Hey guys so I'm newer to this forum . Been away for a few but pretty good with Hondas. But I have a 99 civic d16y8 and I bought bout a month ago and notice temp gauge get hot. Also heater somewhat takes a good 15-20 min sometimes to warm up inside. Also I noticed radiator fan wasn't turning on. So I did the basics, thermostat, new radiator fan switch (still doesn't trigger fan but jumped from plug and worked idk so have hooked to switch) also aluminum radiator new hoses, flushed radiator, and still can't seem to figure it out. Now I just put new rad in today and filled drive 5-7 miles no issues , then left and 1-3 miles needle got close to H. So of course I panick and no steam and no bad signs visually. Again heater took a few to start blowing hot. But again once at H for a few min when heater work good still kinda stays up. So I pulled over open rad cap slowly and let a little pressure out maybe 30 seconds and cap off put a quart of water and drove 2 miles home needle was fine. So what can it be? Rad temp switch? Heater core? Water pump? (Although no leak) , head gasket? ( oil changed showed no milky fluid to so nothing there) anyhow please share any knowledge or suggestions. Thanks for your help glad to be back on here

 

Did you check that there is no breaks in the wiring?

 

Yes I used paper clip at plug and fan kicks on. But replaced fan switch and still doesn't turn on. But even if it did while fans runs gauge still showing 3/4 way hot even all way to H. And the inside heat is cool def not warm or hot, but minutes later will notice heat and gauge starts slowly going down but once close to H doesn't go back to middle. So I'm super confused. No anti freeze leaks nothing.

 

water pump! no ifs about it!

 

Lol alright I'm def not a man to question any ideas or input. So more of FYI I'm curious as it is water pump don't the water pump normally leak? I remember have a bad one and leaked bad. So when I do pump do belt as we'll correct?

 

Also when gauge showing it's close to H it is accurate then I take it? And do you guys reccomend water temp gauge?

 

So I spoke to my brother and he told me could be water pump but he looked at it and said he is 70% sure on head gasket? Any takes?

 

Water pump doesn't have to leak to fail, a blade could've corrode off or the fan blade itself isn't spinning along with the timing gear. your thermostat could also not be allowing the cycle of fresh cooled fluids into the motor

 

Yah I have just decided to do it all. Replacing head gasket valve cover , tb, wp, tension, crank gask, and all the other. The whole deal like 130-150$ and I'll be putting in with help from brother.

 

sounds very much like my headgasket... i could turn on the heat inside car and get temp back down quickly. next time you do any driving check to see the fluid level in reservoir tank, drive a little- you don't even have to get it hot... leave heater running if you have to do that to keep engine cool. When you get back after a short trip, maybe 10-15 minutes... check that reservoir tank again. ... is there any water missing? is there more in there than before??

when my headgasket was going (ever so slowly) the pressure in the system never allowed my radiator to suck the water back from the reservoir. I kept filling the radiator never realizing that was where most of my fluid was going- some was mixing in and burning off but that was the majority of "missing" coolant from rad. As soon as I fixed my headgasket and came home from first spin the coolant was sucked back up from reservoir the way it's supposed to.
I didn't have "milky" oil either... there was a little in the res tank floating on surface of anti freeze but mostly coating sides of tank. Every couple of weeks there would be a tiny dab of cream colored jelly on the oil cap so I knew it was definitely that. To make it survive til I could get to the head job I "burped" the car as I called it after every trip by opening the rad cap and letting out extra pressure, refilling radiator from the reservoir myself and adding/draining oil so I wouldn't lose a lot of lubrication in there.

Good luck my friend!

 

When the needle got hot, park it and let it cool down. Once the car cools down check to see if you lost any fluid. Thats something you didn't tell us. In fact you don't even have to warm you car up. When cold just check fluids and see if its low. If its low, check around for coolant leaks on all related hoses including heater hoses. If no leaks and you are losing fluid than your head gasket could be the culprit.