I'm pretty sure it's working because I will be driving on the freeway
and the temp gage drops quickly
When I lift the hood though the fan is not running? How do I know if the electonic thermostat kicking in and all that?
I would like to see it for myself
Thanks


Modified by niceguy12 at 10:39 PM 5/2/2005

 

First off, if your driving on the highway and your not stuck in traffic, you will will almost never kick on. The fan only kicks on when your stuck in traffic. ( unless you have a weird heating problem )

Second, are thermostats are not electronically controlled. They spring open by a spring.

One way to test the thermostat is to let the car warm up and grab the bottom of the radiator hose, if its cold it can be stock closed. But if your engine takes awhile to heat up and cools down really fast, it could be stuck open.

Turn on your heat and feel if hot air is coming out, that's another good way to tell.

You can hook your battery up to your fan and see if it comes on, if it does then the fan works. But that still does not mean it works when your driving, there could be a wiring problem or a sensor problem.

 

"thermostats are not electronically controlled. They spring open by a spring"
I know but what controls the fan isn't it some kind of a thermostat too

"If your engine takes awhile to heat up and cools down really fast, it could be stuck open"
While I'm driving on the freeway it does cool down fast then I get off the freeway and the temp moves back up. What is considered "a while" to heat up?

"Turn on your heat and feel if hot air is coming out, that's another good way to tell"
What is that supposed to tell me?

"You can hook your battery up to your fan and see if it comes on,"
How do I do that ?

Thanks

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by niceguy12 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">"You can hook your battery up to your fan and see if it comes on,"
How do I do that ?

Thanks </TD></TR></TABLE>

You can either take your car battery or even a small 9 volt battery and just do this: Unplug your fan from the harness. Get two short lengths of wire and twist it and insert them into each socket on the radiator fan plug. For the other end of the wire touch them to the positive and negative terminal of your battery.

This is what I did when I tested my fan when it was out of the car. I just took a 9V battery stuck two wires on each terminal, and held it down with my thumb. Then I touched the other end to the fans positive and negative terminal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by niceguy12 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
"thermostats are not electronically controlled. They spring open by a spring"
I know but what controls the fan isn't it some kind of a thermostat too

"If your engine takes awhile to heat up and cools down really fast, it could be stuck open"
While I'm driving on the freeway it does cool down fast then I get off the freeway and the temp moves back up. What is considered "a while" to heat up?

"Turn on your heat and feel if hot air is coming out, that's another good way to tell"
What is that supposed to tell me?

"You can hook your battery up to your fan and see if it comes on,"
How do I do that ?

Thanks
</TD></TR></TABLE>

1. There is a sensor on the back of the block

2. My cars fan never kicks on, but I know my thermostat works, on colder days, it will never reach operating temps until I drive. So I would say 2 to 5 mins after you first start to drive. But let it just sit for about 2 to 5 mins, the temp gauge should alteast start to move. Once again it depends on the weather though.

3. If you have hot air blowing at you, then you know your thermostat is working correctly. If your thermostat was stuck closed, the air would be warm. If it was stuck open, the coolant would flow to fast and the air would be cool.

4. Hook it up to your battery, run wire to it, use paper clips and it should kick on.

 

Here is what is happening
On the first drive of the day I can drive for quite awhile and the temp gauge does not register but the heater blows hot air. I stop for a while and when I start up again the gauge shows some heat.

If I drive for a longer while on the freeway 55 or so the gauge will go about midway and eventually drop all the way to almost nothing . I assume that means the thermostat is kicking in

Not sure if this is normal or not
One thing I should mention is I just put a new two row radiator in

 

Really does not sound like you have a problem.

Test you fan to make sure it works, and if you wanted to you could test the sensor to make sure thats working.

 

try this, take those to wires on the ECT by the oil filter, and with the cars ignition in the ON postion, jump them with a paperclip, it will cause both your fans to kick on, if they do, then its probly your ECT, BUT when your ect does go bad it will throw a ECU code. so check your ECU for that blinking LED.


if they dont turn on, check your Rad solinoid switch. you need a multimeter for these things. search on honda-tech itle show you how to test them.

 

first of all, some great info in this thread.

in the two pin harness going to the fan youll see a blue wire. run a temporary jumper wire from the neg battery terminal to that while the key is in the on position.

if you fan comes on, congratulations, your fan is fine.

if it doesnt come on, check the fuses. if the rad fan fuse is ok and you ground the blue wire and nothing from the fan, then replace it.

next, turn the car on, with the hood open while watching it, wait for the fan to come on.

after it reaches normal operating temperature, in 3-5 minutes of idling on a luke warm day the fan should kick on. if it does, congratulations, the fan sending unit on the block is fine. if you live in alaska it will take longer since the block will stay cooler longer which is what determines when that fan comes on.

the last part of the system is the relay thats turned on by the fan sender, which sends the ground to your fan. this is almost never the culprit, but if you really cant get it going, try that last, its available at the dealer.

as far as thermostats go, theres tons of posts on honda-tech about them. at no point when your driving on the hyway should the temp guage "suddenly go down"

if this happens you actually have too good a cooling system for the engine itself, or the actual thermosensor on the block (single yellow wire with green stripe) that goes to your guage cluster is malfunctioning OR the wire between it and the cluster has a partial open in the wire, which can lead to intermittent inacuracy of your temp guage.

what engine do you have in the car? b series?

why did you upgrade the rad?

 

good info !!!!!!!!!!!

i ma check on it after i take a dump..