TRU2AU

Hello, I am new on here and kind of slow. Didn't graduate in the top of my class. LOL I have a issue were I am having to put water in my radiator every other day. Steam was coming out of the front of the radiator. Plus at the top that is plastic had a crack in it. I put radiator leak in it and patched the plastic part with automotive goop. I was told I needed to replace the radiator. Everything seems to be doing better. It has been about four days and I have not had to put water in it. I was told I needed to replace the thermostat but I can not locate it. That is how I found this website. Also, it takes awhile for it to blow warm air when I first crank the car. I am in Alabama but it does it cold. LOL Can anyone give me directions on where the thermostat is and how hard of a job is it to replace the radiator? Also, what can be causing the heat to take so long? Thanks for any that you can provide. God Bless! Chris

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

bad thermostat is prolly causing the car not to warm up as fast. its usually in the place where the upper radiator hose connects to the engine. you gotta drain the coolant first then start taking the housing apart. radiator shouldnt be too hard, its just disconnecting all the fittings and putting a new one in. front bumper needs to come off tho.

TheWrightJeep

For an explanation of why it takes your car so long to blow hot air. This is my understand, correct me if I'm wrong please...

To heat up your car, air is blown over a heater core which is similar to a radiator, just a whole lot smaller. To get that hot air off of the heater core, your cars engine must be warmed up. The reason it takes your coolant so long to heat up, like gearbox mentioned, is because of your thermostat. A thermostats main objective is to stop the flow of coolant so the engine can heat up quick. Once the thermostat reads roughly 180F, it opens up allowing coolant to flow through the engine, the heater core, and the radiator. Thermostats have a "fail safe" mode. If a thermostat is defective, it will automatically fail in the open position. This will ensure no over heating problems due to a bad thermostat. Thus why it takes your car so long to heat up.

TheWrightJeep

(clicked the post button on accident)

...Basically, instead of trying to heat up, your engine is trying to cool itself right away as soon as you start your engine.

I hope this helps put a picture in your head on why a bad thermostat causes your car to take so long to heat up!

estridge48

If you're going to replace the radiator and thermostat flush the engine first. Don't make the mistake of putting the thermostat in backwards, I've heard of that being done before. Look at the way the old one is installed and install the new one the same way. Don't and I mean Don't overtighten the bolts or you will crack the thermostat housing. Use Prestone anti-freeze and make a 50/50 mixture which is fine to use where you live. While you're at it you may want to check all the hoses for cracks and brittleness. Now would be a good time to change them if it is needed.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

good info

lelford

i got so much great info from these and other honda forums, that I had to take the time to tell how I solved my overheating problem on my 95 civic.

The temp gauge would be fine until I climbed a hill or put my foot into it, and then it would climb as fast as a tachometer and not come back down.

I was worried about a blown head gasket, so first thing I did was compression test each cylinder and found them all about 150 psi (compression gauge cheap to buy and easy to use). Also inspected the plugs and found no obvious discoloration (from water in cylinder) and no water in oil (makes a creamy pudding-like scum in the oil which is pretty easy to spot.

So why the overheating? Water pump found to be OK after opening the rad cap and watching coolant circulate while looking inside......rev engine a little to see better circ action.

So now I have told myself that I do not have to pull the head, nor do I have to change the water pump. Cool, those are the hardest and most expensive.

Next I bought a new thermostat $10, and changed it to make sure it was not stuck closed and blocking the coolant flow. Thermostat located under a two bolt housing at top end of bottom rad hose. Easy five minute job for nearly anyone. Buy a new gasket and put the new thermostat in the same was as the old one was facing.

Not fixed yet, so what comes next?

I read these forums on the net and discovered something unique to Honda's (from my experience) and that is an "air bleed" valve at the top end (engine end) of the top radiator hose. A little nozzle looking thing which you open to let air bubbles burp out of your cooling system. Air would block things up and not cool well so I followed an air bleed procedure that goes like this......open bleed valve a quarter or half a turn with engine running........air and antifreeze should spit out, and either let it spit or put a small hose (I had a bit of clear hose so I could watch what was coming out) on it to collect the output until it flows without air bubbles. For me that was about a half hour with the engine running, putting the rad cap on to help pressurize the system, and revving the engine slightly to speed up circulation.

(I had my heater turned to "hot" to open the heater core to the cooling system and the fan on high to feel what temperature the air coming out of vents was. (and watch the temp gauge) Heater and system was so full of air that it took twenty minutes blowing nothing but cold air before I even had hot water circulating inside the heater core.

Test drive still had me overheating, except this time I opened up the hood during my test drive and confirmed that my radiator cooling fan was not even coming on........ever. So it was back to the garage to find out why no cooling fan action.

Lots more internet searching, found cooling fan relay location in under hood fuse box, near firewall on passenger side. There are fuses there and mine has three relay boxes. One for inside heater fan, one for air conditioning fan and one for radiator cooling fan. Unplug any of these and move them around, (I did this with car running and heat on and I could identify what each one did and test which relay was good or bad. They are interchangeable so try them all and see if you can find the bad one. (fan still may not come on during this since radiator has to be hot to get it to come on)

I finally had to run two wires directly to my radiator fan (unplug switch on upper left side of radiator and see two wiring connections exposed........touch a ground wire to one and a hot battery wire to another and the fan should come on.........nope........my fan was deader than dead.)

Off to a wrecking yard with my fan shroud.......every yard has tones of old honda's sitting around with these parts and it cost me $50 bucks for a good one. Parts store wanted $130 which would have been fine as well.

Back to install and do another test drive. Still overheating, and still no fan action, so I had to start looking at other items that were failing to turn the fan on. Learned about the fan/temp switch, a small brass fitting with electrical connection, located in the thermostat housing (at the top of the lower rad hose). I used a small jumper wire (you could use a paper clip, and with the key turned on, I "jumped" the two connections on the electrical fitting so it acted as if the switch had just closed........bingo my fan came on big time.

So, back to the wrecker with 7/16 inch wrench and I located two or three of these in old honda's, to remove and take home to try. I could have bot a new one fairly cheaply if I wanted.

While I was scouting the wrecking yard, I noticed a brand new radiator in an old junker, and thought it might be a wise idea to install, as my old rad had terrible rock damage on the cooling fins, blocking the lower half of my air flow.

I picked up the rad for $40 and took it home, to put on with the new fan switch. No idea how to test the fan switch, except to get the car hot and see if the fan comes on, but with the newer rad in it, me temp gauge is now steady like a rock at just below middle of the gauge.

So, looking back, my fan was faulty and not working under any condition......the air bleeding trick was a huge item I would recommend and as far as I am concerned the new radiator made a huge difference in the running temp.

It was (for me) a bit of fun for about three days, trying each item, searching on the net, and trying something else until I had figured out many of the things in the cooling system.

I found the web very, very helpful and that is why I wanted to post my experience here. It sounds as if overheating is pretty common among these honda's and I wanted to give back some of my experience after getting so much good help and advice from others.

happy cooling
email me direct if anyone wants to pose a question
lelford@shaw.ca