93 civic overheating

Please help. I Have a 93 civic hatchback that is overheating. I had a
similar problem last year and discovered that my water pump was cracked
(so I had it replaced). It's been fine for the past year, but recently
has started overheating.

My typical route to school has me in "stop and go" traffic for a mile
or so, then 5 miles on the interstate, and then another mile of "stop
and go". The overheating seems to occur and the end of my journey and
the thermostat needle seems to really climb when I'm in neutral
(sorry-it's a manual).

I checked the coolant level and it seems to be staying the same. I
haven't seen any leaks anywhere. It's been doing this for a couple of
days now. The only thing I can do to help is to turn on the heater, but
live in Texas just might have a heat stroke if I have to keep doing
that.

Any advice you can offer would be great. I'm a student and am tight on
funds. Aslo, as a young lady, it's would be nice to have some sort of a
clue before turning her over to a mechanic.

Much thanks,
Joanna

 

Let the car warm up and determine if the cooling fans are operating.
That seems to be common with electric fans.

 

Any idea how old the thermostat is? Is the one in there a
genuine Honda part?

I would get the fan checked. You could, in theory, let the
car sit overnight, check the coolant level, turn it on,
watch the temperature gage, and wait for the fan to come on.
If the gage keeps climbing to well above what you're
accustomed, and the fan doesn't come on, suspect the fan.

When the car is not moving, the heat isn't being removed as
quickly. One could say the "load" on the coolant system can
be higher just sitting and idling then driving down the
highway with that air blasting across the radiator surface
and removing heat. No fan when the car is just sitting and
idling can cause overheating.

There is a free online manual for your 93 Civic at
www.autozone.com that talks about doing more elaborate
checks of the fan, and specifically the several electrical
components most likely to cause it to fail.

You want to stay alert to a blown head gasket, so you're
doing right by monitoring the level. Also, look for oil in
the coolant reservoir (just take off the coolant reservoir
cap and check it), and look for coolant in the oil (take off
the oil fill cap). See if there's a sweet smell coming from
the exhaust fumes.

You need to strongly consider not driving the car at all. If
the engine gets too hot, and, say, the engine head warps,
then the repair will be much more expensive.

Elle
Original owner, 1991 Civic LX, 175k miles.

 

Joanna,
Install a new thermostat. Make sure you buy it at a Honda dealership.
It may help. Also, check at least once per week to make sure your radiator
is full. Also, make sure he water pump is not leaking.
Jason

 

Elle,
Excellent post.
Jason

 

.... and it always helps when a few people post the same
suggestions to assist a person. I don't think anyone likes
to be repetitive, but by not doing so, sometimes a person
asking for help can't be sure that people have read his/her
post. So this gal will see your suggestion to check the
thermostat and use OEM, compare it with my same idea, also
note that two of us felt the fan might be failing, etc.

I appreciate your referring to technicians as both "he"
types and "she" types, by the way. Shows someone's thinking
(and at a high level, afaic)!

 

Wow, thanks for the quick response. I haven't driven my car today, so I
decided to test the fan. I let it run in my driveway for about 10 mins
and the temp began to rise. When the thermostat got to about 3/4 the
way to H, the fan kicked on for about 4 seconds and then off again. A
few moments later, it came on and then did not turn off again until I
turned the car off.

Even when the far was on, I saw no change in the temp on the
thermostat.

Does this seem to be leaning more toward a thermostat problem?

Also, this may be a stupid question, but Jason recommended making sure
the radiator is full? How do I go about doing that? Is that different
than making sure the coolant reservoir is full?

Thanks in advance,
Joanna

 

What you describe sounds like the thermostat to me.
Consider: My 91 Civic takes upwards of 40 minutes to heat up
(from cold engine) enough to turn the fan on when the
outside temperature is 70 degrees F or so. Yours heated up
much more quickly, and the fan came on fine. That points to
a temperature control problem, such as the thermostat.
Thermostats fail all the time on all makes of cars after so
many miles and years.

You didn't say: Any idea how old your thermostat is? If it's
more than say, six years, replacing it is a good investment.
Plus it may very well fix the problem.

There are other possibilities, but this is where I'd start.

 

There is a plastic overflow bottle for the...'overflow'. Check the
coolant in the radiator itself, not the plastic overflow

 

Thanks a lot, Elle. It would be a fair guess to say that the thermostat
is older than 6 years.

She has 230K miles on her. I bought her from a friend for $800 2 1/2
years ago. I've had to do a few reapirs, but I've deffinately gotten my
money's worth.

I'm glad to hear that it's probably not a head gasket. I'll start with
the thermostat and go from there.

