Nothing real great to talk about until just this week.
Recently I came across a nice little issue on a Honda Accord V6 model. The vehicle has come into the shop several times for standard maintenance issues, the customer has stated that every once in a great while the car seems to get hotter. He wondered if the Head gasket could be an issue
We originally checked the system and found that the radiator cap was physically broken. The spring inside the cap had come apart from the top. this caused the Coolant to overflow into the reservoir under very little pressure. The customer stated that the vehicle never overheated, but the gauge was just a bit high. Head gasket combustion gas testing found no fault in the coolant
The cap was replaced for that reason. during the routine replacement I noticed the radiator had some corrosion damage around the portion that the cap would seal against. The customer was informed and was told that the radiator would probably need replacement but it was unsure as to weather or not it would effect or the system pressurizing. Customer agreed and left. About two weeks later he came back and said almost the same problem was happening.
Upon inspection I found the New radiator cap was broken just as the old one was ???? .. Baffled, I warrantied the cap and told the customer that the radiator may be causing the cap to sit at a slight angle and stress the plastic ?? ... (long shot) .. the customer decided to put a New radiator in the Honda .. and we did
Month and a Half .... brings us to the present :
Vehicle towed in with No coolant in engine. Testing system I found that adding coolant to the car caused a BIG mess .. Coolant came out the bottom of the radiator just as fast as I put it in.
The radiator had swelled and the Bottom tank had separated completely.
This crack/separation could really only be caused by an extreme and violent over pressurizing of the system very quickly.
The customer was told that the Head gasket is suspected as the cause.
He had done some checking and found the book value on the car would not warrant a trade in and decided to fix the vehicle.
Starting the job that is suggested as book time about 7 hours. Here we have the engine being taken apart and the basic Idea of what I saw along the way
Then once the Heads were removed :
the back side Head gasket was found to be in pretty good shape. No real cause for concern here :
the front side Head gasket on the other hand shows Leakage from the second Cylinder into the Third and vise/versa :
the Head itself does not appear to have any real damage visibly, but from long term experience I never base a Head condition on a Visual. the Heads (as a Pair) will be sent to the Machine Shop for Planning, Pressure checking and Valve leak down tests. :
this is the Array of Car parts that are gunna be in waiting until I receive the Heads back from the M.S. ....
I hope this can help in some way to make sure you the reader understands that in most cases when an Intermittent concern happens, We as a Repair facility will do everything possible to make the vehicle run strongly and smoothly with out extremely invasive repairs .....
..... Unless absolutely necessary
---- I did warranty the radiator for this customer even though the radiator did not fail under normal conditions ---
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