Car Getting Too Hot...

[96Accord96]

For the past few months or so, my car has been getting hot really easily and over the simplest of traffic situations. If I'm stuck in traffic on the freeway and am going like 15 mph or whatever, the cars temp. will slowly begin to raise and it'll get really hot and I'll have to put my heater on so it could cool, and even when I'm going 25 mph in stop and go traffic, it still gets super hot and is about to overheat. Even if I'm driving in the city with no traffic but it's kind of stop and go, it'll begin to get really hot after 5 minutes of stop and go.

I am up to date on my oil change, I checked my anti-freeze and it was all good, the only thing I can think of is the radiator or the thermostat is messed up. What do you all think the problem is? Thanks. :D

[Twistedframe]

Well, this could be either a thermostat issue or your fans aren't turning on.

Try this. Start your car, turn the temp knob all the way to cold. The engine then should get up to operating temp quicky, and the fans should turn on.

If they come on and the temp still overheats, then you have a bad thermostat. -and that's cake to install yourself! :)

Now, if your fans don't turn on, then you have a sensor malfunction that controlls the on/off state of the cooling fan.

Actually, in our year models, we have 5 coolant temp sensors of sorts.

Fan On, Fan Off, To Guage, To ECU, and one more that I can't remember . sry.

Good luck!

[96Accord96]

Hmm, interesting. Because I haven't checked to see if the fans come on while the car is running, but I have noticed that the fans turn on whenever I turn the car off. And it'll take a long ass time to cool down. I'll turn the car off and go inside and come out like an hour or an hour and a half later and when I turn it on again the engine will still be as warm or almost as warm as it was when I turned it off. I'll check out the fans tomorrow when I turn the car on and it gets warm. If it turns out to be the fan sensors, then what do I do? How much does it cost to get that fixed? Thanks. :D

[Twistedframe]

Well, the car will still be hot after an hour or so, I mean even after 3+- hours of sitting, it takes no time at all to get back up to operating temp even for me, and I have a cooler thermostat than stock. So, that's normal for yours :)

As far as cost of getting it fixed, I do all my own maintenance and installations, so unfortunately, I don't know. I just replaced the coolant sensor that sends the temp signal to the ECU on mine last week, and if I recall correctly, the sensor cost between 10-20 dollars from the local auto parts store.

They are easy to replace by yourself.. All you need is a ratchet, and a 19mm deep socket and prefferebly a swivel adapter and an extension.

:)

[96Accord96]

Yeah, I checked out my car today and let it get warm and I opened the hood and I checked the fans and they weren't on at all. So that's probably the problem with the car. I got really pissed off because today was a really hot ass day and I had my windows open for a bit instead of using the A/C. But it still was hot as hell, so I closed the windows and put the A/C on and when I got to a signal light I was watching the temp gauge and it got hot as hell in like 5 seconds. Goddamn car keeps on having some sort of problem with it. So you think it's probably the sensors?

[anasowner]

yeah there is a sensor that screws into your engine near your thermostat and it was bad on my car, giving me the same problem you are having, it was a 5 minute fix and solved my issue of the fans not coming on

[96Accord96]

yeah there is a sensor that screws into your engine near your thermostat and it was bad on my car, giving me the same problem you are having, it was a 5 minute fix and solved my issue of the fans not coming on

Thanks, how much did the sensors cost you to purchase?

[anasowner]

it was around 20$ i think, it happened 2 summers ago

[anasowner]

the one with a white plug not the green, I got the part, called "fan switch" at autozone and it was 19.99 and WELLS brand part number sw546. at least thats whats on the receipt and on the box it came in, i still have the old one in the box cause i wanted to take it apart and see what went bad in there

[96Accord96]

Sounds good, thanks a lot! :D

[ElementOfRed]

just wondering, but do you have a new intake?

[96Accord96]

just wondering, but do you have a new intake?

As in an aftermarket intake? No, I just have a stock engine.

[96Accord96]

the one with a white plug not the green, I got the part, called "fan switch" at autozone and it was 19.99 and WELLS brand part number sw546. at least thats whats on the receipt and on the box it came in, i still have the old one in the box cause i wanted to take it apart and see what went bad in there


Okay cool, I went to Autozone today and checked out what I needed, the guy gave me a list of 3 things it could be. He said either it's the Radiator Fan Switch (which anasowner told me), the Coolant Temperature Sensor, or the Temperature switch.

