well, i flushed the radiator, replaced the tstat with a 170 degree one to make fan turn on at lower temp and replaced the fan swtich sensor and temp sensor. the fan turns on, but not till its way hot. the temp rises really high when im at idle for a while like in traffic. i turn the AC on and it cools the motor because both fans are on and the tem needle never goes high with the ac on. any ideas why that happens?? could the low temp tstat be the cause?? i had a 199 degree in there before, and it didnt heat up as fast, but i wanted to fun to kick in sooner. is the lower temp tstat making the temp guage rise faster?

 

btw, this is a 93 accord dx with 95 jdm h22. all the parts im referring to are for h22, but they are all interchangeable b/c of the 2.2 platform of accord. ive already double checked with the parts stores.

 

bump

 

bleed your radiator (from the bleed on the t-stat housing) and wait 2 days then see what happens. sounds stupid, right? it fixed my 2-year-problem that sounds exact to yours, and i tried the exact same fixes you had tried. and random assumptions: your mixture is right and your rad. cap is ok...

 

yea, i was thinkin about bleeding it. the mixture is 50/50 and cap is fine. ill give that a try.

 

it has no rhyme or reason to it -- but after i bled it, it still overheated for 2 days - but has been fine since then. doesn't make much sense but it worked for me, hope it does for you too!

 

just finished bleeding the radiator for about 45 minutes with these instructions:

Once the coolant reaches the base of the filler neck, run the engine with the heater slider set to HOT. Continue to run the engine until it fully warms up and the radiator fan comes on. The upper radiator hose will also become hot. After this the coolant level in the radiator should have dropped since the thermostat opens and allows coolant into the block and the heater core. Shut off the engine, and continue to fill the radiator until it get to the base of the filler neck.

Locate the bleed bolt where the upper radiator hose attaches to the cylinder head. Loosen this bolt and let the coolant flow out until it flows out steady w/o bubbles. Squeeze the upper radiator hose to help get any remaining air out of the system. Continue squeezing the upper hose until no more bubbles come up at the base of the filler neck, and continue to add coolant as necessary to keep the level at the base of the filler neck.

Remove and wash out the coolant overflow tank, fill it to the proper level, and you're done!

the car didnt once go high in temp even though it idled there forever which is a good sign i guess. i added about 1/8 of the bottle of radiator mixture so im guessing a good amount of air went out of the system because there were bubbles for a while. hope this works, but i think that may have been the problem. thanks for the suggestion and ideas.