Civic-EG.com Forum 3.3.1

- Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:26 am #123784 Okay, so I was driving around and everything is okay, then after I got off the highway I notice my temperature a little high, so then I get to a stop light, then look at it and it's a little higher, so I went to my friends house just a few blocks away, I'm just letting it idle for a few minutes and I notice it gets even hotter, so now I know this isn't good, so I let it cool off for like 15-20 minutes. I look at the coolant overflow container and theres coolant dripping down the side, and I see coolant on the plastic guard on the bottom side of the bumper. But the coolant is full. In my friends stupidity he decides to open the radiator cap when it's still pretty hot, and coolant goes spewing everywhere. so we waited a few minutes, then hosed down the engine bay, refilled coolant checked everything, started it up, temperature just idleing was good. But then on my way home, I noticed when I tried to accelerate the car would kinda stutter and sputter for a second then would clear up a bit, then I would shift gears, and accelerate and it would start again. So I got home, the temperature hadn't gone up hardly anything so that was good, but now the problem is this sputtering issue. Any idea's as to what this could be? also, what could have caused my car to start overheating like that? my friend said it could be the thermostat?

Thanks for reading

- Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:12 am #123793 next time it starts getting hot turn the heater on and push the button for outside air that will help keep it cool....maybe thermostat but i dont think that would cause it to spudder

[Ajax1989]

- Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:27 am #123797 if it was full and it was overflowing then it was prob your rad. cap, cause it causes a vacuum and if its bad it wont flow the fluid from the overflow tank to the rad. or vise-versa so it could be stuck open and only lettin coolent in to the tank and not back to the rad., or ur thermostat is froze closed, but if your gonna replace your thermostat, you might as well as get a rad cap too.

you just turboed your car rite??
u might have gotten water or coolent on ur air filter or something to let it in ur cyl.or you might have warped your head and have a leak, are you smokin out the exhaust?? but that is my only guess

but good luck man! keep us posted

[teal_dx]

- Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:01 pm #123823 You've gotta find the damage that was caused from overheating (could be warped head) and the root of the problem (could be rad cap, thermostat, head gasket)

I'd do a compression test to be sure the head didn't warp from the heat.

Take your thermostat out and put it in a pot of water on your stove. boil it and watch for it to open. pull it out w/ pliers and watch it close. If it works OK, then the root of the problem is elsewhere.

The overflow tank was full because
1. the coolant expands when it gets hot, that's what the tank is for.
2. head gasket may have leak which means air is leaking from combustion chamber, being forced into cooling system. Then the extra air in the system forces the coolant to fill up the overflow tank until it overflows.

You also have to properly bleed the cooling system on these cars... take the rad cap off with the engine cold & let the car get up to normal operating temp so the thermostat opens. Every time the thermo opens and coolant level goes down in the radiator, top it off with 50/50 coolant. Keep doing that and you'll fill all the air pockets.

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- Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:56 pm #123845 Alright, thanks for all the input guys, im about to go check it out for the first time, so I'll be back with more news later