Civic - Honda :: 2004 - Random Overheating In Stop And Go Traffic
Jul 17, 2012
I drive a 2004 Honda Civic. About a month ago, my car started to overheat. The next day, I took it into the shop,and they said the thermostat was sticking,and I had a small leak in the radiator. I got a new thermostat, radiator (they did not have anyone to repair), and flushed the system.
A few days later, the car started to overheat again, and quickly went down. We thought it was a fluke. A few days later, it did the same thing and we took it back to the shop. They said nothing was wrong and let the car run with the radiator cap off for a while in case there was a bubble. Since then, it has has started to overheat a few more times. So the, problem is not all the time, just every so often. Several parts have already been replaced, as noted.
What we have found in common is that each time it starts to overheat, we are in stop and go traffic. It has always been hot outside too (but it is summer). When we begin to move at a regular pace, the car temp goes down. I live in a city, so it is impossible not to get in stop and go traffic on a regular basis. Not everytime we are in stop and go traffic it does this, but since the repairs, it has never overheated while moving at a regular pace.
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This has been happening intermittently for a little over a year now. When sitting in traffic, my car begins to overheat. I've had two different mechanics look at it - the first swapped out the radiator cap.
The second said my coolant levels were low, but he pressure tested the system and found no leaks. He recommended I check my levels before taking long trips - so this weekend, before driving 380 miles to Phoenix, I checked my levels. They were a bit low, so I topped everything off with coolant and everything was fine on the drive out.
On the drive home, however, stuck in traffic, the car began to overheat. I pulled over and checked the reservoir and it was mostly full of coolant, but I added a little more, let it sit for a while, and then made my way through the traffic and home.
Also, I tested the fan, and it comes on.
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My 2005 Civic is overheating at random times. My mechanic couldn't find the problem so I took it to the dealer and they replaced the thermostat and a fan switch. That didn't work so now they tell me I have a blown head gasket ($1,458)... but there's no water in the oil and no gray smoke. They say the coolant leaks into the block until there's not enough circulating and it overheats. Then, when it cools, the coolant goes back into the reservoir and that's why it never seems to be low on coolant. I've seen other Civic overheating letters (including a 2005 that sounded like my exact problem) but I never saw an update about what fixed the problem.
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OK, 05 v8 4.6l
I am having very random overheating for last few weeks. Started randomly one day in stop n go traffic. Thought maybe struck tstat so replaced it. Same thing...replaced water pump, fan clutch, serpentine belt, coolant reservoir cap since then. During all those replacement I flushed system with garden hose. Burped system to best of my knowledge. Still overheats randomly. Seems to happen every day now at hot times (100*). I drive around all day for work so been watching it closely. Temp gun runs 190* on tstat housing at operating temp. When it was rising up in temp I pulled over and temp gun read 200 ish.... it is in fact getting hot. Any freaking clues? Oh and have pressure tested good....combustion test good...
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I have a 2004 Honda Civic. I just drove the car to Texas this weekend, 1800+ miles. On the way home it started to overheat if I was going slow, 45MPH or less. I pulled over, shut it off for about 2 minutes, started it up, the guage read about normal. I drove for a little while and it worked fine. Awhile later it started doing it again. I turned off the A/c and let the engine build up temp. At about the normal reading, both the fans on the radiator started cycling (I think one is the A/c cooling fan, and the other is the radiator cooling fan). So, both fans are at least working. I checked the fuses, they all looked good, and the fan relay worked as well ( I switched it with the horn relay, and they both seemed to work the same). What should I check next? Does it sound like a thermostat issue, or a temp sensor, or the fan switch? And how could I troubleshoot this further?
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I have a 2004 Honda Civic ex coupe. I have changed the thermostat (twice), fan sensor, temp. sensor. The fan works and when doing an oil change the oil looks normal. No white smoke coming out of my exhaust and I got two radiator flushes, no dirty coolant, and I have replaced the cabin filter. The car doesn't overheat as long as I keep my temperature on hot. If I were to change the temp. to cold it seems like the coolant goes into the reservoir, but it seems like it doesn't go back into the engine. The mechanic that did the flush said that the hoses doesn't to be clogged because the coolant that was removed was green. They stuck an air blower in the heater core hoses and to show that was not clogged as well. The AC worked, I haven't checked in about couple of months. Also when the car overheats there is no smoke coming from the engine. radiator has been burped as well.
