Originally Posted by Brian18

Hey guys, I have a question about my 90 Honda Civic.. It has the stock 1.5L engine in it, and lately I've been losing coolant. It kept heating up the other day and the temperature guage would shoot up to the top. So I would turn the heater on and it quickly made the guage come back down. I pulled over and let it cool for awhile. When I looked inside the radiator, it had lost a good portion of it's coolant. So I fill it back up, and the next day, it does the same thing. I check the oil, and it doesn't look like it's getting coolant in it. So I put some cardboard underneath my car to see if it was dripping, and there were no drips. I checked my tailpipe, and when I rev it up, I get a good bit of moisture out of it, but someone told me that was normal as long as there's no steam or white smoke. I also have a lot of black soot around the tailpipe which I'm guessing means I'm burning some oil. This engine has 205k miles on it. Does anyone have any advice for me on tracking this leak down? I'm assuming it's a leak somewhere since it doesn't look like water is mixing with the oil. Thanks.

Originally Posted by buddy_00

run a pressure test first, it's probably the heater core. do your windows get foggy when you start the car with the heat on? if they do, it's the heater core. (swap a zc motor in there instead, 1.5l are junk