2007 Civic Coolant Loss

[Finz]

My daughter has been monitoring the coolant level in her 07 Civic... Coolant is being lost for lack of a better word.

She's coming home from college this weekend so we can monitor together and get a feel for how many miles or hours go by before the fluid starts to drop.

The car has an R18 engine and I found that there is a warranty extension from honda for gasket replacement

My question is: if the gasket is leaking, and coolant is getting into the engine, aside from the gasket replacement, what else should I have Honda check?

She's been home throughout the year, and I routinely check the oil... Never noticed anything other than oil on the dipstick. None of that milky coolant/oil combo.

Just not sure what other surprises might crop up if it turns out the gasket does need replacing...?

Any specifics I can bring to Honda's table when I start making calls to the dealer?

Thank you for any input

 

[gregk24]

This sounds like it may be a victim of the cracking engine blocks. If it is, you need a new short block. Hope thats not the issue though. You do know about this issue right?

 

[Finz]

I'm learning about it now but I think the gasket leak, if not corrected, is the proximate cause of the cracked blocks...?

At least i hope that's the case and that we copped on to it early enough

 

[jhs914]

My wife had an '06 Civic that developed a porous block around 100,000 miles. Coolant was weeping from the front of the block and it was pretty obvious where the coolant loss was happening. Honda had issued an extended warranty on the block and they put a new short block in it at no charge. I don't know if this was a problem with the '07.

If the head gasket is the culprit for the coolant loss it would be losing it into the combustion chamber and out the exhaust. The way to test for a bad head gasket is to pressurize the cooling system and check to see if the coolant pressure leaks down. You can also look for steam coming from the exhaust pipe and smell the exhaust for that sweet antifreeze odor.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: Finz
I'm learning about it now but I think the gasket leak, if not corrected, is the proximate cause of the cracked blocks...?

At least i hope that's the case and that we copped on to it early enough


From what I have read, and I could be wrong, is that the cause of the cracking blocks is due to a design that is too thin to handle the heat/cool/heat/cooling phases engines go through.

 

[AKhan87]

recall is because of the short block being defective, not the gasket.

My brother's 06 civic had it's first coolant change at 165k and it was about half a liter low on coolant but it NEVER ever over heated or caused any issue while running.

Like the newer R18s(2012 burns the same) out there it burns about half a quart of motor oil during a full MM run.