Hey guys, new to the forum. Got my civic about a yr ago and just encountered my 1st problem.

What I have found out:
-Car smoking from fan/radiator when running in parking lot
-Fan does not cycle on
-Direct power to the fan, fan runs
-Unpluged cooling fan switch and shorted, tells me my relay is good
-Car has/does not over heated, drove for about an hr last night
-Upper radiator hose hot when warming up, once up to temp, lower begins cycling coolant and gets hot. tells me thermostat is functioning i believe?
-Cooling fan switch is bad? would this cause smoking fan?

I took out thermostat and cooling fan switch. gunna replace both tomorrow. but what im am puzzled about is the smoke coming from fan/radiator. I have searcehd but havnt found anyone in a similar situation.

Thanks for the help

 

More details? Pictures?

Have you bled the cooling system?

 

Your radiator might be bad and it could be leaking near the fan area hence causing steam when it warms up

 

I will try to get pics in the morning. No I havnt bled the cooling system.

If the radiator was bad wouldn't it overheat relatively quickly, and I don't believe a bad radiator would result in the fan not coming on, would it?

 

Could be a pin hole leak that is allowing air into the cooling system.

 

Could very well be but how does air in the system affect weather the electronic fan cycles on?

 

The fan switch contacts coolant in the thermostat housing. Air in the cooling system can get trapped at high points like the thermostat housing and prevent the switch from properly reading the coolant temperature.