95DX95

I just bought my 95 DX and I have never ever seen the cooling fans turn on. Heat works good, and the engine feels very warm under the hood. The upper rad hose feels hot and pressurized but the lower seems to have no pressure and be cold. Its 80 degrees outside and ive had it idling for a half hour and the fans have not kicked on. Fuses are good and the guage never reads above 1/3 for the engine temp.

New thermostat
New radiator
Complete tuneup
All fluids changed

Also once its warmed up it starts to idle rough, dropping rpms to 2-300 for 2 seconds, then jumping back to 800 rpms for 3 seconds.

Also when i rev the motor to 3000 rpms it makes a noise like silverware banging against eachother as if you slammed a silverware drawer. It sounds like its coming from the motor.

I cut off my heat shield because i though it was the culprit. Please help!

This is the highest ive seen the temperature guage:

civiclx1988

just cause that gauge don't go no higher don't mean it's not overheating those gauges/temp sensors go bad and read the same ask me how i know..... as far as the whole metal sound either your valves or you got something major broke aka bearings/rod..... and you could jump your fan to see if it's good...... just take the negative and postive wires from your fan plug and jump them to your battery if it don't run you need a fan if it runs check relays.......

95DX95

The gauge does slowly go up, not sure if that makes a difference.

The car runs perfect when its not idling, its quick and never hiccups. Could it be the lifters need adjustment?

Can i use any wire to jump the fan? All i have is like speaker wire lol.

Thanks a lot i hope i can get this fixed.

95DX95

This car is really pissing me off...

Ive replaced the relay, doesnt work, jumped the fan, works. Stuck a paperclip in the temp sensor plug and the fans came on. Bought a brand new sensor and the fans dont come on. I let it idle for 13 minutes, starts idling up and down (Consistently 1000-1600 rpm), ticking fairly loud, and has a major loss of power (power curve goes up to like 4-7000 rpms, NO power under that). Im guessing its acting weird like that because its overheating. fans have never come on besides when i jumped them and shorted the sensor. HELP!

Also i watched my #4 plug wire pop itself out when i revved the engine a little bit. Is that a problem? Spark plug is tight and it has new donuts for the plugwells.

KamikazeDR

Men i think u gonna need a new thermostat because the water isnt circulating from the engine to the radiator remove ur radiator cap with the engine idling and see if the water is steady or is circulating? if not circulate at operating temperature ur thermostate its locked close and the hot water from the inside of the motor isnt coming to the radiator

Cynical 1

checked the waterpump?

checked the bleed valve on the top hose - does air or coolant come out when opened?

95DX95

I was thinking the water pump, it doesnt seem to leak, and doesnt squeal at all. Could the fins be worn down inside? How do i check?

And its bled pretty well, i just like to park the car uphill and fill up the rad cap, since its really the highest point in the system, but i have tried to bleed it once or twice with the valve, and just coolant comes out. I forgot to add it also has a brand new rad.

It just seems like its overheating and feels warm, but the overflow tank hasnt boiled over since i replaced the rad.

95DX95

I just went and looked at my car and the upper rad hose is collapsed. I opened the rad cap and it didnt un-collapse. What does this mean? Thanks a lot guys.

95DX95

I stuck a meat thermometer in the rad cap, and it looks like the thermostat works right at 185 and it doesnt seem to overheat, but when it warms up, it still has an idle problem.

The fan still doesnt come on. New sensor... So i have a paperclip in the connector, so the fans are always on, just some peace of mind that its not overheating.

2000silvercivic

You need to replace the upper rad hose. If it is collapsed that is going to cause the coolant not to move threw the system like it should. Replace that and let us know what happens.

ken9

Does radiator hoses have any crack, break, or leak? Have you check to see if all plug are plug in the right sensors.

HondaPartsHero

Did you get a new radiator cap as well?

Did you install the thermostat in this way?

Former User

Bleed it again. Bleeding the cooling system may take 20-30 minutes:

1) Park the car on an inclined driveway with the front end higher than the rear.

2) Push the dash heater lever/**** to MAX heat.

3) Follow the directions in the diagram below (hint: the bleed bolt is located where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine):

95DX95

Im pretty sure the plugs are in the right sensors, The plug that turns on the fan when shorted, is plugged into the sensor right past the thermostat, thats where it should be right? I might have the wrong sensor, went to autozone and they didnt have the one that was in the car, he kept looking, and the sensor for a 92 accord 2.2 looks exactly the same as mine, so i bought it, shouldnt matter right, probably just kicks on at about 190 like any other car.

Looks like this with black plastic instead:



No cracks, leaks, or breaks i believe, never loses a drop of coolant unless im spilling it all over when im replacing these parts lol. Ill get to replacing the hoses, the cap is new also.

My thermostat is on the back pass side, and the bleed bolt is in front. But i made sure that the little pin lined up right. It seems like my thermostat is doing its job. Im dont think its overheating now, i thought it was when it was acting funny, but now it seems like it does that at any temp over 110.

