1995 overheating - dont know problem

JUDYT

MEMBER
1995 HONDA

Ok - so my Honda is having some problems. It's $140k on it. It overheated on a recent trip and it seemed like it was due to lack of coolant and so I added it. After a week the water level is way below the "max" level and is near the "min" level and so I add water. The car doesn't say it's overheating, I took it to the mechanics to see if there was a problem and they ran a diagnostic test and found nothing wrong. He speculates that it could be a gasket/gasket head problem and quoted $ 1K - 2.5K to fix it. Is this really the problem? I saw the other postings about gasket heads and how you should see white smoke, are you supposed to see what smoke all the time? I think I've only seen it once and I thought it was becuase it was cold? (Sorry i'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to cars!) [/Quote]

Friday, February 3rd, 2006 AT 5:12 PM

2 Replies

JUDYT

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Sorry - forgot to add that this is a honda civic. And that i've had to add water for the past two weeks because it fell below the max level. Is that normal?

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Friday, February 3rd, 2006 AT 5:14 PM

CHEVY350GUY

MECHANIC
109 POSTS

It is possible for a head gasket to leak and not get in the cylinders, which then you would see heavy white smoke. Because you are over heating, this could be that the combustion is actually entering the coolant. This sends extremely hot air into the cooling system, and will over heat your car. The best way to test for this is to hook up a no spill funnel. Fill the cooling system all the way till the funnel is half full. After the thermostat opens the coolant should stop bubbling. How ever if it continuously bubbles after the thermostate opens the head gasket is most likely blown, and the continuous bubbles are from the compression.

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Friday, February 3rd, 2006 AT 9:32 PM