My accord just suddenly started overheating. It seems to have enough fluid in the radiator. What is the main cause of this if anyone knows?

 

Possibly a sensor is disconnected, or a short in the circuit.. Do you have any dash lights on, or check engine light??

 

I know the check engine light is on, but I was told that it is on because of the O2 Sensor.

 

thermostat could have gone out...usually the most common problem, and is about a 15$ fix and 30 minutes for a first-timer, if that...

 

Thermostat, clogged radiator, fan switched polarity reversed, collapsed radiator hose, radiator cap. Any of those but, the thermostat is most likely the culprit. When the engine gets up to operating temperature the thermostat is just not engaging, so the engine continues to heat up because the coolant is not being sent through the block. Good luck bro.

 

Don't you have to drain all of the coolant to perform this task? If so, for a noob like me probably 2 hours.

 

Thanks guys, I'll take a look asap.

 

oh yeah, forgot about the draining coolant thing...

ok, so correction: about a 23.85$ fix (if you don't have a suitable drain pain, don't use a kitchen one if you plan on cooking a roast that night, or ever) and, depending on how adept you are on draining a radiator, 45min-2 and a half hours lol

my apologies

 

Why did no one ask if the fans even come on? Those motors DO burn out and will cause overheating if they don't work.

 

Well i mentioned the fans running in reverse, but good call on the broken fans.

 

I had this problem with my 90, even replaced the thermostat. Didn't work. But I bought a warm weather thermostat (auto Zone) and it went away. I was putting in cold weather thermostats and it was over heating. You probably have an out Pump or something. If the AC and power steering is working then it's not a belt issue, rather a pump failure.

I doubt it's a fan. It's my opinion that that car would run normal temps with no fans sitting in one spot. I actually ran mine for a while with out a fan and nothing happened. Cooled normally.

Thermostat, Pump. Or belt.

 

Incorrect on motor running at normal temp with no fans. Why do you think they come on intermittently? The motor heats up hits a certain temp, fans kick on and the the motor cools off. Now remove the fans from the above equation and what happens? Motor heats up, keeps heating up, etc. While not noticeable on the highway due to the volume of air going through, at lower speeds and cruising around town you will notice a significant increase.

 

I just changed my thermostat cause my car was overheating and I saw that the water wasn't circulating, it's a fairly easy job. One thing I wanna point out and this might seem elementary but there's a small ground cable that attaches to the lower thermostat housing bolt, as there are three bolts total on the housing. Myself, when I took off the lower bolt didn't see that there was a small ground cable coming off a wiring harness that attaches to the side wall just above the battery cable. Or maybe I just forgot that I had detached it. Anyway, when I put the housing back on after installing the thermostat and gaskets the small cable actually got caught in the seal and I had a leak. I just wanna point that out cause when I took it apart to find the leak that sprung I saw it and moved it out of the way. Then when I tried starting the car it wouldn't start until I realized that that ground cable I moved out of the way was supposed to be attached onto the lower housing bolt. lol The car won't start without that cable attached to a ground it appears.