Cooling problems.

Okay, I am in the final stages of finishing my civic. Right now I am working on the cooling. I have bought a new OEM replacment radiator, a working fan from the junkyard. So I figured I am ready to go. Well, I plug the fan in, let the car idle, and it will overheat because the fan does not kick on. If I manually hook the fan up to the battery, and turn it on that way. It cools just fine. So, is anyone familiar with how this works, or what I can check? I have a haynes manual, which worthless, and doesnt show, or say anything.

Thanks.

I think I have the same problem kind of. When im moving, my temp needle rest in the middle. However, when I'm sitting at idle for say longer than a few minutes, the temp needle starts going north so i turn on my heater to full blast to get it back down. I dont know if it's my fan or an old thermostat but i recently drained and filled my radiator with new fluids and even put in some water wetter. any sugguestions? I might just have to hard wire the fan like you suggeted.

phordee, did you bleed the cooling system after you refilled it? i didnt on mine and it kept doing what you say happens when sitting still. This ended up costing me my engine, cause i didnt know about the bleed valve for the engine.

if you havent yet, heres where its located:
follow the upper radiator hose to where it ataches to the engine. there you see something you can get a socket over, it also has a hole in the top of it. open it up, fill the cooling system until coolant flows continusly from it then tighten it.

Originally posted by phordee
I think I have the same problem kind of. When im moving, my temp needle rest in the middle. However, when I'm sitting at idle for say longer than a few minutes, the temp needle starts going north so i turn on my heater to full blast to get it back down. I dont know if it's my fan or an old thermostat but i recently drained and filled my radiator with new fluids and even put in some water wetter. any sugguestions? I might just have to hard wire the fan like you suggeted.

If you are idle, and the top hose is not hot, or alot cooler than the bottom hose, your thermostat could be stuck closed.

Does your radiator fan even kick on?

ill figure some stuff out tonight. see if the fan comes on at all and ill try bleeding it too. so ill get back with info thurs. thanks

Cool, I think I may have my problem figured out. Someone said there is a relay for the coolant temp switch? Well, none of my relays are bolted down (thus being grounded) So if they are not grounded, they wont work. :) So I will see if bolting them on will fix it.

Originally posted by kbslacker
So if they are not grounded, they wont work. :) So I will see if bolting them on will fix it.


I was just about to sugest you check all the grounds, relays and fuses.

We had a similar problem at work when put an old EB back together.
ITs an easy mistake to make.

think i figured it out. my fan wasn't comming on. so i checked the relays. as soon as i moved them the fan kicked on. so i took the relays apart cleaned the connections of this white gunk, put it all back together and now the fan wont come on at all. i checked the fuses, even pulled the motor fuse. still no fan. so either I have to hard wire the fan or take it to a shop and have them figure it out. any ideas? or detailed instructions on how to hardwire it? thanks