I have an automatic 2004 Honda Civic DX 1.7 L engine with 207,307 miles. It is overheating, but if I add coolant, I can drive it about 8 miles until the temperature gauge goes up again. The mechanic did the blue chemical test and it turned green. He said it was a bad head gasket and would be too expensive to fix. Also, I was told months ago the manifold was cracked but it would not affect the performance of the car and not to fix it, so I don't know if the cracked manifold affected the overheating or not. Otherwise, it runs great. The mechanic says ditch it. Any suggestions?
it runs great.
a car that only goes 8 miles "runs great"? Geez talk about low standards.
Ask how much it is to replace the engine + manifold on this car, and compare to the price of getting another car. That should give you your answer.
You did not state whether the cracked manifold was intake or exhaust. It would not affect overheating in any event unless maybe a crack in an intake manifold was leaking coolant.
Unless you can do the work yourself I would have to agree with the mechanic that it's not worth doing a head gasket repair on a nearly 18-year-old Civic with over 200K miles. Not only would it cost more than the car is worth, you could spend all that money only to have the automatic transmission crater on you.
https://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Civic/2004/
Thank you for the confirmation.
Just curious: what did you do to kill the headgasket of that Honda?
Simply driving with low or none coolant? You will have known, coolant is essential, so this will not have been the case.
I don't know what I could have done.