1994 Honda Civic Problem with engine cooling

BRENDANM

MEMBER
1994 HONDA CIVIC

Engine Cooling problem
1994 Honda Civic 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Manual 180 00 miles

I have been experience cooling problems with the car for some time now. I replaced the radiator, radiator cap, fan switch and thermostat (all with original parts) but I am still experiencing the same problem. There is no water in the oil and the head gasket has been checked. Some of the time the fan switches on at the right time, other times the fan switches on only with the heat gauge reaches about 3/4 to the top, and other times, when the heat guage indicates high heat, the fan does not come on at all! Even when the fan switches it's self on at the correct time, there still seems to be a bubbling sound coming from the water reservoir and the car still runs hot. If you take off the reservoir cap, you can actually see steam coming out of the inlet pipe that supplys water to the radiator. No mater what the state of the fan the car get extremely hot and use water on a daily basis. I have had my car at a number of mechanics and none have managed to solve the cooling problem.
It there is anything you can recommend, it would be greatly appreciated.

With thanks

3 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

Hi BrendanM,

If you have coolant losses, the engine would definitely overheat and from the symptoms described, I suspect you have a bad head gasket. If the problem had been thee for quite some time, the cylinder block surface might have been damaged as well.

For such engines, water seldom gets to the engine oil when head gaskets fails.
How was the head gasket checked? Test kits for detecting the presence of carbon in the cooling system are available at local parts stores. Get it done to confirm if the head gasket is ok.