my car overheats with normal driving conditions. here are the symptoms and solutions ive tried so far

switched thermostat 2 times, changed ect sensor, ran car with no front bumper, let the car idle with no radiator cap and got the bubbles out.

car starts to overheat, upper hose is hot, lower hose is cold and fan does not turn on a all. it doesnt blow smoke so i dont think its the headgasket.

i have been thinking of running no thermostat and hard wire my fan to stay on but i want the car to run at normal operating temperature because i heard its not good to run the car too cold.

i really dont want to take it to a mechanic

 

oh yeah, how is it physically possible for the top hose to be hottt and the bottom hose to be cold and all that is seperating is a small half size eg radiator with a fan that doesnt even turn on?

 

you might have a blocked radiator, its quite common if you mix coolants. the fan not working wont make the bottom hose be cold, but do try fix it. check fuses first then go from there. check to see if the fan works, by hard wiring it to the battery, if it still doesnt work its probably the fan speed switch

 

bump

 

the rad could be clogged, but what are you basing your overheating on? meaning what kind of gauge are you using and at what temp are you saying its overheating, If you are just using the stock honda one in the cluster it is very inaccurate, the sender can go bad, I had one say it was barely warm when I was at 200 degrees, I assume it can go the other way as well. swap out the sender and try a different cluster or the easiest would be to get a autometer mechanical water temp gauge if you are basing the reading off the stock honda unit

 

i already changed that sensor.

 

if the upper hose is hot and the lower is cold(i mean cold or luke warm, not just not as hot as the top) the radiator is clogged, replace it...then move on to why your fan isnt kicking on, hard wire it to the battery, if it works than its not the fan motor....could be a relay, fuse, bad wiring. also was the car ever hit on the rf corner. mine was and the body shop that fixed it, ran a screw into the harness and it shorted out my inside blower,and my cooling fan.....

on a side note mixing different coolants will not gum up. that is an urban myth. coolants come in 2 main different types- ioat (inorganic additive. ie dexcool, red stuff, ford yellow, and now honda blue) and oat(organic additive ie ethylene glycol,greenstuff).the organic additives get used up quicker and thats why you have toflush it more often. if you mix the 2 you just take on the properties of the coolant that uses up its additives quicker, the greenstuff...i dont know where this rumor came from but i suspect it has to do with the gm 3.1, 3.4, 3.8 motor series that are notoriously bad for lower intake leaks and causing the oil and coolant to end up looking like a milkshake....wiping the bearings out...and yes i am an ase certified mechanic but if you dont believe me google it


Modified by srmofo at 10:20 PM 7/30/2008