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So my 2004 honda civic LX with 165k miles has had some battery issues, or so it seems. While driving the car has been "shutting down", headlights fail, dash lights fail, radio sound goes off, and sometimes the car stalls. Typically this is happening when in stop and go traffic. The battery light on the dash comes on and off during these moments of failure. These issues started a few months ago when the dash maintenance light came on. I brought the car to a mechanic to see if he knew the issue. We decided to test the alternator and it was fine but we replaced it anyway. The issue went away until recently when the maintenance light came on again and seems the problem is worsening this time around.
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I have a 2000 Subaru Outback with a little over 162,000 miles. About 3 years ago I had the head gaskets replaced. This past March the car started over heating while on the highway driving back to Boston from New Jersey. It has been doing this intermittently since then, and I have had two mechanics look at it.
The first mechanic, who is my beloved mechanic in Maine (where I am originally from), checked the sensors and relays. He even replaced the relays for free, and it still overheated on the way back from Maine to Boston. Needless to say I did not give him enough time to really look at my car to figure out the problem.
I then went to my back up mechanic in Boston, who kept the car for about 4 days. He said there are no leaks and the car did not actually over heat while with him. He had one of his guys drive the car home at night and back to the shop in traffic in the AM, and had it run for hours while on a lift, and on the ground. Still no overheating. However, he did say that the car was eating up coolant, which indicated to him that there might be a head gasket problem.
I was a little upset by this diagnosis because I had them replaced already, and also because I am getting married this summer so this obviously is not the right time to be buying a new car. I should mention that both mechanics looked at my car at the end of August. I have still been driving and watching the coolant.
The car is still randomly overheating but i tend to notice it happen more while in stop and go traffic and when I accelerate. The needle will go all the way up to red, stay there for a few seconds and then slowly creep down. This happened this morning, and I had checked the coolant yesterday and it was full! I checked it again at lunch time to see if it had used all the coolant during rush hour and it was still full. This chain of events seems to keep happening and I constantly check the coolant. Since August I have only had to fill it once. I have also noticed that when I open the radiator cap the coolant is not sitting level like I've been told it should. I've put a decent amount of work into the car and everything else runs perfectly.
Is it possible that this is a pumping or air bubble problem, and not a head gasket?
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My 2000 Ford Ranger over heats when I stop at traffic lights. I took it to Tire Kingdom and hey suggested a new thermostat and a radiator flush. I did both and it continues. What is the issue?
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I have a 2003 Civic EX with 160K miles. The car runs great but it will sometimes over heat in traffic. It does not always overheat so it so the two mechanics I have taken it too have been unable to duplicate. I have had he thermostat changed and the relay to the cooling fan. I also changed the radiator cap. Other facts.
The heater has been very slow to heat up even when letting the car run for 15 minutes in the winter. It will heat up only once on the highway. This started at about the same time as the overheating.
It has never overheated on the highway even with 100 degree weather and the AC blasting.
Turning on the air will most of the time lower the temp.
Today after traveling 30 minutes I came to a stop and it overheated(temp gage on H). I tried to turn on the heater to attempt to cool it down and it blew cold air for about 3 minutes and never warmed. I then pulled into a lot andneither cooling fan was running. I did not have the ac on as I am thinking the fact that the heater is so slow might be a clue to the problem.
It would appear it could be something with the cooling fan but neither mechanic thought it was that as they couldn't duplicate the problem.
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I have a 1997 Honda Civic with 275,000 miles on it. After driving for an hour or so, it starts getting hot when stopped or nearly stopped. It goes back to normal temperature when I start driving. It does cool down if I turn on the heater. I just changed the timing belt/water pump and put it a new radiator and changed the thermostat hoping it would solve the problem, but it hasn't. I checked and the fan does come on when stopped. Could it be a cooling system clog that a flush might be able to solve or might it be the head gasket?
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1995 dodge neon... When I turn the car off, it burps, or bubbles air into the overfill tank. Car now also overheats when idling or in stop and go traffic. Temperature goes down when running heater.Not sure if it is the water pump or an issue with the radiator.
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My 1996 honda civic cannot handle the heat. Every time the weather gets warm it freaks out when stuck in traffic for any extended period of time. It generally will start to rev while stopped, sometimes will jerk forward, and once continued to rev in park with my foot completely off the gas, checking the gas and the break pedals numerous times to make sure not stuck, etc., for about 2 minutes. Another time it locked the steering wheel and would not release. This really only happens when it's warm outside. The car does not have air conditioning, if that makes any difference. We've brought it to two mechanics and they both said car looks great. What could be going on?
