Engine overheating

Hey babylegs81,

My 2005 Civic EX was bought new and I am sole owner.

Just over a year ago (at 80,000 miles) I was in a fast food drive through waiting when I noticed an abnormal sound going from the cooling fans, almost like they were strained or working really hard. What seemed like forever I finally noticed the temperature had peaked to "H", this was a first. Luckily I was next in line, got my food and jammed to park and shut the car off. I was within three miles form my home so I let the car sit for about ten minutes then jammed home.

Within days I took the car to a local Honda dealership. They apparently check everything they said it needed a thermostat. After getting my car back I noticed the heater did not work right such as when the car is stopped the heater blew cool air. Also, I noticed the smell of coolant when I would come to a stop or getting out of the car after driving somewhere. This went on for about a week or so until the heater just started to work again. The coolant would come and go.

Here we are more than a year later with similar issues. No "overheating" but the heater is not working right and the coolant smell is apparent. I did notice a flicker of the temperature gauge two weeks ago which made me realize there is a bigger problem.

Now that it is colder in the mornings for me the heat will not come on until I hit the freeway for a couple of miles then will it start to work, extremely frustrating.

My car went to the dealership today. They had it all day until close of business only to tell me that the tech noticed a large amount of air trapped in the engine block. That he also noted that there was an excess of coolant in the reservoir. After troubleshooting and looking for signs he also noted that there was a continues amount of bubbles appearing at the neck of the radiator. Signs of a blown head-gasket. I approved the service to begin "tear down". They are telling me, yes a blown head-gasket is confirmed that they need to take the "head" to a machine shop to make sure there is no damage to the cylinders or head.

This was earlier this evening, Friday, Nov 20, 2009. I am told that I am looking at about $1,400.00 just as we are now.

I will keep you posted.

* I was told by the service adviser that my extended warranty was up at 105,000 and I am at 106,000. I was not aware of that. I thought the warranty on my Civic was up around 75,000.

Kawatoy, sounds too familiar. My problem has been going on for about a year, but I refuse to take it somewhere for them to tell me it is a blown head gasket because it is not and I cannot afford to hand over money to someone taking advantage of me.
I thought I fixed it after changing the thermostat, then changing it again because thought it could have been a faulty part. After that I replaced the radiator cap. All of these parts seemed to fix it at first but the problem keeps coming back randomly. My fans work but yet sometimes they do not. The switch is good. I know, it is weird. Water pump is good.
Oil looks totally fine so head gasket is fine. Plus the problem would always be there if it was a gasket problem.
But same as you, idling too long, or running heat too high or even just using my rear defrost "sometimes" can cause the temperature to rise. I either use my A/C or heater to bring it back to normal depending on what time of year. Then there is times like last night when I have not had the problem in months and BAM! It is back and there is nothing I can do to bring the temperature down besides pulling over, turning it off and letting it cool. Drive for five minutes and it does it again, but yet turning the heat off cools it down, for a few miles then I have to pull over again. So annoying!
I sometimes smell a whiff of coolant when I stop or get out but no leaks anywhere. I am at a total loss.

So that being said if you have any luck let me know. I never let it get to the H, so I am pretty sure I have protected the engine but I might not be this lucky cause it happens so randomly I cannot watch the gauge for three months before it happens again! There is no pattern to the madness.

Wow! Sorry to hear this.

To respond to what you have experienced I must say that you have a more serious/severe problem. I did experience the temperature peaking 'H' one time which I had to pull over and allow my Civic to cool before I ventured back onto to road to get home. I immediately (next business day) scheduled an appointment at my local dealership. They replaced the thermostat stating it was sticking and was most likely the problem. After getting my car back shortly thereafter I still felt that something else was not right. For a little over a year I would get subtle hints that something was still a matter with my civic like whiffs of coolant, occasional idle changes and lastly the heater acting up and the flicker in the temperature which ultimately made me take the car back to the dealership.

Also, allow me to remind you that our cars were in a class-action lawsuit which Honda settled by extending the warranty by 5% on the warranty expiration of your vehicle. I bought an extended warranty up to 100,000 which meant my warranty was good through 105,000, which I was not fully aware of until I brought my car in this last time at 106,000. So with this serious issue I am now on my own with financing which was at $1,700.00 at the last update.

I would like to take the opporitunity to follow up with my original post. Because of the dollar amounts thrown at me in the beginning I felt that the dealership was possibly trying to take advantage of me. I did some outreach and as it was explianed to me, there is three entities involved.
Honda Corp Ltd.
Honda Care (warranty company - absolutely no cross with Honda Corp).
Honda Dealership.

Honda Corp was my first call. They were very polite but blunt, experienced and professional and actually provided me some personal opinion which I asked for thinking they would not dare but he did. I appreciated that but basically they could not offer me any support other than to create a compliant (case) number and review my whole situation. Given the odds he suggested I not go that route but to contact Honda Care to see if they would provide any payment assistance towards the completed work. Honda care also had bad news for me that because the vehicle is at 106,000 miles my warranty has since expired and they would not entertain my request for any issues with the vehicle.

