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White Foam/broth In Radiator Coolant


Killer-B

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guys brought a civic ViRS a few days back and there seems to be a problem with it, a white foam forms on top of the coolant when the radiator cap is removed and there is no bubbling, just the foam. And the there is also no oil in coolant and coolant in engine oil, so a head blown head gasket can be ruled out yea? the temperature guage sists about 2 bars ABOVE midpoint though, what would be the problem here? Plz help me out guys.

Cheers!

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well I think to create a foam it would need to be bubbling right? since foam contains air. Is your coolant at the right level? Are any off the hoses bent?. I woulod flush the system in case the coolant is bad. If that fails it's either the water pump or worst case is the head gasket. You wouldn't happen to be noticing any white smoke in the exhaust would you?

BTW not sure of where the needle on the temp guage should sit on your car, but on mine two bars above the mid point is high. Are your fans working properly (by working properly I mean does it work at two speeds or just one) ?

Edited by jdnet
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din see any white smoke and fans are working fine, and the previous owner had put in a larger condenser and so both the fans are wired to work with the a/c on. Could a bad thermostat valve be the cause machang? How can i know if it is the water pump?

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din see any white smoke and fans are working fine, and the previous owner had put in a larger condenser and so both the fans are wired to work with the a/c on. Could a bad thermostat valve be the cause machang? How can i know if it is the water pump?

First flush and replace the coolant and see if it makes a difference. Unlikely to be caused by the thermostatic valve because that is a valve.

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I think above the mid point is high for a civic. As don mentioned flush the radiator and if possible show it to a good radiator place, because flushing sometimes not do the job(in case of badly clogged radiator).Is there a difference in the temp gauge when running with AC?. Until you come to a proper diagnosis, you need to pay real attention to temp gauge as a minor issue(eassy fix) in cooling system may results in blown head gasket! Good luck!

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  • 1 month later...

Guys replaced the head gasket and now the bubbling problem is solved, but the engine heats up a bit when climbing (dosent boil, but still the engine heats up), and I FEEL that the radiator fan dosen't kick in at the right time now, what is the problem now? Thermostat valve? (temperature is normal when driving on level roads)

And also there is seems to be an oil leak from the wheel nut threads on the rear wheels! What is causing this problem? i replaced the brake washers too.

Please help me out guys.

Cheers!

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Guys replaced the head gasket and now the bubbling problem is solved, but the engine heats up a bit when climbing (dosent boil, but still the engine heats up), and I FEEL that the radiator fan dosen't kick in at the right time now, what is the problem now? Thermostat valve? (temperature is normal when driving on level roads)

And also there is seems to be an oil leak from the wheel nut threads on the rear wheels! What is causing this problem? i replaced the brake washers too.

Please help me out guys.

Cheers!

You seem to be obsessed with the Thermostatic valve.

Get your radiator cleaned and see if it sorts out the heating issue. The radiator fan will kick in at a pre set setting and you should not base it on feeling. How have you concluded that the car is overheating? Cars do run hot (its optimum operating temperature) so its important to know what this is rather than assume.

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You seem to be obsessed with the Thermostatic valve.

Get your radiator cleaned and see if it sorts out the heating issue. The radiator fan will kick in at a pre set setting and you should not base it on feeling. How have you concluded that the car is overheating? Cars do run hot (its optimum operating temperature) so its important to know what this is rather than assume.

Don isn't the fan set up to kick in when the coolant reaches a certain temperature? I can see that the temperature guage needle rising by a significant amount above the midpoint when climbing and also feel that the engine is running hot than usual.

and yes the radiator was flushed after the gasket repair.

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flushing is not always work when it comes to badly clogged radiator...as The Don said get your radiator removed & cleaned...experienced the same problem few months ago & found the blocked fins were the real culprits..

temperature rising when climbing means water flow is restricted through the radiator in higher RPMs ..correct if i'm wrong..

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flushing is not always work when it comes to badly clogged radiator...as The Don said get your radiator removed & cleaned...experienced the same problem few months ago & found the blocked fins were the real culprits..

temperature rising when climbing means water flow is restricted through the radiator in higher RPMs ..correct if i'm wrong..

Will check that too. Thanks machang

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Don isn't the fan set up to kick in when the coolant reaches a certain temperature? I can see that the temperature guage needle rising by a significant amount above the midpoint when climbing and also feel that the engine is running hot than usual.

and yes the radiator was flushed after the gasket repair.

Well the midpoint might not be where the normal temperature for your car is at. Does it climb as high as the red zone (can you post a pic please)? The fan is controlled by the thermostat and I'm not sure exactly how its activated in your car (in the good old days there is a thermostat for the fans and the temperature sensor for the guage. To test the fans you can pull out the plug from the thermostat and the fans should start straight away. This thermostat might need replacing).

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flushing is not always work when it comes to badly clogged radiator...as The Don said get your radiator removed & cleaned...experienced the same problem few months ago & found the blocked fins were the real culprits..

temperature rising when climbing means water flow is restricted through the radiator in higher RPMs ..correct if i'm wrong..

You are absolutely right. The ViRs also redlines a little higher than the standard Civic Levs

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Well the midpoint might not be where the normal temperature for your car is at. Does it climb as high as the red zone (can you post a pic please)? The fan is controlled by the thermostat and I'm not sure exactly how its activated in your car (in the good old days there is a thermostat for the fans and the temperature sensor for the guage. To test the fans you can pull out the plug from the thermostat and the fans should start straight away. This thermostat might need replacing).

Reaches upto about 3/4 of the temperature guage, I'm assuming that whatever the car, the temperature needle should remain at or slightly below the mid point of the temp guage and should not be moving unless you have a problem with the cooling system.

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Quick suggestion.

Try bleeding the system.

Run the engine with the Radiator cap off while the car is stationary for some time. See that the heater valves are fully open too.

This cured a similar problem in one of my vehicles.

Regards.

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test the following to isolate any issue with the coolant temperature sender which can be a culprit to late kick-in of the auxilary fans.

  1. Start the engine, either from a cold start or after running, keep A/C switched off the whole time.
  2. Monitor the temperature gauge while observing whether the fans do kick in.
  3. Make a note of the position of the gauge when the fans kick-in.
  4. If it's beyond the middle point, press the radiator top hose to see whether it has been excessively pressurized. If yes, then there seems to be an issue with the coolant temp. sender unit.
  5. If it's normal, there's no issue with the temp the fans kick in, then you might have to start observing other obstacles in the system such as blocked thermostat valve, ineffeciencies in the radiator in exchanging heat, etc.

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test the following to isolate any issue with the coolant temperature sender which can be a culprit to late kick-in of the auxilary fans.

  1. Start the engine, either from a cold start or after running, keep A/C switched off the whole time.
  2. Monitor the temperature gauge while observing whether the fans do kick in.
  3. Make a note of the position of the gauge when the fans kick-in.
  4. If it's beyond the middle point, press the radiator top hose to see whether it has been excessively pressurized. If yes, then there seems to be an issue with the coolant temp. sender unit.
  5. If it's normal, there's no issue with the temp the fans kick in, then you might have to start observing other obstacles in the system such as blocked thermostat valve, ineffeciencies in the radiator in exchanging heat, etc.

Thanks Harshan, got the car checked out and it turned out to be a faulty 'thermostat switch'

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