I was making a 4 hour drive back home the other day and noticed my temperature gauge begin to rise. I've had the car for 140,000 miles and have never seen this happen. After about an hour of watching it rise to about 50% then settle back to its normal 30% setting then jump back up, it began to get worse, climbing to 70% and approaching the red.

I pulled off to a Pep Boys or similar place and bought some coolant. I checked the reserve tank and it looked like it was completely empty. I topped off the reserve tank to the "max" level, started the car, and made the remaining hour drive home with the gauge remaining in its normal 30% spot.

I haven't had an issue since then and described it to my dad who told me to top off my radiator section, as well. I topped off the radiator to the top and between filling the reserve and the radiator with coolant I only went through maybe 2 quarts of one gallon jug.

I feel like a 2005 Honda Civic EX has somewhere around 1.5 gallons of total coolant capacity in the radiator which leads me to think that if it only took about 2 quarts to top it off along with the reserve that it wasn't out of coolant to begin with.

So now I'm confused as to what the issue might have been or be. I drove for an hour today without issue regarding the temperature gauge and everything's been running fine. If I wasn't out of coolant then why did my temperature gauge jump, and why did filling the reserve to the max level seem to fix the problem immediately?

I don't know much about my car but have gotten great advice here in the past so any info would be greatly appreciated before I'm scheduled to take it to my mechanic next week. Thanks!

 

your radiator cap could be the problem maybe it got stuck. the cap serves 3 functions to keep atmospheric pressure,fill the overflow when hot and return coolant to the engine via overflow tank. maybe removing the cap un stuck it ???. also make sure theres no air in your coolant system so purge the lines. remember to only use a oem honda radiator cap if you decide to replace it thats very important no pepboys crap.

 

I was thinking air in the system,never thought about cap,both easy to do.

 

I mentioned it to my mechanic people when I took it in for an oil change, I described the issue and all that. They recommended that I replace the cylinder head gasket for $900 at some point because of "excessive pressure in the radiator".

That's really not in my price range right now but I know if I leave it it will get a lot worse. Anyone have experience with this/is this a fair price/anything else? Thanks as always.

 

while constant over heating could be from a blown head gaskit i wouldn't overlook a bad thermostat or faulty cap. you can purchase leak test for the headgaskit at most parts stores and check it yourself. http://www.google.com/url?q=http://w...GgI9JJz8LUZUfA

 

I advice you to consult with at least 2 or 3 mechanic before installing head gas kit. Make sure that is it really a problem in head gas kit or not.

 

I'm definitely going to do that, good advice. When you're talking near $1000, I'm going to get a second opinion. Ever since I refilled the overflow tank I haven't had a single issue. I've been keeping an eye on the overflow tank level before I drive it each day. It's been slowly dropping for the last week so I was concerned but then I checked today and it's over the max level (without my ever adding any more coolant to it since the initial problem). SO... I don't really know what to think.