[shailoche]

I just replaced my radiator, thermostat, temperature sender, thermoswitch, upper/lower hoses, radiator cap, coolant, and relay on my D16Z6. The problem is that while I was bleeding the cooling system I waited for the cooling fan to click on but it never did. The Honda service manual says that the cooling fan should kick on twice while you are bleeding the air out of the cooling system but mine never did.

I drove the car and the temperature sender is showing the needle is in the middle of the coolant gauge on the dashboard cluster. I put about 15 miles on the engine at 75mph in 4th and 5th gear and the needle never went past middle of the gauge. However, I have never seen the cooling fan go on. Should I be worried about overheating? Is there anything I can do to make sure the fan works? I attached the fan directly to the 12volt battery source and it spins freely with that power. But I have not seen it turn on while the car is sitting still......

HELP>:bash

 

[92toneintegra]

Check the relay?

 

[shailoche]

Yeah, I have checked the relay. It seems to have continuity. I even swapped relays from the defroster to the cooling fan since they are identical and that didn't seem to matter. The one thing I have not checked....which is dumb...is the fuse inside the passenger cabin. I read somewhere that there is a fuse in the cab that is related to the cooling fan. I will check that when my car gets done having the clutch installed. The other thing I will check is if the wiring is all still in good shape. I suppose that the wiring to the fan could be bad. I am also going to buy a new radiator fan just to rule that out too.

My other worry is that I might have a leaking or blown head gasket. I read that if your head gasket is leaking then the pressure doesn't build up in the cooling system and so the temperature doesn't rise. Since the temp doesn't rise the cooling fan never comes on. During this whole process the car is literally burning the coolant in the cylinders. I pulled the plugs and smelled them. There is no scent of coolant on any of the plugs. That is a good sign since if I was burning a lot of coolant I would be able to smell it on the spark plug.

I still think something is wrong though. In the Helms manual and the Honda repair manual they both say the fan should cycle on and off every 10-20 minutes. Even if the cooling system is operating really really really well it still needs to use the fan to cool the radiator fluid down. So, I am hoping that it is either some fuse that I have missed or that the wiring harness has a bad plug since either of those would be cheaper to fix than a blown head gasket.

Any other ideas?

 

[egcivic14701]

check the wiring, and plugs for shorts or i think there is another fuse for the cooling fan. At least on my civic there is. It is a 15amp in the engine compartment fuse box.

 

[shailoche]

What are the odds that it is a fuse or connection problem versus a head gasket? I mean my car has 120k on it and it is stock. I have only seen white smoke from the tail pipe one time for about 3 minutes and it was barely noticeable. But just before that happened I had taken the valve cover off and replaced all the plug seals, valve gaskets, and valve cover bolt gaskets. I think some water may have gotten into the engine since I was working outside in my driveway and it started to rain while I had the valve cover open. So, I think some water worked its way into the cylinders and that caused the white smoke. I am just worried that the head gasket is blown....

I'll check the fuses and replace all of them with new ones. It is cheap to do and may solve my problem.

 

[egcivic14701]

Yea it seems like a fairly simple system. It is hooked to the radiator fan relay, fuse and the ecm. If the fuse and relay is good the computer isn't signaling for the fan to come on. But if it isn't overheating it may not need to come on.

 

[shailoche]

Yea it seems like a fairly simple system. It is hooked to the radiator fan relay, fuse and the ecm. If the fuse and relay is good the computer isn't signaling for the fan to come on. But if it isn't overheating it may not need to come on.

Well I just got the car back I just wasn't waiting long enough for the fan to kick on. I thought it would come on in 10-15 minutes. Turns out that the dealership let the car run for 35 minutes before the fan came on. They said there is no problem. I hope that I can trust them.:eek2

Oh, the car was at the dealer to get my new ACT clutch installed...whoot whoot....it rocks.