driving back from family my CEL popped on, I looked down and my engine temp gauge was topped out. pulled over and took a look, found coolant all over the damn place. It lookes like a pinhole in a coolant line broke open and took about a half hour to drain all the coolant out of my system.
had it towed and checked at a Firestone dealer (only ppl open on Memorial day) They said the radiator was held together by stopleak. Nice of the guy who sold me the car to mention that huh... They also mentioned that it only had a quart of oil and that was burnt. I knew THAT was bad news since I just changed oil.
They replaced the radiator and lines and I drove an hour to pick up my wife from my parents house and continue back to Wisconsin. When I got to my parents, I popped the hood and there was fresh coolant all over the damn place again and bubbles blowing into the radiator reserve tank.
I drove my dads truck back to Milwaukee, he took my car into a Honda dealer. They're guessing blown head gasket.
Sounds like the car was minus coolant and overheating for a while before I saw the temp gauge and that blew the head gasket.
of course this all had to happen in Michigan, so I don't have the option of sitting the car in the garage and fixing it myself. The bill is up to $750 right now for towing and radiator. if it goes much higher there's gonna be a 95 honda civic hatchback for sale in michigan, as is.
Joined: Aug 02, 2006
Posts: 705
Location: McLean, VA, USA
Posted:
Wed May 30, 2007 10:33 am
Ouch I feel for you, man
How come just towing and radiator replacement were that expensive? I would have thought about 3 or may be 4 hundreds in your situation, but almost eight...
I just replaced radiator on my 92, and it cost me just $80 for the new rad - labor was mine, and I had enough spare coolant, too.
Your case definitely looks like a blown headgasket, so it is going to cost you much more, unless you do the job yourself. Good luck anyway!
Joined: Aug 02, 2006
Posts: 705
Location: McLean, VA, USA
Posted:
Mon Jun 04, 2007 7:23 pm
Shit happens. You'll get over it.
Post on all Honda related forums you can think of and craiglist. You'll have to sort out tons of junk, but that's the only way to find a cheap engine I think.
They said the radiator was held together by stopleak.
I better get my radiator replaced
When I first bought it I had a small leak in the radiator that I plugged with stopleak. I intended to replace the radiator "when I had the money"... a few years go by. I have another small leak in my radiator and some leaky hoses. Replace leaky hoses, still broke, so I get another bottle of stopleak. Since then the upper rad hose has been replaced too.. lower rad hose will be next but I'm holding off... for that new radiator I still haven't bought, lol.
That's good stuff. I've been driving around for years on it. I've even heard of people using fresh ground black pepper (has to be the real thing) instead of stopleak.
I had an *explodie noise* too once. I'm not sure if it's cause of fumes pooling up in the muffler since the exhaust had a hole in it and wouldn't have been flowing properly or if my roommate had put fire crackers in my exhaust cause I got mad at him for stiffing us on rent.
Anyway I'm driving along down a gentle slop past a high school, I gear down... car backfires a little bit as usual... but instead of just hearing *put* *put* *put* *put* *put* from the backfiring that day went *put* *put* *put* *put* *put* *BANG!!!*
and there was an earth shattering kaboom..
I'm not kidding, the car trembled, it felt like a friggin bomb had gone off.
There wasn't much left of my muffler after that.
So the moral of the story is apart from not upsetting your roommates when they stiff you, If you blow a hole in your exhaust, fix it before it blows up you or your muffler.
It's a 1983 Mazda RX-7, does have a 4 barrel carb. Considering how hard it's been driven over the years it's earned quite the reputation of being a sturdy old car. (all that I've had to replace in the 5 years of owning it were an alternator, a few coolant hoses, soon a radiator, windshield wiper motor, and I have a replacement exhaust and cat waiting to go on it.
Handles and performs amazing. I tend to get annoyed when I get in a new standard and it doesn't shift as well as my old beater.... lol.
Quote:
Oh, and welcome to funandsafedriving
Thanks... I've done my fair share of both fun and safe driving. Now leaning a bit more towards SAFE.
Joined: Aug 02, 2006
Posts: 705
Location: McLean, VA, USA
Posted:
Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:27 pm
That's a nice car, yet pretty old, what I suspected. The reason it does such BOOMs is likely to be late ignition combined with rich mixture. Rich mixture allows for accumulation of unburned gases in the muffler, and late ignition causes flame to reach the muffler and ignite them. I would check and adjust both carburetor and ignition timing.
Hmmm, possibly - however more so than a piston engine the rotary engine relies on proper exhaust flow as part of it's timing. I did have a definite hole in an exhaust pipe for quite a while before the incident. Either way, it's due for a tune-up
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I feel for you, man 
