My 92 civic hatch keeps overheating. However sometimes it doesnt. I've changed the radiator, the hoses and the thermostat. I believe the issue is the radiator fan is not turning on. This seams to be a common problem with civics. I was tinkering around with it the other day trying to figure it out. I let the car warm up to normal operating temperature and than drove it around the block a few times. I pulled back to my house popped the hood and everything seemed fine. Both the upper and lower radiator hoses were hot so the thermostat was working properly. However when the thermostat opens doesnt the fan kick in for a little bit to cool down the radiator? I began wiggling the radiator fan connector that goes directly to the fan. The fan turned on for a moment. Is it purely coincidence or is it a bad connection with terminal? A good mechanic would always assume something like that is coincidental before actually testing the theory. Im not sure what to do at this point. I could change the connection by cutting of the connector and directly connecting the wires to the radiator. Or not. What should I do?

 

if you have ac then turn your ac on, it should kick the fans on their for testing the connection for you.
adam jeffery

 

Yes But the problem with that is that the 92 civic had a seperate radiator and ac fan. So unfortunately that wouldnt work.

 

the connector is possibly at fault so i would try using some electrical contact grease. worse comes to worse cut off the old connector and wire in a new one, or hardwire it.

to test the coolant fan switch all you need to do is jump the terminals in the connector that plug into said switch. the fan should now kick on. if it doesn't, then either the wiring or fan relay is at fault. if it does kick on that would tell you the switch in the thermostat is bad. so all you need to do is replace it

 

Start by bleeding the cooling system:

(This procedure may take 20-30 minutes)

1) Park the car on an inclined driveway with the front end higher than the rear.

2) Push the dash heater lever/**** to MAX heat.

3) Follow the directions in the diagram below (hint: the bleed bolt is located where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine):

 

Ive already Bled the cooiling system everything with that is fine. I see so how exactly do i jump the terminal?

 

the best thing to do is go to a part store and buy some male and female connector ends, cut the wires and crimp the male and female ends on the and it would be smart to get some heat shrink and heat shrink over the connectors where the crimp is, its good to do this because you can still unplug the wire from each other instead of cutting them every time you have to remove the fan, you should also try replacing you radiator cap, if it does not hold pressure the coolant will boil at a lower temperature causing the car to overheat, it is a common problem that is hard to catch if you dont know about it.

 

Haha yes when I installed the radiator I took care of the connector ends. I ran a pressure test and everything seemed fine. It lost a slight pinch of pressure after 15 minutes so it seemed just fine. I suppose i could try replacing the cap even though the pressure test went well.