Im thinking i may have gotten a bad iacv from the junkyard, because when its warm it idles from 1-1.5k constantly. it was better than my old one at first but after a couple of days its back to the same problem. Im worried about the loss of power when its warm though. The power curve gets higher and higher the more i drive, eventually after about 15 minutes i have to rev to 4k to start otherwise it will just shake and want to stall out.

The heads are pretty noisy also, not terrible. I have never had a 4 cylinder and dont know anyone who has a honda so im not sure if its normal or not. I adjusted the valves a couple of days ago, but instead of making sure it was TDC i just watched when each rocker was at the top of its travel and adjusted then, did i do it wrong? I hope thats a good explanation of what i mean lol.

Thanks a lot for the help guys :D

95DX95

Ill try to bleed it again RonJ, should i just wait 20-30 minutes, because my cooling fans never come on lol, so i dont when when its fully warmed up. And the car runs perfect when its cold, im not sure if it would be constant when it needs to be bled. It starts acting up well before the thermostat opens. Thanks.

Former User

The collapse of the upper radiator hose suggests that air/gas is trapped in the system. When the engine is hot the gas expands and when the engine cools, it contracts, collapsing the hose. When the hose was collapsed had the fluid level in the reservoir dropped substantially? If not, the hose that runs between the reservoir and radiator may be clogged or the radiator cap is bad.

Bleed exactly as described in my previous post and, if the fan does not come on, do the procedure for 30 minutes. You may want to raise the front end on stands during the procedure and also make sure the heat (not blower) is set to max heat.

95DX95

Ok thanks a lot, makes sense. Ill get that done later today.

95DX95

Well i just did the bleeding for over and hour, the fan still never comes on so when the coolant started to boil i had to short the e fans for a few minutes. RPMs started to drop pretty low (350ish)

The #4 spark plug wire violently popped out a few times. What the hell is that?

Got coolant all over so when i was done i wanted to take it to the car wash, to clean up the engine compartment so it would stop steaming. It seems alright at first, and by the time i got to the end of the street, it was barely moving. Had to pretty much floor it to move, it was sputtering and was having trouble gaining rpms in neutral. Then it just stalled out. So i just floored it home in anger (and because thats the only way it would move)

Just replaced the IACV again, and i just got a new temp sensor for the fans. Still barely runs, and fans never come on. I HATE this car. Please help me before i drive it off a cliff.

Former User

If spark plug 4 is tight, then the valve cover seal for tube 4 is probably bad. However, the fact that pressure in the crankcase is high enough to pop the plug wire out suggests excessive blow by gas (=bad piston rings). In addition, unplugging a plug wire with the engine running is a well known way to blow the coil inside the distributor, so you may want to test the coil as it may be the cause of the sputtering.

Regarding your overheating problem, I think it's time to check for a blown head gasket (cylinder compression and leak down tests).

95DX95

Thanks a lot man. So much troubleshooting lol. Wish me luck! I think this motors fairly new. I have no background on the car, the people I bought it from didnt speak english, and they only had the car for 3 days (i think they got it in a trade). It looks super clean under the valve cover and good everywhere else. Id have trouble believing it has 320,000 miles and still ran pretty good for the 1,000 miles i got in before the recent problems. If the head gasket is bad ill go crazy. The winter beater has a blown head gasket but we'll drive it till it dies, my sonoma is in pieces because of a blown head gasket too. If this is it for the Honda then every car i own would have a blown head gasket lol.

95DX95

Well tonight me and my dad re-did the valves, sounds a little better and now theres no 3k rpm noise.

It idles good now! At least when its cold. Ill have to run it for a little while, now theres another problem. When I move the gas pedal all through the range of what should normally be 1500-2500 rpm it just stays at 1500-1700 rpms and bounces back and forth very fast, then I move it in a hair farther and it jumps to 3k. So either bouncy 1500 or 3k, no in between, I hope you guys get what I mean. WTF! Ive been doing a lot of things to it so im not sure what did it.

And im going to borrow my neighbors compression tester tomorrow, im 98% positive the head gasket is good.

95DX95

The fans still dont come on.... What the hell! I jump the connector to the sensor, the fans run... But i replace the sensor and the fans never come on. Is it not heating up? I never see it boil over, just once it did.

Just did a comp test too, looks good.

140 135 135 155

Cyl 1......2.......3........4

Got an idea? Idles wierd and losing power when hot...

95DX95

ttt

Nooch

Ttt

95DX95

Could a bad ecu be the problem? I got like 3 IACV's and the same problem with all of them, fine when cold, i start driving and the idles bounce at 1500-2000, then after a few minutes 500-1000 bounce, then after 7 minutes 150-500 rpm bounce. They drop so low that the headlights/radio/interior dim badly (tach is at 0 rpm) until i step on the gas and get the alternator spinning faster (good alt and battery). And after the car is driven for a minute or 2 it starts to lose power now also. It only feels normal with light throttle at 1900-2400 rpm, if i go past 1/3 throttle it shakes and the rpm's are hard to gain.

The fans still dont come on with the new temp sensor, but will turn on if i make a circuit with a paperclip on the connector that goes to the brand new sensor. Im going crazy! I really, really, really dont want to take it to a shop when i make $7.25/hour :/