Engine appears to not be sucking in coolant after coolant was drained

[WOPcivic]

I have a 2016 civic touring with the 1.5T. I drained the coolant from the radiator and engine block to do a thermostat replacement, but upon refilling the coolant overflow reservoir and letting the car idle, the coolant level in the reservoir doesn't seem to be going down, back into the engine block. I only idled the car for 5-7 mins though, because the coolant temp gauge was at max immediately upon starting the car, and I got all sorts of errors at the same time. I had only poured around 2L of coolant into the reservoir before it wouldn't take anymore, and I was afraid of causing damage to the engine if it's running with next to no coolant inside. Anyone have any idea what's going on, before I get the car towed to the dealer?

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[WOPcivic]

squeeze the rad hoses while filling and idling, it helps "burp" the system,

turn heat on full blast,

you need to warm it up enough so the thermostat opens for the coolant to fully circulate through the system,

when the thermostat is closed, the coolant isnt flowing

Thank you for your reply. I'll try squeezing the hoses and idling longer. However, do you know if there's enough coolant in the engine to idle it, after I filled in just about 2L of coolant? I didn't want to overheat the engine, since the temp gauge shoots up to max immediately and stays there after starting the car, as well as various error messages. Do you know if that normally happens during a coolant replacement?

Yeah, I was under the impression that I'm to add in as much coolant as I could into the reservoir, idle the car and let the coolant circulate (like what you said, to allow the thermostat to open), and then top off the reservoir as it gets sucked in.

 

[Romeoridgee]

Lift the front end or park on a steep hill going up, if the coolant isn’t hot enough, open the cap and rev around 3k, try to get all the air bubbles towards the front of the cooling system.

 

[WOPcivic]

are your fans coming on?

it will take longer to "burp" all the air out cause you drained the block, most people don't bother doing that

Nope, I didn't idle the car long enough for the radiator fans to turn on. I recall the service manual says to idle the car until the fans have turned on twice, which was my initial plan. However, I got scared when I saw the temperature gauge sitting at max and error messages, and gave up idling the car after about 5-7 minutes. It was really cold in my garage, which probably further slowed things down.

 

[WOPcivic]

Lift the front end or park on a steep hill going up, if the coolant isn’t hot enough, open the cap and rev around 3k, try to get all the air bubbles towards the front of the cooling system.

Thanks for the ideas about lifting the front end and revving the engine. Do you think I should be worried about my coolant temperature gauge being at max, though?

 

[WOPcivic]

the temp guage is giving you a false reading because the coolant has not reached the sensor yet

Ahhh thanks for the clarification! I was worried because this was my first time changing coolant, and I didn't see any mention of this anywhere online nor in these forums. If it's a false reading, then that's a huge relief!

 

[WOPcivic]

I went to take another look at my car and I seem to have another problem.... So after the car sat overnight, the reservoir drained lower so I was able to add in another 1.5 to 2L of coolant. But now I can't start my car to idle it... It cranks up roughly, sputters and cuts out. I can't even idle it to get the coolant circulating....

 

[Romeoridgee]

Did you overheat it?

 

[WOPcivic]

Did you overheat it?

I don't think so, because I added coolant to an ice cold engine, and only idled it for about 5-7 mins last night and gave up. I also tried to jump start the car earlier to no avail. I'm thinking I may have damaged some wiring when moving things out of the way last night to access the thermostat. It sucks that I also couldn't finish the coolant job either since the car won't start, but I guess it's a trip to the dealer now.

 

[latole]

Same subject, same OP on two different sub-forum

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