Hey all, I'm about ready to shoot myself in the foot right now. I'm a goddamn idiot.

Yesterday I did my normal routine of checking fluids in all of my cars at my home. I checked my car, my brother's car, and my parents car. My brother owns a 2007 Civic LX.

I noticed that the civic was a bit low on engine coolant. I followed what the manual said and unscrewed the pressure cap on the radiator and checked the coolant resivoir. I noticed that it was near the "low" mark. However, I don't have any coolant at home, so I figured that I'd go and get some in the morning. I close the coolant resivoir cap.

However, stupid me forgets to screw the pressure cap on the radiator back on!

My brother left this morning with the car. About 3 hours ago, he noticed some smoke coming from the engine hood and the car's temperature gauge start rising. He pulls into a gas station and notices that the pressure valve wasn't screwed on all the way.

Also, apparently, engine coolant got sprayed on the engine and around other parts of the engine bay. (That must explain the smoking) My brother buys some coolant at the gas station and fills the resivoir to about half way. (and of course, screwing the cap back on all the way). Him and his friend wiped the engine bay as best they could.

He just called me now saying that the car's overheating still. It's "close to the red line."

Basically, the car's still overheating, even though they filled the resivoir back up. He drove for about 15 minutes and the engine temperature indicator was close to the red dot.

I just want to know, how bad could it be if engine coolant got sprayed all over the engine? They said they wiped it up the best they could, but do I still have to worry?

Any expainations as to why the car is still overheating? There should be enough left.

I ****ed up big time. Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did you just put coolant into the reservoir? You need to flush the system, fill the radiator with coolant until it's full, run the car until the thermostat opens, pour some more in the radiator, put the cap on and pour some coolant in the reservoir until it hits the full line.

You can't just pour coolant into the reservoir and run after all the coolant has been blown out. The system takes quite a bit of coolant.

Hopefully you didn't run the car very long when it was over heated and warped the head..

 

The car's not in a position right now to have a radiator system flush.

But to my knowledge, yea, he just put coolant into the resivoir.

I'm going to get the car sent to a mechanic asap. But for a temporary fix, should I do just that?:

The car was ran for about "15 minutes" and during that time, the temperature was two bars away from the red line. Is that enough to warp a cylinder head?

 

For now, take off the cap on the radiator and fill it up. When filling it up, squeeze the coolant hoses to get rid of some air bubbles. Fill the reservoir up to the full line and take it to a shop so they can flush the system and fill it up properly.

In 15mins, I doubt very much damage was done if any, esp. if the car was babied. Some how these Honda motors can take quite a bit of abuse and chug along for thousands of miles lol.

 

Before you go to the mechanic, do exactly as civicexracer says.
When he ran the car with the cap off, it blew out all the coolant. When he filled the reservoir, it didn't fill the entire system. This resulted in the high temperature reading that he received. To properly refill, you MUST have the car running, and fill into the radiator itself. Fill it all the way, and watch for a minute. The level of the fluid should lower. This is when you put more in.

You may not have hurt anything yet. But, if you do go to the mechanic with the car running like it is, you may hurt it. That, or the mechanic might see easy money when you enter the door, and charge you for what he claims is wrong.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

Update on the story:
Went to the car. Turns out my bro filled only the radiator and not the resivoir. Looked at the radiator level. It was right to the brim.

Resivoir was pretty low though.

Filled the resivoir up, ran the car for a bit. However, I did not 'burp' the radiator, which is what you guys described. I simply filled the resivoir to full.

Breathed a sigh of relief when the temp was stable. Drove it around for a little bit, still stable.

Drove the car home (30 minutes), temperature stayed stable the whole way. I think I'm good. Should I still burp it?

 

I think you're good. If no one has turned the heater on since refilling, there might be air in the heater core. You could do the bleeding procedure or it should work to just drive some with the heater on. Then park on a level surface, wait until it is cold, then check the levels again. Both the radiator and the reservoir. Radiator should always be filled to the brim.

 

You may also want to do a cheap insurance policy on that and replace the thermostat. They seem to dislike overheating situations and burn up.