I have a problem with my 98 Honda civic hatchback dx. It is overheating and i cannot diagnose the reason. I changed the radiator about 6 months ago because the old one was cracking. I also changed the water pump about 30K miles ago. I have also checked the hoses and theres no crack in them.

Now here is where it gets tricky, i had ruled out the thermostat becuase i had replaced it with a new one and the car still overheated. I finally decided to take it to a shop. They fixed it in less than a day and they said that the problem was the thermostat. I didnt believe them at first but after i picked it up the car ran fine. It ran fine for about 1200 miles until it finally started overheating again. So Im assuing the problem is not the thermostat since i replaced it and also had the shop replace it. The shop also said it wasnt head gaskets because they checked them.

So one of the things i have narrowed it down to is the fan not turning on when the water tempt is rising. any other suggestions?

SOme other info:
*The car was overheating on a cold night right before i was about to get on the freeway. I pulled over and turned the car off. It was dark and i didnt have a flashlight so i just checked the coolant level which was normal. ONce i started the car again the tempt needle went back to normal. THis happened a few times where i would turn the car off and the needle would go back to normal.

THanx

 

flush your coolant system it could be an air bubble in lines..


and try searching

 

is your fan coming on?

 

check your thermostat its probably bad

 

yea man, if your fan is working, i would say just run it direct....you really dont need to flush the coolant to bleed the system for air bubbles, just do it through the bleeder valve thats by the front left of your head....should be a 10mm i believe..

 

I have changed the thermostat twice. once myself and the second time by a shop. i think the fan might be a problem cause ive had the car on idle and with the A/C running and the radiator fan will not turn on, even after the car has been on idle for 5 or so mins. The a/c fan turns on/off with no problem.

how can test to see if maybe the fan has a bad connection or something along those lines?

 

ummm.... may be a bad temp sensor. take a pos and neg. and touch the fans pos and neg. and if it comes on. then the fan is good. for the time being u may just have to rig a switch. untill u kan find the problem so ull be able to safely drive...