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Chasing a coolant leak on a 2005 Civic took me 6 hours
I was sure it was the water pump. Had the telltale drip near the timing cover. Replaced it, refilled, still leaked. Turned out to be a hairline crack in the plastic end tank of the radiator that only showed up when the system was hot and under pressure. Wasted a whole Saturday afternoon because I didn't pressure test it first. Anybody else skip basic diagnostics and pay the price?
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seth_shah28d agoTop Commenter
Wesley's right that the radiator cap can cause issues, but the 2005 Civic actually uses a pressurized cap that's pretty reliable. The real common leak point on those is where the plastic end tank meets the aluminum core, not the cap itself. I've seen three of them crack right at that seam after 100k miles. You probably could've saved time by pressure testing the system cold then heating it up with a heat gun near the end tanks.
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wesleyb2028d ago
Saw a thread last week where a guy had the same issue on a 96 Camry, and it turned out to be a radiator cap that wasn't holding pressure. Six hours for a $12 part, crazy.
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