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Hey guys, I own a 1998 Honda Civic Dx d16y7 that is having some issues. A couple of months ago it was getting oil in the coolant. The car got a new head gasket to fix the problem. The oil went away but ever since the idle has been rough after startup but the car drives fine. Also I have been losing coolant and I haven’t been seeing any leaks on the pavement.
The other day I went to start the car and it sputtered and died. After that it set 5 check engine codes. P0300 P0301 P0302 P0303 and P1399. Now it chokes and dies when i try to start it and i have to let it do that 3 or 4 times before it will start and run normal. It still drives normal.
I want to say it is a busted head gasket leaking but it was just replaced 2 months ago. It got white smoke coming out the tail pipe when it starts which would make me want to say head gasket again… I was wondering if anything else could be causing this or if anybody had any suggestions?
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One thing that can do this is a vacuum leak anywhere between the air sensor and the engine. The air leaking in causes the air/fuel mixture to be wrong and this especially affects things at start. And it is usually easy to fix if you can find it. If a vacuum hose has fallen off all you need do is reconnect it. So, I say, look for the no cost things first.
I went out there today and did the water bottle test. I sprayed all the vacuum hoses and al over the intake manifold gasket. I never heard any water being sucked in and the rpms didn’t change any. It seems to have the hardest time starting after I’ve been driving it. It usually starts good the first time I start it up in the morning. I was hoping it would be a vacuum leak but if it was, i still wouldn’t know where all my coolant keeps going. It seems to empty the overflow reservoir once a week.
You may want to pull the plugs and look for coolant.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-performance-issues
If I do find coolant in the cylinders, could it be coming from anywhere else besides a head gasket leak?
[quote=”twill121″ post=92143]If I do find coolant in the cylinders, could it be coming from anywhere else besides a head gasket leak?[/quote]
head gasket would be suspect. or a cracked head 🙁
Lets table the head gasket theory for now. Given the amount of work that needs to be done to replace the head gasket, I would say it’s a better idea to go back and check over the work. Checking for vacuum leaks was a good start, but there are other tests such as a power balance test which was outlined in the article College man posted that could also be of use here. I’ll also add this.
http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats
Do what you can to track down the facts and stay away from theories of head gaskets until you have some proof that there’s an issue there.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Alright, sorry I am getting back to you so late. I went ahead and did a leak down test in all of the cylinders. I found that all seemed to be letting air in to past the piston rings but i don’t know how much is normal. I also found that cylinder 1 gave me bubbles at the top of the radiator. To verify my results I hooked up a cooling system pressure tester. I got green coolant leaking into cylinder 1.
I’d say that’s fairly self-explanatory now. As to why it occurred on a newly changed gasket, you’d have to pull it apart again to find out. Wrong gasket, incorrectly fitted, warped head that wasn’t machined, cracked block, etc..
With all but 1 cylinder complaining about misfires I’d lean a bit toward something just being missed or messed up on the previous fix, rather than a block issue.
That sounds pretty definitive. Truth is, you won’t know if it’s the head gasket until you remove the head. It could also be a cracked cylinder head or block. I say this only because you’ve recently replaced the head gasket and still have an issue. That’s either due to poor workmanship or another issue that wasn’t the head gasket.
Keep us posted.
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