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Sedans Honda Civic Older Civic Maintenance and Repair
322 messages, Last post on Nov 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM
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My 2000 Civic EX is overheating. Whenever I drive in stop-and-go traffic or 30-45+ minutes my car starts to overheat -- in cold weather, hot weather, with the air conditioner on or off, with the air vent on or off. The temperature gauge will almost immediately return to near-normal levels upon turning my heat on full blast. The car doesn't overheat with freeway driving. My coolant levels are fine. My oil levels are fine. I've just had the thermostat replaced. The fan is working (when leaving my car on idle, the fan will kick on as soon as the gauge hits the mid point or so -- returning the temp levels to normal). I just had the 100k tuneup. Knowing absolutely nothing about cars, I asked my mechanic about the possibility of a blown, cracked, or otherwise damaged head gasket (which seems to be the consensus diagnoses for other forums dealing with similar issues) -- he scoffed and said that wasn't the problem. What the heck is wrong with my car. Thanks.
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Replying to: ts87 (Feb 13, 2009 8:15 pm) The cooling fan is set up to come on when the car reaches a certain temperature, which is activated by a relay connected to the engine which senses temperature; though the fan should always come on when you turn on the A/C switch. To verify turn on the ignition and turn on the A/C, check the fan. If I am right he fan is not running. You can unplug the fan at the connector and insert a test light into the leads to see if you are getting power. If you are getting power then I would replace the fan. Hope this helps, Jeff |
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I have a very similar problem as post #261. My car was over heating. We checked the fan and verified that it was functioning. We then assumed the Temp relay was bad. In replacing the relay, my boyfriend over tightened it and it snapped off. Until we could figure out how to remove the sheered off part, he hot-wired the fan so it would stay running from the moment I turned on the car. That worked. Well, then we had a mechanic replace the broken relay and within 2 days my car was back to over heating. We notice that as the water was boiling in both the radiator and the overflow, it had shriveled and melted the gasket that sealed the top to the overflow and steam was now coming out the top. We have been unable to find a replacement for the gasket. He once again hot-wired the fan, but somehow that failed and the car started over heating again. My question is - if the car has a working fan and has a new temperature relay, is just a missing gasket from the overflow going to cause the car to overheat? What else could it possibly be? 
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Replying to: marylong (Feb 14, 2009 10:03 am)
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| I know this is a popular issue for Civic owners of certain model years. I have a 2001 Civic EX automatic. I drive very little and have only 55,000 miles. One of the front struts started leaking a couple of years ago. The extended warranty covered a replacement. Now another front strut is leaking. I understand that this is a popular problem, and I'm not all that excited about getting new struts again. Has Honda, or anyone for that matter, come up with a permanent solution to this problem. I'm not all that excited about replacing the struts every year. What if I do nothing and just keep driving the car until I absolutely have to replace them? So far, I haven't noticed any problems with driving. | |
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Replying to: emporer1998 (Jan 23, 2009 8:22 pm) |
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Replying to: ts87 (Feb 13, 2009 8:15 pm) For (1), did the problem start after the new thermostat? If so, it could be in backwards or is bad. If not, then you could have a radiator that is clogged up. For (2), the classic cause if a failing head gasket. I'd find a new mechanic who will actually test for that possibility. |
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Replying to: mark19 (Feb 14, 2009 7:10 pm)  Thanks.
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| I have a '93 civic that has no problem starting, but the last three times it has rained heavy, it will not start the next morning. it cranks fine, but will not fire to start. when it sits and "dries out", (could be hours) it starts fine. any ideas? thanks | |
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Replying to: dartfrog51 (Feb 27, 2009 2:30 pm) The part that gives the "juice" for the spark is called the igniter, it's inside that distributor cap and if it gets moist, it wouldn't be able to start. Please be careful, remove the cap slowly and gently, the igniter has a ceramic tip to it and you can break it off if you don't remove the distributor cap slowly. Let us know what you find! 
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