I had just figured out that my car starts to over heat after being driven for a while then comming to a stop in traffic. it will cool down once I start driving which i am assuming it means the fans are not turning on. Any ideas of what it could be? Also im pretty sure the fans are working and the thermostat and water pump is only 1 year old. ANy help will be greatly appreciated. I am thinking it may be the relay for the fan that kicks it on or off. If so anyone know where it is so i can check it?. Thank again :shy: .
i’m experiencing that too. after cruising at abt 70mph on the highway for a while, i’ll see the temp rise if i slow down to a crawl/stop due to traffic. worst that has happened is it reached the 3/4 mark. freaked me out the first time it happened on a hot day this summer on i90. nv happened to me when i’m in slow traffic/local roads.
imho, its likely to be a sticky thermostat. what i do is when i see traffic slowing down ahead is i immediately shift to neutral and turn off a/c. i’m amazed how effective this turned out to be. i suspect shifting to neutral is the big factor in preventing it.
Well as for mine my ac is not on and it cools down when i turn the heat on! But I sweat my ass off. I am most likely thinking it is the fan that supposed to turn on when it gets a little hot cause when i start to drive again it cools down. Im assuming the therrmostat is open but there is no air to cool off the antifreeze which inturn heats up . Anyone care to comment on this theory?
make sure you thermostat is working properly (those are known to go bad on hondas randomly) but since yours in only a year old, most likely not.
you could start your teg with the radiator cap off… let it get to driving temp… and the thermostat should open up and you should start to see some coolant flowing by…
make sure your coolant/water level is okay.
also, do you notice any coolant/fluid drips under your car when you park? recently i had one hose leak on me and i lost a lot of my coolant and i was having overheating problems too…
Ok coolant passes through but fans dont turn on. Would fans not turning on cause the car to start overheating??? I know stupid question but you never know. If it is im assuming its the relay because the fan is pretty new. Any suggestions??
The best thermostat for a honda is an OEM HONDA thermostat, I found that out after changing two in my car, the first one went bad within a couple of weeks and the next one month later, the spring in the aftermarket is much thinner then the Honda one. If your temperature changes when your car is sitting still then when you’re driving, it most definetely is your thermostat. They do mislabel them, rarely though, but they could’ve given you from another vehicle, a civic ar crx, something with a smaller engine, where the spring is thinner, That really does make a difference.
Hope that helps
Andy
i did get a colder running one which is why am wondering how could it be the thermostat. First off When driving at highway speeds the cars temp can drop below normal due to the colder running thermostat. If it was the thermostat driving it would not matter due to the water and coolant not circulating while driving which would cause the water in the block to over heat while driving. I have had the thermostat fial before and that is what happend. Since the thermostat wasnt open it never cooled down while driving and also turning on the heater would help either. Today i did a test again and the fluid is running also The car does cool down when driving or having the heat on. Hence i cant see how the thermostat could be affecting this. I know for a fact that the fans dont turn on when hotter than idle temp whcih im sure is supposed to turn on. Correct me if im wrong with any of my theories. Thanx again…
yeah check the fan relay or the thermostatic switch. the switch turns the fan on at that certian temp. when the car engine starts to get hot.
Would anyone know where to find that switch and relay??? I lost my helms manual :sad: … Thanx
No fans is a bad thing. You will overheat without fans.
I have an extra thick aftermarket radiator with a fan motor that’s double the speed of the OEM fans and my temp hardly moves from the far left. 
That sounds like something that would keep your car cool. But does anyone know where the Switch that turns the fan on and /or relays are for the fan?
The relay should be attached somewhere on the fan assembley. I had the same problem with my DSM (the 2nd day I got it), and it was simply a case of the fan not coming on when it was supposed to.
