i have a 94 accord ex
and my engine keeps overheating lately..
it was fine for a long time..
and lately my sensor tells me its like half way between hot and cold..and towards the hot. and i keep stopping my car and letting it sit while im on the road..and whenever i turn my car off..the fan turns on and off for like a half hour after i turn the car off..can somebody tell me how the fan works, and why it goes on?

i just added some coolant it..it took a lot but not that much and i tested it around for like 20 minutes and it seems that it's fine now. can somebody explain the type of damage it could have done?

thanks

as long as it didn't get extremely hot there should be no problems.....

look on the underside of your radiator cap (when your engine has cooled). first off, you should see the coolant that sits at a level right under where the cap was. secondly, look for discoloration of the coolant on the radiator cap. if it appears normal and theres no gunk, you should be fine. what youre checking for here is to make sure you havent blown your head gasket. you may also want to make sure there no rust in your radiator, bc that could cause overheating problems. if you're suspicious, drain out your radiator, and top it back up with one of those big jugs of prestone. takes <30min and costs <$8.

I would first check all your hoses and connections and make sure you have coolant in the cooling system.

The reason why the fans kick on and off is to maintain a certain operating tempurature regulated by your thermostat, radiator and water pump (there are other main pieces of your cooling system but that is why/how).

If you have coolant in your system I would suspect a bad thermostat. I would suggest purchasing a shop manual (chiltons, helms or haynes manual found at most book stores or automotive stores and will pay for themselves over and over).

thanks for the help. last night i bought some coolant and added it, the coolant seemed to be full but after i shook the hose about half of the bottle went in. this weekend im going to drain my radiator and fill it again just to be on the safe side, i really appreciate the help thank you.

Well I had a similar problem with my 96 accord. It would overheat...i would check the coolant...put more...and then it would still overheat. Found out later the radiator was done with so we replaced it. Ran fine for a while then it over heated again...replaced the thermostat and hoses and fan switches. Still over heated! After replacing almost everything that had to do with overheating it still overheated. We finally brought it to a shop. They ran some test and said something was wrong with the power flusher??? I think thats wut its called. After that was repaired the problem was solved.

to play it safe pressure test your cooling system make sure you don't have a leak, pressure test your rad cap as well make sure it is ok , also make sure your t-stat opens on time and that your cooling fans come on

Did the engine regulate the temperature? (even if it was slightly higher than normal?)...if so, your engine did not overheat...trust me, if it overheats, you'll know it...the smell of burnt coolant is a distinct and unforgetable sweet smell...and there will most likely be steam of some sort, especially if you removed your radiator cap soon afterwards. Sounds to me like you just need a good flush and refill...(but even in that scenario, flushing it can sometimes knock crap in the system loose which can cause system clogging and overheating...)...the cooling system is a very simple setup, and when the thermostat or water pump go bad, you'll know it without question...