indecks

Hello there. I have determined that my cooling fan is burned out in my 2002 civic EX. I know I need to replace it, but I can't for the life of me find a tutorial on how to do it. I'm a novice mechanic, if you can even call me that. I can replace sparkplugs, air filters, etc but not swap a transmission or timing belt, and things like that.

I've found a few vids on youtube on how to replace the fan in a YearX to YearZ ACCORD, but nothing on a 2002 civic. My father in law is a mechanic, who lives in another city, so he can't really pop by to do this for me, so I'd like to see about tackling it myself. He told me that the bumper, radiator, and all kinds of extra parts need to be removed in order to get to the fan. But looking into my engine, it almost looks like I can get to it and do it myself. I found a question on one of those Ask/Yahoo answers type sites that had the same question as me, and the only response was "unscrew, unplug, remove, replace, replug, rescrew" which wasn't very helpful.

Does anyone know if this is something that can be done without dismantling the front end of the vehicle? And if so, would you be able to provide a few of the steps to get me started?

Thanks for any of your help.

indecks

anyone?

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

Here is the radiator & fan procedure hth.

Do you need the condensor fan section as well ??

indecks

Hi Craig, thanks for that. As far as I can tell, the condensor fan is working just fine. It's just my radiator fan. I was able to find a Honda Service/Maintenance manual online (might have been from this forum, not sure) and I've got pretty much the same image as you do here.

But my question is whether or not the fan can be removed without removing the bumper, the lower shroud, or even the radiator in general. It's just my fan that needs to be swapped. Is there any way to just remove the fan without having to drain coolant, etc?

ezone

I was staring at this post for a while.....
I think there isn't enough room to just pull a fan without making the radiator lean forward.
I don't seem to do this often enough to remember, nor do I have a car handy to look at.

The bumper cover can be off in about 5 minutes in the shop.

indecks

So just an update on what I had to do. I decided to brave the unknown, and try the repair myself. Rather than spend $150 or so at Pepboys (not including the fan) I bought a floor jack, and some jack stands.

When I resigned myself to having to remove the radiator, I started looking up radiator replacement vids on Youtube. I found one for a 2001 Civic (still 7th gen like mine) and checked it out. I honestly can't remember now if he ended up taking off the bumper cover, etc. But I do remember he removed two shrouds. One in front of the hood latch, and the other down below. About half way into his 2nd part (3 part vid) he just took the fan out. Came out super easy! I figured well hell I can do that! So I went to it.

Jacked up the car and put it on some jackstands. I'm a heavy guy so I needed the extra clearance, lol. After this, I removed both shrouds and only destroyed 3 or 4 of the grommets, while having to remove the hood latch for ease of space. Once I drained the radiator, I removed the battery and it's mount, which was held fast by 4 1/2" bolts. After this, I removed the coolant reservoir and moved it off to the side. I disconnected the top radiator hose (from the radiators end, not the block) and moving it off to the side, taking care not to crimp or kink it. Removed the bolts holding the fan and moved it up and to the left (toward the battery area) and taking care not to hit any of the fins on the radiator. A little pushing and moving were required, but I was able to remove the fan without issue. Installed the new fan by reversing my steps, and put it all back together. Filled with coolant, ran for idle until the fan came on a couple times. Let it sit, checked coolant level, added more, idled for a bit, cooled, checked levels, and then drove it around for about a half hour. No over heating, fans came on when needed, and checked levels when I got home and cooled.

Car's runnin like a champ.

Agent X

This is encouraging! How long did it take you start to finish? And for the amount of labor put in was it really worth the cost savings? (I definitely want to do it myself but Texas heat has been ~106 degrees on bad days and I only have a covered spot at an apartment complex...)

indecks

Where in Texas are you from? I'm right outside of Austin, in Cedar Park. Small world, eh? Incidentally, the weather's actually been pretty tame the last couple of weeks, surprisingly!

Anyway, if you want to get technical, it took me about 5 hours. But that's only because I started at around 7Pm the night before and ran out of daylight around 8:30. Then I started again the next morning around 9.30AM, and finished up about 1PM. And this is a first time experience for me, so as far as Im concerned it didn't take too long, for me anyway. As far as cost effectiveness, I definitely think it was worth the cost. Plus I gained some experience, and I have tools that will help me replace my brakes, change my oil, and many other things.

Matt_75

FYI...It is possible to remove the radiator fan with only removing the battery, battery support, coolant reservoir and the upper radiator hose. I think there was a ground wire as well.

This was done on my 02 civic EX with a short ram installed. I can't remember if the resonator box would be in the way or not. I don't think it would be.

Zarajohn

Hello,
Testing the radiator fan motor on your Honda Civic, to see if it's bad and causing your Civic to overheat, is not difficult.
There are several ways of testing the radiator fan motor.
Thanks
Zarajohn@

StealthMike

Hello guys,

I am new here, but wanted to share my fan experience with you. I was able to change my 2003 Civic LX 1.7L radiator fan without draining the coolant or doing any major work. Hope this helps someone. See below:

Changing the radiator fan on 2003 Honda Civic LX 1.7 ltr auto

Disconnect the battery (both terminals)
Remove the battery cover
Remove bracket and remove the battery
Remove the plastic tray for battery
Disconnect the ground wire from the engine that goes to the front frame
Tie back the upper radiator hose with tie wraps (to the right side facing the engine)
Disconnect the harness for the battery from the metal tang on the battery metal tray
Remove the 12mm bolts (2) that hold down the metal battery tray
Reach under and loosen the two 12mm bolts that hold the battery tray lower mount
Pull battery tray out
Tie wiring harness for battery cables to throttle cable with tie wraps if needed
Remove upper bolt for coolant reservoir (leave hose connected)
Slide it out of the slot in fan lower bracket and set aside (hose will need to be pulled out of the plastic brackets on the side)
Remove the two 10mm bolts that hold fan in at top
Disconnect fan quick disconnect plug
Slide fan up and out of the holes at bottom mount
Carefully move fan to the left and out of engine compartment area while moving the upper and lower radiator hoses and wiring harnesses as needed
Installation is basically the reverse of the removal steps. Start the engine and run the AC to full cold. The fan should automatically run when the AC is engaged. If the small hose was disconnected for the reservoir, then do a leak check of the hose.

5.0Thunder

Lol I didn't read much of this thread but saw people talking about dismantling the front end. It only requires removal of the battery and coolant reservoir to slip the guy out of there and replace.

Newbies: don't be concerned, this one is a breeze.

2005-civic-vp

Bringing back thread because I can't get driver side radiator fan out using the steps mentioned above. What is the trick?

Colin42

Pull the rad

2005-civic-vp

Pull the rad? Not necessary at all. I did figure out if you remove bumper cover, radiator + a/c condenser support brackets, you can tilt the condenser + radiator forward enough so there's clearance for driver side fan to come out. But that's a pita way to do it so wondering if anybody has an easier method.. Btw passenger side radiator comes out with only removing battery + upper radiator hose so that one does come out fairly easy.