valve while changing the oil in my '02 civic and upon driving I noticed a faint rattling/buzzing sound. I only notice it at idle, whether because it goes away when I accelerate or because engine noise drowns it out. I grabbed my stethoscope and to my dismay found it to be the PCV. It's not loud, but loud enough that I noticed it was out of the ordinary.
Now, I've read conflicting things all over the internet. Some people saying its perfectly normal operation, while others saying its a sign of a defective product. The old PCV was pretty gnarly, but did just barely passed the shake test.
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My car does not start (cranks only) after I clean the fuel injector and intake manifold.
so I check the spark with tester and it is fine.then I check the fuel pressure with tester and the pressure shoots to over 42 psi without starting (normal between 38 and 46 psi) and slowly drops to 10 psi. I install fuel injector (FI) with new o-ring and gasket and there is no leakage aroung them. the fuel pressure regulator is ok. I got one from junk yard and the test show the same.
I notice there is some gas inside TB and only way to leak the gas is the FI body valve. I took all FI out and notice #2 and #3 are wet on the FI nozzle tip and use small string to push air through and can see some fluid coming out from the nozzle tip.
I thought I clean it well and do not know if this can be fixed by more cleaning. the resistance is all the same at 12.6 ohms under room temp at night in north CA.
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I have a 1992 Civic sedan with a lot of coolant in the muffler. Let me put it this way: we messed up the head and coolant leaked into the exhaust pipe. Anymore detail than that and it's a long story. We have a new head now, but there's a lot of coolant in the muffler. My dad tried taking it off and tipping it on one end, but the fluid is stuck and only dribbles out when we slosh it around. How can we get this fluid out without damage to the muffler?
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My 2001 Civic sedan coolant reservoir was full after a long drive - with coolant blown out from the top. I am trying to isolate the problem.
1) I Did not notice if temperature gauge rose above the mid-point on the gauge.
2) I Discovered issue after 120+ drive on a hot day (90 degrees plus).
3) The car has almost 230,000 miles.
4) About 1,500 miles prior to this incident I removed my drive belt and replaced it with the shorter drive belt to circumvent the A/C compressor as it or the compressor clutch crapped out on me.
5) The morning after this occurred the coolant reservoir was still ful.
6) I removed the radiator cap and ran the engine for about 15-20 minutes. During this time I noticed the coolant in the radiator begin to rise into the fill neck area of the radiator - no bubbles or movement other than up into the neck area. The top hose was warm and then got hot but it seemed the bottom hose remained cold. I then throttled the gas briefly and nothing happened to include the radiator remaining off. The temperature gauge read just below the mi-point. I then throttled up to about 3,000 RPMs and coolant blew out of the radiator – about 1/2 to 1 liter of coolant came out. At that point, I shut everything down, installed the radiator cap, and cleaned up the coolant. I noticed the bottom hose appeared to now be much warmer than before the coolant blew out. The next morning the coolant reservoir was empty.
7) Today, about one week later, I applied power at both fans and both worked. I checked the relays and both registered no continuity across terminals 1 and 2 - as they should. I checked the radiator fan switch for continuity when cold and there was NO continuity across the contacts - as it should. I ran the engine for about 20 minutes with the radiator cap installed. The temperature reading rose to just below midpoint (normal) and stayed there. Radiator fan had not come on yet. I throttled up and nothing. Idled for several minutes and the temperature gauge rose to about ¾ of the way to “H.” I throttled the engine to look for smoke from the tailpipe – there was none (there is no history of any kind of smoke coming from the exhaust of my civic). I throttled up again, the temperature gauge dropped quickly below the mid-point, and the radiator fan came on for the first time. After the fan kicked off the temperature gauge again rose to ¾. I hit the gas, the temperature gauge dropped quickly to below mid-point, and then the fan came on again.
I was thinking this could be a blown head gasket but now I am questioning my initial thoughts. As of right now there is no coolant in the reservoir. One would think if the head gasket was blown that I would continue to get fluid in the reservoir even with the lost ~1 liter from my earlier test. I checked my engine oil dipstick and it looks clean - just oil. Nothing unusual visible when oil fill cap removed. Wy my coolant reservoir would have filled, blown over, not empty when cooled, only to empty out by the next morning after blowing 1/2 to 1 liter. This has been a loyal car (other than the recent loss of A/C) and I would like to see if I can get 250,000+ miles out of her with no serious maintenance.
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