So I went on a 30 mile or so trip and when I arrived at my destination my radiator hose had blown. I changed out the hose and when I drove after a couple miles it over heated. The radiator fan isn’t spinning. I was able to get it back to my house by removing the radiator cap and putting a wet rag over it, refilling with water as needed, and having the heater on full blast. I have been able to drive it around like this until today when I had a chance to work on it. I tested the relay and it clicked when I applied power. When I ran a wire directly from the battery to the radiator fan it started spinning immediately. I also replaced the thermostat sensor. I just removed the thermostat and put it in almost boiling water and it opened at 189 degrees. I don’t know what else to check!

 

Unplug the fan switch on the thermostat housing and then short the 2 pins of the wire harness connector with a paper clip. Turn the key to ON(II). Does the fan run?

 

Yes it spins when I do that.

 

Bleed the cooling system again. There may still be an air pocket trapped in there.

Also drain the water out of the cooling system and replace with 50:50 coolant. Otherwise, your engine will soon die from chemical corrosion.

 

Could the trapped air cause the fan to not spin?

 

Ummm...yes. I generally try not to suggest fixes that are irrelevant to a problem.

 

Since they are cheap I went ahead and got a new thermostat. The guy at the store said all the thermostats for the 98 civic are rated to 170. Now I'll flush and bleed the coolant before I put it in. Thanks for the help.

 

Is the radiator fan supposed to always spin or only when the car heats up? I'm able to drive with the air conditioner on and the radiator cap on, but I still haven't seen the fan spinning.

 

It's suppose to come on to cool the system at certain engine tempetures. So it comes on only when those tempertures are reached.

 

1998 Civic LX: My fan stopped working also. I checked it with a jumper pin and it works fine so I changed out the temp switch and still not working. I recently changed out the radiator and may have a pocket of air but that just seems odd that a pocket of air could cause the fan not to operate.

 

Bleed the cooling system.

 

Thanks RonJ, problem solved. Re-filled the antifreeze and fan works!
Not got to fix the p0113 IAT code that just popped up.