Problem With Car Temp
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 805
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From: Miami, FL
Problem With Car Temp
dont know if this happens to anyone else, but my when at idle for a long ime stuck in traffic, the temp starts to skyrocket. we're talking about 30-40 minutes of traffic at like 2mph. when i rev the engine, it cools down immediately. when i start to drive, it cools down. i have replaced the thermostat and gasket with OEM parts, and flushed the radiator. cant figure out why it does that. this happens every once in a while. any ideas?
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 453
Likes: 1
From: Bostic, NC
Re: Problem With Car Temp (scrubachu)
Sounds identical to what mine used to do. Almost everytime I got stuck in heavy traffic the temp would start to climb. I just turned the heater on high and it cooled down right away. But I traced the problem to this:
Notice the 3 burnt/melted diodes just to the right of the black plug. I couldn't figure out why my fans wouldn't come on when they were supposed to even after I replaced the temp sensor and all that jazz. Sometimes the small A/C fan would come on and it wouldn't get hot, and sometimes the fan wouldn't come on and it would get hot (had a mind of it's own, lol). The large fan would NEVER come on. Finally decided to check the fan timer/control unit under the seat, and that's what I found. Replaced it with another one from the junkyard, and replaced the 2 sensors in the thermostat housing while I was at it, and both fans work perfectly now. I can let it sit and idle for as long as I want and the temp doesn't budge one bit, so problem solved.
Just a thought
Notice the 3 burnt/melted diodes just to the right of the black plug. I couldn't figure out why my fans wouldn't come on when they were supposed to even after I replaced the temp sensor and all that jazz. Sometimes the small A/C fan would come on and it wouldn't get hot, and sometimes the fan wouldn't come on and it would get hot (had a mind of it's own, lol). The large fan would NEVER come on. Finally decided to check the fan timer/control unit under the seat, and that's what I found. Replaced it with another one from the junkyard, and replaced the 2 sensors in the thermostat housing while I was at it, and both fans work perfectly now. I can let it sit and idle for as long as I want and the temp doesn't budge one bit, so problem solved.
Just a thought
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 311
Likes: 0
From: terre haute, IN, USA
Re: Problem With Car Temp (89_LXi)
you can check that out or test your water pump. in my car the water pump was slowly dying so it would overheat sitting, but was fine on the highway, until one day it went completely on the highway and got too hot and warped my head and killed the car completely. let the car idle nad listen if the fans are still kicking on then it's probably your water pump dying. and while you've got it all stripped apart like that might as well change the timing belt too.
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