Hey all,

The other day I noticed some white smoke coming from under my hood (95 civic coupe, manual), and upon examination I looked and saw a large crack on the top of the radiator. I drove home and quickly noticed that I my temperature guage was high. I got home and didn't drive again. I ordered an aftermarket radiator and quickly installed it, as well as replaced all the hoses. I reconnected everything and filled the radiator with new coolant, making sure to bleed the fluid out the bleed valve.

Here are is my problem:
When I started the car, I waited to see if the radiator fan would cut on, but it never did. I even revved the engine, drove around for a bit, and still no fan. I touched the radiator hoses and they were hot (both upper and lower). I didn't touch the radiator itself so didn't feel if that was hot. I looked inside and the temp guage was barely half. There were no kinks in the hoses and I reconnected the electric wires for the fan (which I did not replace but moved from the old radiator to the new one).

Here are my questions:
-Why doesn't my fan come on???
-Is my fan broken, which would have caused my radiator to break?
-Is my thermostat clogged or messed up? Could it have been damaged during my overheat?
-My radiator has connections for automatic transmission hoses, but I asked the guy and he said that I shouldn't worry about leaks, and I haven't noticed any. Is this right?
-Please help, I don't know what to do!

Thanks!

 

Run the AC, do fans turn on? If yes, then the fan switch must be bad because it is not activating the fan when the engine reaches a certain temperature.

You can also test the fan switch by unplugging it and jumping it with a paperclip to see if they turn on.

 

could be the thermostat is stuck closed
or the water pump went out on you

had same prob (w/o rad crack) turned out water pump was bad
you could try taking out the thermostat completely until u can get a new 1 (if thermo)

if this dosent work then it is your wp

if fan motor works at all you could straight rig it up to a circut that is constantly on, you will run really cool if you do this.......

 

I'm having the same problem. What kind of a radiator did you buy? I just changed my timing belt and water pump this weekend. Also check the radiator when the car warms up. Check the top and the bottom make sure that both are work if not then it might be your radiator. On my the top of the rad warms up and the bottom stays cool. I changed by fan switch, thermostat, water temp and my water pump but I'm still having the problem. Today I'm changing my radiator back to stop to see if that's the problem.

 

Hey all,

Thanks for your responses.

Re: Jedi - Yes, my A/C fan does turn on when I run the A/C, so does that mean my radiator fan switch is bad? I'll try and jump it when I get home (I assume this means connecting the contacts with a paper clip).

Re: Slava - I bought one off of radiators.com, i think it starts with a "K," like I said, the guy said its for both auto and manual, but I was kinda skeptical; it fits perfectly though besides the two ATC hose connections that aren't hooked up to anything. What did you mean about checking the bottom and top of the radiator? Did you mean check the temperature of the radiators themselves? Or just the hoses?

Thanks again, guys!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TC21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey all,

Thanks for your responses.

Re: Jedi - Yes, my A/C fan does turn on when I run the A/C, so does that mean my radiator fan switch is bad? I'll try and jump it when I get home (I assume this means connecting the contacts with a paper clip).

Re: Slava - I bought one off of radiators.com, i think it starts with a "K," like I said, the guy said its for both auto and manual, but I was kinda skeptical; it fits perfectly though besides the two ATC hose connections that aren't hooked up to anything. What did you mean about checking the bottom and top of the radiator? Did you mean check the temperature of the radiators themselves? Or just the hoses?

Thanks again, guys!</TD></TR></TABLE>


Pretty much worm the car up and check the top of the radiator and the bottom, usually they should be the same temperatu. On mine the top is very hot and the bottom is cold, usually temperature.

 

replace your thermostat its cheap and its good to have it replaced even if its not the problem

 

Ok, so I ran my car for about 5 minutes and felt the radiator, and it felt cool. I felt the upper hose and it got pretty hot fast, but I felt the lower tube and it wasn't as hot, if it was even hot at all. I used a paper clip to try and start the fan, but I have a feeling I was doing it wrong because the fan didn't come on (I disconnected the wire attachment and connected the two metal prongs of the wire connector that is actually on the fan shroud).

So what is the thermostat, exactly? Is that what the lower radiator hose feeds into? Does it tell the fan when to come on? How much would one cost me and is it hard to replace myself? How do I know that this is the problem? Do I need to test if my fan is still working, and if I do, how (details, please)?

BTW, it's a Koyo radiator.

 

Answer to your problems? Searchy searchy..

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1424191

 

try replacing thermostat.