I’m having the same problem too. but my temp gage will go all the way to the right(past the H) in about a minute or two. The weird thing is that i don’t even have to start driving. I can just rev the car up to 3 grand for a second or two, then the temp gauge drops right back down to normal. then it will rise to the H in about a minute or so. I’m pretty sure that my engine isn’t overheating, cause i don’t see how the engine temp. can go from past the H, to normal operating temp. in about two seconds by revving the engine. Any suggestions?
Ok il will take a look on the assembly to see if I can see it. If anyone one else got any ideas let me know 
Ok this is what I saw when i looked again. I saw what lookes like 1 relay next to the regular fan that turns on when the car is hot it was to the left of it if your looking at the car. I then saw 2 relays next to the a/c fan on the right side of it. I took off the radiator cap and it was topped off. Well i started the car and about 15 to 20 seconds the fluid started to fill to the top and trickle out slowly. is that supposed to happen when the car is cold?? I turned it off cause i didnt want the coolant all over the engine bay. Is that the trype of flow that should be happening while cold?? :think:
The colder thermostat isn’t exactly good for your car. The stock one keeps the motor at 195 degrees, the optimum operating temperature. It sounds like the fans aren’t working, or you don’t have enough coolant. For the fans, it could be a relay, motor, coolant temp swith, or an oil temp swith.
I’m going to be working on the same problem tonite. A friend’s teg started overheating in stopped traffic. We tried jumping the radiator fan, and it doesn’t turn on, nor do I get continuity between a couple wires that I should. His looks like someone replaced the fan and then ghetto-rigged it to run all the time with the car on. This is on a 90, btw, but it may be the same on a 92-93. The radiator fan relay is on the left side of the engine bay, behind the headlight, in front of the battery, it’s attached with one bolt/screw. Take it off, unplug the connector, and if you jumper the blue wire (again, this is a 90, I dunno if it’s the same color on others) to ground, it should start the fan when you have the ignition switch in the “on” position (car doesn’t need to be running). If the fan doesn’t start, either there’s a bad connection in the positive or negative wires, or the fan motor is bad. I’ll try to post more later on once I work on the car. I should be able to get it fixed by tonite, so I can probably help you troubleshoot yours if you can’t from a manual. Good luck
Thanks Spikius Ill be waiting.
Ok, fixed his problem, it ended up being that the ground that the relay connects to the fan was bad. Not having my helms around (can’t remember where I put them), I just spliced in a new ground wire, and that fixed the problem. The relay and the fan both tested as good on his car. First thing to check in your case is see if fuse #21 (15amp) or fuse #12 (15amp) on the inside fuse panel is blown, if either is, check for continuity to ground between both terminals of the blown fuse socket, and if there’s no continuity, replace it and see if that fixes your problem. If it blows again or there is continuity to ground, then you may have a short somewhere that you’ll have to track down in between the fuse panel and the engine coolant temperature switch (fuse 21), or between the fuse panel and the radiator fan (fuse 12).
If you want to test the radiator fan (fan on the passenger side, use a couple jumper wires (fused preferably for safety) from the green cylindrical connector on the passenger side that are connected to the radiator. The black wire on the fan side there is negative, and the blue/black wire on the fan side is positive. Jumpering them to the battery should turn the fan on, if it doesn’t turn on, then the fan is bad. If the fan works, then check the relay. There should be continuity between the blue and black wire terminals on the relay when you connect the black/yellow wire terminal to positive, and the yellow/green wire to negative. You should also be able to hear the relay click when you jumper it. If you get no continuity between the black and blue wires when the relay is energized, then replace the relay. If all of that checks out ok, then your engine coolant temp switch may be bad, or the problem could be more complicated, and you might want to think about taking it to a dealer or getting a helms manual and see if you can figure out exactly what’s wrong. If you have any more questions, let me know. Good luck!
Hey thanx for the help. Yeah I had the Helms manual that was passed out on this board a while back but missplaced it which means i need to go and get aother one :bored: . Well anyways I will try those suggestions tommorow and reply my results. Once again thank you very much.:bowdown: