1997 Honda Civic car overheating

ANGELPIURLO

MEMBER
1997 HONDA CIVIC
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
172,000 MILES

Hello guys.
i hope you can help me with this situation that I have. A 1997 honda civic v-tech 2 door front wheel drive and it keeps overheating. First it was the thermostad and I got a brand new one, then it kept overheating and I change the radiator and the hoses and now every time that I accelerate the temp would jump and stay hot. I checked the fan and it turns on after a while however I dont think its good enough because the car stays hot and I have to turn on the heater full blast and it will start to go down slowly, unless im driving fast and the air would cool the engine, but when I check the level of the antifreeze the reserve tank its full but the radiator its empty and I have to fill the radiator with coolant so it can cool down, also when I stop the rpm's are very low, the car would start to shake like if it was about to turn off. Also when the car overheats I would run it with the heater on to cool the engine down and after a while like 30 min of driving if I keep the car at 60mph the engine light would come on, and if I try to go faster it sounds like if im forcing the car the gear would take a long time to change, so I hope this is very details and hope you guys can help me with this situation I would really apreciated it. Thanks

1 Reply

F4I_GUY

MECHANIC
3,302 POSTS

There are two possibilities here.

1) When you overheated the vehicle the first time you caused a headgasket failure which may be causing you to loose coolant thus overheating. I would get a cylinder leakdown test done to confirm this.

2) If you performed the repairs by yourself, you may of not properly bled the coolant system and there is still an air lock somewhere in the system causing your vehicle to overheat.