After my desperate attempts for Honda to make this a better than negative experience I spoke with the service folks with no heavy hands. They seemed eager to find a way to make the service less painful and claim that they were able to push some assistance through from Honda Care to relief me from 25% of the total service bill. So, they did a new water pump, all new belts (including the timing belt), the engine head went to a machine shop for testing, testing came back okay but they resurfaced the head, oil change, coolant flush, washed my car and eat the rental car rate (thirty five/day for a week) for $1,300, 00.

I have had my car for little over a week and I still smell coolant. Besides that everything else is a okay. Yes! I can go out start the car and kick on the defrost and watch the frost melt minutes after the car has been running, again.

Hello,

(I did a Google search and found this thread!)

I too have a similar problem with my Honda Civic 2005 EX SE. However, my car's mileage is only 65,000. We changed the very cheap and most common problems associated with the temperature gauge going up and down: thermostat, radiator cap, and fan switch. My car ran like normal for the next few days, but went back to 'overheating.' I suspected a blown head gasket, but I didn't want to believe it because my car ran and felt fine. Oh, my coolant kept on going down.

I finally decided to go straight to the Honda dealer, and the mechanic did diagnostics testing. He did a series of tests and could not find out what happened. He then tried the head gasket testing, and my car indeed blew a head gasket. I had a very puzzle face, so he showed me how he found out. He redid the chemical test of the coolant for me. There were carbons in the coolant that should not be in there and the coolant changed color. He told me that is how you can find out that there is something wrong with the head gasket.

Maybe you should go to your mechanic and have your coolant tested for engine carbons? I was quoted for $1,300.00 to fix my blown head gasket. It is in the shop as I type. Hopefully this solves the problem. If not, then I am going to go berserk! (Honda did say we will have a one year warranty on the repair, but he was very specific about only replacing what will be fixed).

Also, the mechanic told me that Honda Civic's head gasket is made of aluminum, so it is very prone to warping and/or cracking! I will not be purchasing a Honda Civic anymore! (I had a 1995 Honda Civic before and was a Honda Lover, but not anymore)

I have a 2005 Honda Civic, I have brought it to three different shops in the past two years always an issue with two things

1. My speedometer will start "bouncing" and not working right then with in a few days my car will start over heating.
2. They say one has nothing to do with the other but it always happens together.
3. I have fixed the water pump, heating coil, radiator, hoses, even changed the engine one year ago.
4. It works for three months then the water pump, three more months then the radiator, two months then a hose, three months then some heat coil or something.
5. Starting again water pump replaced in November 2013.

Can you give me any ideas of what to tell them to look for? If you can give me a solution I will gladly mail a donation.
I really cannot afford a to get another car but do not want to send more money to fix one that keeps having the same issue.

I will ask them to look for the fuse "there". I do not think they did that or if they did they did not tell me for my speedometer.
I am unclear of the about the question "is the gauge going to hot, but is the engine actually over heating? "
The temperature will raise when I am in stop and go traffic and it is using lots of coolant but when I fill it I do not see any leaks but the next day it is "empty".
Are the two connect or just be chance? Is this an expensive fix?

Thank you, I will bring my car on Monday with this "educated" guess. If you are right I
thank you! I hope it is not too much to fix. :(

I bought this car from someone. When I put on the air conditioning while the car is moving you will see the temperature start raising and if the air conditioning off after speeding and you brake because of traffic for a while then it starts overheating. I have replaced the reservoir cap and the radiator cap as well, but still doing the same. I am confused I do not want to be changing mechanics. What do I do?

Please, how do I go about this cold spots and pressure check for a blown? Thanks

Hi good morning hope all is well. Thanks for the answers so far. But yesterday evening I used my car I checked the water level but driving it for about ten km and back I parked it this morning, I checked the water but it has dropped and I added some to it. This morning I drove it to office about twenty km I parked it and waited for it to cool down. I checked it again and the water has dropped but because there were no traffic the overheating did not start. What will be the problem?
Thanks so much for your help.

I have read about the 2005 Honda Civic engine overheating issues. Most people say the same thing: the car first starts to not blow warm air when idling at a stop light but then the heat will kick in once the car starts moving. A scent of antifreeze is noted after exiting the car after driving it then the car overheats. This is what happens with my car. Also, turning the heat on causes the car to overheat even more. Some people have replaced the head gasket only to find that the overheating problem begins again after about eight hundred post-replacement. Also, if the temperature gauge starts moving towards the hot zone turning on the A/C will cause it to go cool again.

What is the real problem?

Thank you for your reply in explaining why the heat did not work in the passenger compartment. Yes my mechanic did fill the coolant in the radiator and bled it. I drove for about one hundred and fifty miles and noticed the coolant leaking into the engine compartment and a strong smell of antifreeze. And oddly when I went to see if the heat worked when the car was idling my engine began to overheat-so said the temperature gauge. I am leaking antifreeze from somewhere-it is headed to the shop again for more diagnostic but the mechanic is thinking head gasket. The tests he will do will confirm.

After doing some Google searches I have found that there is an issue with the 2001-2005 Honda's with head gasket failures. My dilemma is that some of these people replaced the head gasket and then eight hundred miles later they still had the problem of the the passenger compartment not heating and the overheating issue. I am looking for the root cause as to why it happened in the first place to help me make my decision if I should just not even bother with the head gasket repair and buy a new car.

What would you do?