Hey all,


I just bought a 2002 Civic a week ago. I think it's a DX, but I guess I need to check my paperwork to know for sure! It's a four-door sedan and I bought it mostly for my highschool daughter.


It seems to have been gently used, though it has 209,000 miles on it. Runs great. After driving it for a few days, the check engine light one, which I tracked down to the thermostat as a likely culprit. Two days later, it tried to overheat so we limped it home and I changed the thermostat. After that, no problem.


Everything works on that car.


My problem is I have no documentation on the car. Don't even know what kind of oil it has. I've read that if it has synthetic, I need to keep using synthetic. Is there a way to tell by looking? Or do I just need to use synthetic now forever because I don't know what the previous owner used?


Thanks,


Steve

 

Welcome in,I don't know of any way to tell the difference between the two but you can start at any time and synthetic is good for any car regardless of mileage. I use Mobil1 in my new Accord and a must for my Corvette Grand Sport. It's a good choice and the extra cost works out in the end because of the fact you can go longer ,up to 10,000 miles on a change. No brainier.

 

Thanks. My car is still overheating, though less so. I'm thinking I didn't burp it good enough after I changed the thermostat. I've read everything I can get my hands on about head gasket symptoms and I don't really have any except one (potentially). Oil looks good. No white steam/smoke. But only when I revved up the car, it pushed water out of the radiator. I can't decide if that was an air pocket forced out. Yet after letting the car idle for 20 minutes, I don't get bubbles on the surface of the radiator water at all. Going to take it to a mechanic just to be sure.

So if I do have a head gasket leak, I'm really thinking about trying that head gasket repair stuff in a can that you pour in the radiator. Anyone tried that for a minor head gasket leak? The engine has 200,000 miles on it and wife isn't happy about paying for a head gasket repair.

 

Did you turn the heater on when testing for air pockets?,you can fill the system with coolant bring it up to operating temp shut it off ,let sit over night and then add more coolant in the morning ,try this a few times with the heater on and it will disapate and air.If it is a gasket it could get pricy because the head my be warped and need to be shaved,th

 

I wish I had better news for you but the Civics with the 1.7 liter engine like that one have about a 200K mile limit on the Head Gaskets.. Its VERY common to see them do what yours seems to be doing. Id recommend checking for a leaking Head Gasket.

Hope that helps somehow..

 

Well, the good news is that the problem turned out to be a leaking water pump. It's being repaired now. It will cost me around $600, however while they are doing the repair, they'll replace my timing belt and generally freshen up that end of the engine. At that point, I'll have $2,400 invested in the car, but the car seems to be well cared for and the dealer replaced the headliner in it.


The engine does run good, so hopefully the head gasket will give us another 100,000 miles of life. I've decided when it does blow, I'll spot it early and then try one of those "miracle in a can" treatments. If that doesn't work, then I'll just try to find a low mileage used engine. The car itself is in pretty good shape, and hopefully we can keep it that way.


I do have another question. There is no dashboard light at night on the left side of the instrumentation. In other words, I can't see the tach and the temp gauge because the bulb must be burned out. Are they hard to change?


Thanks,


Steve

 

There is a total of five screws to remove,first the two in the top of the surround,then two will be facing you and one in the top,pull the cluster out and look in the back ,there are several bulbs ,remove each until you find the burnt build by pushing in slightly and turning,pretty easy.

 

Great info! Thanks. I think I can tackle that.


Interestingly, I got the car back from the mechanics and it isn't overheating, but the mechanic accidently left the motor mount loose. During low RPMs, I was getting excess vibration and I couldn't figure out why.


To his credit, the mechanic called me the next day to tell me he realized his own mistake and to bring the car to fix it. I'm going to keep that mechanic!