I bought this car brand new in 1998, and it's probably the most reliable car I ever owned. But with 248,270 miles and regular maintenance, it may just be on it's way out. The car's coolant temperature started to raise up near overheating for the first time in 17 years. So I turned on the heat and drove it to the dealer. I thought it was odd to overheat since I just replaced the radiator in September 2014.

This is what I reported to the dealer and their response:

Customer states that when vehicle is moving, the heat works, but when coming to a stop and sitting the heat will start to cool down. This started in December 2014. Radiator was replaced in Sept. 2014. Also customer can hear fluid moving around in the front end when accelerating. Unsure if the sound is related . Verified concern. Found vehicle was low on coolant. topped off and bled coolant. Coolant reservoir was coated in oil and tube was swollen due to oil. Cleaned out reservoir and cut swollen tubing off. Test drove and verified heat is working properly. Most likely has blown head gasket. $1120 to replace head gasket.

Ever since my timing belt change at Dealer this car has been going down. What would cause the Radiator to crack? We were driving to downtown Fort Worth when I saw the engine light on. My eyes drifted to the right, when I saw the hot buring temp gauge. We immedially pulled over and started to cool this car down. Not sure why this happened. The car has over 113,000 miles on it. I thought that was nothing for a Honda, Civic. Well now we are having thermostat issues. no signs of cracked or warped heads. The car runs good still, there is no steam coming up. Could this thing have a small warp in it causing now a gauge that moves toward hot during idle?