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1997 Honda Accord SE (Special Edition) – F22B2 engine, car is all stock
Radiator has small leak near the filler neck so I’ve been monitoring the temp gauge when driving to keep an eye on that possibly getting worse. Today there was a major coolant leak (different from the small radiator leak), I’m not sure when it occurred. Left my house this morning and the temp gauge was normal. Made 3 stops, driving about 10-12 miles on the highway and city streets, I don’t remember exactly how many times I looked at the temp gauge (or if I did at all). After leaving the third stop, I drove 2-3 minutes down a city street and got onto a highway going around 60 MPH. After I’d been driving on the highway for 2-3 minutes, I looked at the temp gauge, and UH-OH the needle was above the red area at the top!! I wasn’t sure whether to pull over and stop on the highway, or to get off and stop on the exit ramp. There was an exit just ahead so I decided to drive another 2-3 minutes and stop on the exit ramp.
I am in Tennessee where we have Highway Patrol emergency vehicles that travel the highways looking to assist drivers with car problems. One of those stopped and filled my radiator with tap water, as he was filling I could see water dripping down from the bottom of the engine itself (farther back from the radiator.) He gave me a gallon jug of tap water and I made it home on what he put in. I had to stop once to add the other gallon when the gauge rose to 3 o’clock or so, but it never rose beyond that position as I was driving home.
So I’m wondering if any engine damage has been done. I hadn’t looked at the temp gauge often enough to notice when the leak occurred. Assuming that the leak occurred after my third stop, I drove around 9 minutes with the temp way up over the red area on the gauge. I know the engine is all aluminum, I was told a while back that if it ever does overheat, pull over immediately and stop. So I’m wondering if running it another 2 minutes or so to get off the highway was a mistake…
(Question 1) Since I’m not sure how long I drove it with most of the coolant leaked out, I guess the question is how to tell if there IS engine damage. Opinions?
(Question 2) My shade-tree mechanic is coming over tomorrow to fix it, hopefully it’s a leaky lower radiator hose or heater hose and an easy fix. He has an elaborate scanner if needed. But I’m wondering how we can get all the tap water out of the block, etc. before refilling with antifreeze. I know tap water is bad for it and that distilled water should have been used for the refilling I did today. Should I just buy some gallon jugs of distilled water from the grocery store and run that through to flush out the tap water?
Thanks!
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Possible your leak was from a rusted out freeze plug on the block. Had that happen on a Taurus I used to have, took me days and days to figure out where it was leaking from.
I’d do a compression test and also look for oil in water and water in oil. The head could still be warped, you might not see any effects until the engine is at full operating temp. Might be a good idea to flush a couple gallons of distilled water to flush out the tap water.
If the above tests are okay then the only thing to do is fix the leaks and fill it up and let it warm up to full temp. Then watch and see how it does if it seems to keep its cool, then let it cool off completely and look again for water in oil or vice versa.OK thanks for the reply and info. My mechanic will be here this afternoon to look at it. Service manual says “remove the drain bolt from the rear side of the cylinder block to drain the block and heater.” I didn’t know about this drain bolt, manual says when reinstalling the drain bolt in the block to “apply liquid gasket to the threads” – what specific product is this? My roommate has some Permatex 81724 (77B) Ultra Blue RTV Silicone Gasket Maker – this sounds like the correct product to use, but please confirm, thanks again.
I just recently had to replace the head gasket on a 2003 Honda Civic Ex 1.6 Liter V-tec….the symptoms your having a reminding me of how my GF’s Honda acted until realizing the head gasket was shot. Because the head gasket was letting hot combustion gases into the coolant system, it deteriorated the radiator about a year before the over heating issue started and ended up replacing it. Radiator leaks and issues could be caused by a leaking head gasket. Also, the expansion plastic tank was getting black carbon deposits inside of it and antifreeze would mysteriously disappear and I could never find out where it was going despite using a coolant pressure tester. The leak was so gradual and slow and one day it just completely failed. I had the aluminum head planed at a machine shop and they did verify it was just a little warped but not much and this car had only overheated for a minute or two maximum. I remember the coolant plug on this Honda was next to impossible to reach until I had removed the entire engine head so I wouldn’t be so concerned with emptying out the tap water that’s in it but rather preparing yourself for a complete head gasket R&R along with head machining. Once you have the head off, you’ll have access to all the coolant jackets you want.
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