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1991 Honda Civic, automatic transmission, the car/steering wheel shake badly when the car stops at the red light. It only happens when brake pedal is pressed AND in D gear. If shift from D to N, the shake disappears. As soon as the traffic light turns green and the car starts to accelerate, the shake disappears. Four spark plugs were replaced, no effect at all.
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Okay, admittedly my car isn't top of the line. But I'd rather keep it. It all started one day getting stuck in traffic. Some kid claims something broke, causing him to serve in front of a bus bus and sending the bus into a creek. Luckily, all the kids had been dropped off, and the driver wasn't hurt. In my angrier moments, I figure the kid was texting but have no proof. I was stuck in traffic for 90 minutes, and within sight of getting out of the traffic mess, there was a loud bang and it overheats. Off to the side of the road, call the wife, she picks me up. Take it to the local shop, which replaces the Radiator and the Thermostat.
From then on, if I get stuck in slow traffic or at stop lights, it heats up quick. The dash temperature gauge has the word "NORMAL" spelled vertically. After a few traffic lights, the pointer is at the O or even the N. Before the next incident (below), running too hot would cause difficulty starting unless I pumped the gas pedal, or let it cool down for awhile.
Another incident: a rather sudden loss of power driving. The mechanic claims that the catalytic converters are clogged (the car has two). He opens up one of them, "unclogs" it. This didn't solve the problem. It did seem to clear up the starting problem. There's plenty of coolant in the reservoir.
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My wife drives a 2002 civic (mostly around town). when the car is at running temp.with the heater on and she gets top a stop sign or red traffic light, the heater starts to blow out cold/colder air. We took the car to a dealer and asked them to flush/fill the radiator and fix the problem. Well they flushed/filled the radiator and said "Yup, it still does it. Would you like us to diagnose the problem more for a minimum of 1 hour labor cost?" What could be the problem with the reduction in heat?
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I'm convinced my 02 honda civic does not like traffic nor hot weather. Whenever i'm in traffic for more than 20 minutes (which is about everyday) it starts to make this loud buzzing noise. Seems to be the way my car is telling me that it does not want to be in traffic. I can sure relate. Me neither. When the weather gets hot, my car does the same thing. Can you relate to my car as well?
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I have a 1990 honda civic dx. with only 115,000 miles. For the most part it runs great, but for the past year it has given me problems when I try to start it. What happens is that at random times, it just cranks, but it doesn't start. Sometimes, if I try it several times (as much as 20 attempts) it will eventually start. Sometimes I have to leave the car for some time (10 minutes up to a few hours) and then it will start. I checked the spark, when it doesn't start, and it has a good spark. This seems to happen mostly when it is hot, never at night. My mechanic changed the distributor and that did not solve the problem. The ECM gave 16 flashes. My mechanic is frustrated in dealing with this because often it starts right up.
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I have a 2002 Honda Odyssey with 260,000 miles on it. It started randomly overheating this hot summer we have been having. We change the thermostat and flushed the coolant/radiator and still overheats. I do not see any leaking on the garage floor but am loosing coolant and need to put more in about every 14 days. I do a lot of highway driving. What should I look at next?
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Over the past 3 years or so, my 1993 Honda Civic began not starting at very random times. Everything would appear to be working but the engine wouldn't fire up, until after a few tries or minutes. I got the fuel pump relay replaced last March and that worked for a bit but then my car acted up again in June and an electrical connector to the fuel pump was replaced. My car had been starting every time since, until last week. This is the worst it has ever been; my engine took about 3 hours (re-trying it here and there) to decide to turn over and start on its own, worked great for 3 days and then again just would not start. On a whim, I jumped it that time and it worked. This seems strange to me because all the electricity in the car was working when it wouldn't start, and my battery checked out fine when it was tested recently.
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I have a 1991 Honda Civic DX and it is doing something I can't explain. Randomly the car will not even try to turn over. The ignition switch will click, the dash lights come on... but not even the slightest peep from the starter motor. If I put the vehicle in fifth gear and roll it, turning the engine over even half a rotation, the engine will fire right up.
It started on a road trip and happened very sparsely, but has since become more common. What used to be 1 out of 20 is now maybe 1 out of 4 chance it doesn't start. Every now and then it will go days without any problems, then seemingly randomly the ignition fails again for spurts. I replaced the distributor cap, plugs, and rotor about 2 months ago. The ignition switch appears to be fine....
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