bdragonomega

Well my car broke down so I had to drive my sisters old civic which is another sorta broken car. She said that the car overheated after driving 30-40mins and advised that I don't drive it if it takes me longer than that to get to whereever I'm going. If the temp rises, turn on the heater and open the windows. So I started searching the forums and some people say to bleed the radiator, so I started doing that. While the car was running, I just went to read more posts and then I go to recheck the car ever 5 mins. I then started to notice after reading several posts, the cars fan never turns on, there is constant bubbles after 40 mins, and the radiator doesn't seem to drain the coolant... ever.


So i was wondering how long does it take to bleed air out of the radiator? Does it normally take this long?

Also, I read a post that said if theres constant bubbling, it could be a blown gasket?

What do you think?

Thanks

CivicSiRacer

Run the car with the coolant cap off for about 30 mins. THe fan should kick on after about 10-15 mins. I did a complete flush on mine about a month ago and changed the thermostat.
Also make sure your reservoir has about 2-3 pints in it.

bdragonomega

Okay, i'll do it for 30 mins tomorrow. Thanks

CivicSiRacer

I also checked it after a couple of days running too. I had to refill in my car.

Hondelso

you know there's a bleeder on the block too. you won't always get the air out just by filling the radiator.

SonicGSR98

if you were having bubbles forming in the radiator 40 minutes after bleeding teh system you're looking at a blown headgasket on the car.

Running925

if the fan still doesn't kick on at that point. The sensor in the thermostat housing probly took a shit. It's responcibility is to check the temp & if it hits a certain temp it's supposed to kick the fan on.

easy way to test & find out if the fan actually functions or not would be to unplug that sensor & jump the 2 pins together with an extra peice of wire. If the fan kicks on then the fan works. If it doesn't then the fan is broke. But like i said, it's supposed to sence temp & turn it on by it self.

bnuk

Yeah do that.

honsetly civics are pretty good about getting the air out of the system, you should have to ever really mess with the bleeder valves, just fill it, drive it and top it off you should never have a problem with excess air.

bdragonomega

I didn't have time to do anything yesterday since I had to drive to and from school a lot. I believe all the air is gone since it doesn't bubble anymore. Anyway, my fan works, just had to wait for temp to go higher. My fan first turns on when the temp goes 3/4th of the way up, shuts off after it gets back to about 1/4th, and then turns back on at 1/2th the way.

I can drive the car for a long time if my heater is on which seems to lower the temp a lot when near the top. If I turn off the heater, then my temp shoots back up. Normally after 30-40 mins, my cars temp will be around halfway and if my heater isn't on, it'll probably overheat. Yesterday, during one of my trips, I left the car on and went to check my hood. I check the top and bottom radiator hose and they were both hot (but not extremely hot), my overflow tank was at the full mark still (hadn't changed), my radiator cap was warm, and my fan was working.

Hmm on monday my bro might help me take a look and change the headgasket if its bad. In the mean time, since I don't know much about cars, I might just change the thermostat since thats easy.

Thanks

96scgsrcoupe

I had a problem similar to yours. I actually found out that my over flow tank had a small pin hole in it. For that reason it just kept leaking all my water out of there.