It looks like were talking about a $15 part here. Can my mechanic order
an "official" honda part, or do I have to go to a dealership? Any idea
what labor for instalation might run me? (I trust my mechanics, but I'd
hate surprises).

thanks,
Jo (FYI- it's 98 degrees here today...so much for Spring)

 

As long as the level in the coolant reservoir stays steady,
I agree.

I think this will depend on your mechanic. I suggest buying
one from the parts department at a dealership, to be certain
you get a genuine Honda one (also known as "OEM Honda" or
Original Equipment Manufacturer--Honda"). Don't let anyone
sell you a non-OEM one. The temperature settings on non-OEM
ones can vary. The OEM one is only a few bucks more.

If you have other parts you need, you can consider ordering
them yourself from an online genuine Honda parts dealer such
as

www.slhonda.com (California; I've used them; they're great)

www.cheapESThondaparts.com (Colorado; just did my first
order from them the other day) Looks like about $12 from
them plus another $5 for shipping. Your dealer might beat
this total cost, unless, as I mentioned, there are other
parts you need.

I'd estimate an hour of labor. I'm not sure what your
mechanic charges, but $70 an hour isn't unusual.

I did mine by myself on my 91 Civic a couple of years ago.
Took a couple hours going really slow, and never having done
it on this car before. It's rarely a difficult job for any
model.

Hope you're not in rolling blackout country (Texas)! Aside:
I think your car's still overheating too quickly, even at
that temperature.

Updates welcome, so others can learn from your experience.

 

Joanna,
The level in the coolant reservoir is different than the radiator. There
should be a rubber hose leading from the coolant reservoir to the
radiator. About once per week, BEFORE YOU START YOUR CAR, uscrew the cap
on the radiator and check the level. The radiator should be full. If it's
not full, fill it up with water before you replace the cap. You should
never remove that cap when the engine is hot or all of the water will come
out of the radiator. I once made that mistake when I was about 14 years
old and have NEVER made that mistake again.
Jason

 

Jason,
thanks for the info. I looked in the radiator and it has some green
colant liquid in there, but it's just a small ammout. Is it supposed to
be full to the top? I thought that if it needed more when it go hot, it
would just pull it from the resevoir.

If I need to fill it, can I use water even though there is coolant in
there...or should I use more coolant?

(this is all in addition to the new thermostat, right?)

Sorry for so many questions,
Jo

 

wrote in

Right now sounds like a bad thermostat. When was the last time the cooling
system was serviced?

Oh, so turning on the heater gets the temperature down? That's often an
internally-plugged rad. Again, what's the car's service history?

 

I have never serviced the cooling system (in two years), and I have no
idea when it was done last.

Turning on the heat helped a little, but not a lot...the same as just
turning on the fan. I though that it was just helping because it helped
move air across the engine.

Can you offer any instructions on how to replace thermostat?

thanks,
Joanna

 

wrote in

Given the lack of servicing history, you may have several issues, not just
the thermostat.

At this point, it's possible you have a sludged-up cooling system, low
coolant, and a plugged rad, as well as a thermostat going bad.

You can help your own cause here by determining and describing the
overheating problem in the greatest detail possible. Without extensive
detail on the nature of the problem, all we can do here is guess.

Just so you know, poor maintenance is the primary cause of most automotive
problems.

 

Yes, fill the radiator to the top with water. Replace the cap. Do the same
thing every morning before you start your car. If the water is up to the
rim for three days in a row, that means it is full and you can cut back to
checking it once a week. Let us know if the coolant is not up to the rim
after one week.
It's possible that the missing water may have been at least one of the
causes of your problem. Before you replace the thermostat, see if the
water that you added to the radiator each day solves the problem. If it
does NOT solve the problem, the thermostat should be replaced. You should
also--if you can afford it--have your mechanic or a radiator shop manager
flush out the coolant and replace it with new coolant.
Jason

 

Have to disagree with Jason here. Use only distilled water
or OEM coolant. If you use the distilled water, you're going
to want to do a drain and fill of the system soon, since it
won't have the right concentration of anti-freeze in it.

Regular tap water has the wrong chemistry and may destroy
the water pump bearings, for one.

 

if the level in the reservoir is normal, but the level in the rad is
low, you have a small air leak. check the plastic radiator tanks for
cracking. if this is the original rad, it's due to start happening
round about now. also check the small hoses. if there's corrosion, the
material under the hose connections can swell and minutely split the
rubber. also check the radiator cap - the seal can crack & split.

refill with anti-freeze and distilled water, not tap water. excess
mineral content in tap water can cause corrosion, harmful deposits and
seal damage.

 

i would turn the car on, then run it until the temp gauge reaches
halfway. if the fans dont come on but the gauge keeps climbing, suspect
the switch that operates the fans.

id likely unplug and replug that connector in, as well as the fan. that
would reseat the connectors if theyre corroded. cheap, easy, and might
possibly fix the problem.