This car that I purchased is starting to turn into a nightmare. I noticed one day, that after turning the car to the on position that the fan was running. After diving into it, I saw that the previous owner bent a leg on the relay back and put a pc of wire on it and grounded it to the metal.

I took the wire out and bent the relay back to how it should be and everything seemed to be fine. Fan was coming on as normal and no overheating. Well fast forward a week later, I was driving home in traffic and the car kind of sputtered a little and the oil light was flickering a little. I hit the gas and everything seemed fine. I got off the highway 30 mins later and when I was almost home the car ran hot. I immediately pulled over to check it out.

The fan was no longer kicking on and it was like boiling in the reservoir bottle. I touched the top hose and it was extremely hot but the bottom one, not as hot. So I thought ok, thermostat! I opened up the housing and this is what I found:




The bottom portion was gone! Do you all think it melted away? What should I do now?

 

lol wats that it looks gheto riged lmao

 

was your motor used?

 

The previous owner disabled the thermostat, possibly to mask an overheating problem.

 

The motor is the original motor with 157k miles. Usually ppl just take the thermostat out. This in looks as if it was cut or melted. Idk. I'm just wondering if it came apart and if so, what possible damage, or where would it go...

 

they took the center valve out of that thermostat so they still had a gasket to seal.

 

Yep, looks like it was cut with a pair of side cutters.

 

Ok cool. Thanks to everyone. I guess I will change that, the relay, and radiator fan switch and then pray that I don't have a blown head gasket

 

My past two cars have been hack jobs, and im getting very sick of them... It was kind of dark when I bought my em1, but noticed my headlight harnesses have been clipped, some have butt connectors, some are just electrical taped together. My last car was wrecked before I got it, and the ecu fell out on the road during a windy day and my tire ripped it from the harness. Most of my repairs are repairing these jackass's repair jobs. Then I was at mcdonalds in my last car and the previous owner walked up to my car and talked to me and said "I'm surprised its still on the road, it's been a while" My response: "I'm surprised I didn't set it on fire from frustration from fixing your hack jobs" and drove off. f'ing idiots.

 

lol wtf is that?

 

Interesting, we should name this the thermostat inactivation trick or TIT for short

 

everyone needs a tit job then...

 

Changed the thermostat. Bought a new coolant temp switch (one on the housing). Fan comes on fine. But when accelerating hard or going up a hill. The car runs hot and starts to boil out of the reservoir...

I am just about ready to drive this car off of a bridge! Maybe I should do a block test to see if it's the head gasket. Any input on this?

 

Lesson learned -- never buy a car or car parts at night because you will definitely miss a lot of things wrong with it.

 

Check for the presence of exhaust gas in the rad, but yeah most likely it's a blown headgasket. You never did state exactly what you have for a car/engine, but if it's a D15B7/D15B8 seriously consider another engine if it needs a headgasket.

 

No the engine is a d16y8. Car is a '98 civic EX. As for the post about buying at night. I did not buy at night. The guy drove like an hr too meet me. Didn't pay attention to the fan because of that. And I did not check fuses. I would have seen the grounded out fan relay. I guess u live and learn. Thats the first time I've ever been ripped in the past 12yrs of buying cars...

Any info or pics on how to do a block test? I have the tools at work, just want to something to go by before I just jump into it

 

I don't mean to thread-jack, but I'm curious as to why you say to consider a new engine if its got a B7 or B8? Reason I ask is because I have a B8 in my car and this would be some helpful info to know.

 

It's about the same price for a headgasket repair or a new engine. Both usually run about $500.

 

because b7/b8's are crap engines, and not worth fixing. op: you have a bad headgasket.

 

Once they blow a headgasket once they're never the same again, you can count on replacing headgaskets every 6 months to a year after indefinitely. They also have a nasty tendency to burn oil after replacing a headgasket for whatever reason even if the engine seemed ok before.

 

Good to know, thanks for the reply.