My 98 Honda Accord has been a great car. Never overheated, gets great gas mileage, ran great, no serious issues until now. So I gave the car to my brother in law who lives in San Diego. He got a DUI before he could even register it.........so I flew down to drive it back to Bend, OR. After picking it up I drove it to my parents house and when re-parking I noticed some greenish mud looking film that had spilled out. I decided to pop the hood and noticed my upper radiator hose had burst a hole. When I further investigated I noticed this film almost seemed like a mixture of oil and coolant. I checked the oil stick and the oil was clean of water. I chose to replace the hose and continue on. One note.....while replacing the hose I noticed the junk was mostly in radaitor end of hose. When I pulled the hose from the engine end I noticed bright green coolant that didn't look mixed. Wierd to say the least. So I changed the hose and started on my drive to Redding, CA. The car ran great and had no issues. I did notice it got about 5 miles less per gallon. But 31 mpg was still pretty good. The following morning I checked the oil. It seemed lower than it normally had after a long drive. I added oil and drove to Bend, OR. After successfully making it through 100 miles of blizzard conditions I arrived at my house. Parked it in the driveway and proceeded to go inside to unload some stuff. When I came out I noticed steam was coming from under the hood. I popped the hood and that slime was overflowing out of the reservoir for the radiator and the radiator cap. Basically spilling every where. I checked the temp gauge and noticed temps were high. I pulled the car into the garage after it had cooled and parked it. Prior to pulling it in I noticed engine oil was low again. Spent a few hours on the blogs and read about the different issues. I really have no clue what it could be. I recently lost my job so money is currently an issue. I have time until I go back to school to do some maintenance on my own prior to taking it to a dealer. Any suggestions? The motor is a 4 cylinder and the tranny is a manual 5 speed. Noticed there is two radiators. One is obvious for the engine and the one that sit In front of that looks to be for AC.

 

Most of the time when their is coolant in your oil or the engine is birning coolant, it means you need to replace your headgasket. Its a cheap part, but do you have the tools and the know how to do this repair yourself?

 

complete a leak down test on your engine. This will tell you if it is a head gasket or something else.

More than likely it is a head gasket.

 

For one it's oil in coolant.....not coolant in oil.

Secondly, a leak test is the same thing as a compression check correct?

I definitely don't have the tools to do a compression check on my own so who would you guys suggest I let do this......Honda?

Thanks.

 

how often do you change your engine oil and filter, is it monthly, every two months or three months in honda 1998

 

Cartermg:

Leak down test puts compressed air into the cylinder when it is at top dead center. Both intake and exhaust valves are closed. So it test where pressure is escaping from; rings, head gasket, or burnt valves.

In your case this would just confirm the head gasket which I am pretty sure is what is wrong here. But its always good to be sure before diving into a problem like this.

Rilex;

this should be changed every 3000-4000 miles usually when you change the oil. Are you asking for the sake of helping or just asking? Just to let you know it's not advisable to hijack threads.