So which one of these 3 things do I need to purchase? And should I just take it to my mechanic and have him install it cause I have no idea how to install it and don't want to do anything wrong. Thanks peoples. :D

[Twistedframe]

Coo, yea well, I can tell ya you don't need the Coolant Temperature Sensor for sure.. the Radiator Fan Switch is the one you want, and I'm not sure about the other one. Ask him what the temp switch does exactly and if it's something having to do with turning on/off fans then get it too just to be safe.

Luckily, the Radiator Fan Switch is the easiest thing to get to on our cars!!! :)) But the other one is either under the dist.cap screwed into the head or in the back of the intake manifold, this one being more difficult to get to than the one in the head naturally. So, if your mechanically inclined and like to work on your car, then go for it!

[96Accord96]

Coo, yea well, I can tell ya you don't need the Coolant Temperature Sensor for sure.. the Radiator Fan Switch is the one you want, and I'm not sure about the other one. Ask him what the temp switch does exactly and if it's something having to do with turning on/off fans then get it too just to be safe.

Luckily, the Radiator Fan Switch is the easiest thing to get to on our cars!!! :)) But the other one is either under the dist.cap screwed into the head or in the back of the intake manifold, this one being more difficult to get to than the one in the head naturally. So, if your mechanically inclined and like to work on your car, then go for it!


Okay cool, thank you. I'm gonna go to Autozone either tomorrow or one of these days and buy that part. Damn it's going to be weird to be able to be in stop and go traffic and not have to really worry about almost overheating and having to sweat an assload cause the heater is on withdrawing heat from the engine. :rolleyes: :p :D

[96Accord96]

I went out and bought the Fan Switch that I needed today, so should I just have some mechanic install it? Or should I just figure out how to install it myself? And if so, how do I install it and where is the Fan Switch located?

[anasowner]

the fan switch is very easy to install yourself, you should see it in plain site on the top of you engine located near the water outlet on your engine close to the thermostat.

Someone help a fellow accordian out and give this guy a picture with ana rrow pointing to where im talking bout

[Twistedframe]

Here ya go-

http://www.twistedframe.com/fanSwitch.jpg

I think you will need a 19mm deep socket.

You will lose some coolant. Not to worry, just plug it really quick or top off with water afterwards.

[96Accord96]

Haha, thanks! I was confused at first when you said Accordian, lol. Yes, I am a proud Accordian. Also, a pic would help out, I'm going to install it tomorrow morning, thank God too. Was tired of always being on the verge of overheating constantly.

[96Accord96]

Damn it I'm pissed off. I bought that Fan Switch from Autozone and I installed it and put new Anti-freeze and the car still gets really hot and about to overheat when I am not moving. The fans still don't turn on when the car gets hot and they only turn on once I turn the car off. What could the problem be?

[Twistedframe]

Hmm. Very peculiar indeed.

Ok then, check all of your fuses, under the hood as well as the inside kick panel. If all fuses are ok, then you most likely have a bad thermostat my friend.

If it's not the thermostat itself, then it could be another sensor that is in the therm. housing. The thermostat is actually located on the same side as the sensor you replaced, but at the back of the head. That sensor is also a fan switch of some sort too I believe.

I replaced my thermostat with no problem, but I had the head off of it at the time, so it may be a bit more difficult for you to do this on your own with all the nonsense in the way.

If you do get a new thermostat, get a colder one. This will keep the engine nice and cool all the time. It'll make it last longer, and yeild a bit more torque. The stock one in our cars is a 190 degree. The one that I got from ebay is a 160.

Cold engine = Longer life, tighter feel, torque
Hot engine = Shorter life, loose feel, horsepower

Good luck!!

[anasowner]

there are 2 different sensors located in the same general area around your thermostate one with a green plug, one with a white....when i had the same problem you are having i had to replace the WHITE one, and i noticed that the picture twistedframe posted up points to the green plug, check to make sure you replaced the right one....

[96Accord96]

What is the name of the part with the white capped plug?

[96Accord96]

No one knows?...

[5peedCoupe]

hi......maybe its ur water pump?? noe one every said anything bout that... i dunno my car cools down after an hr or less... maybe ur temp gauge is messed up?? but i tink it could be ur water pump. temp gauge. fans. anti frezze.. or thermostat.. good luck...

[Twistedframe]

Take it in and have it checked out.. Depending on what they find, you will be able to know if you can fix it yourself or not.

Some things, you just have to bite the bullet, swallow your pride and take it to the shop to spare yourself the time and headache. :s

I am finally giving up on my closed loop problem. I'm just taking it in to have it fixed. I can't take it anymore. :(


sad.

[96Accord96]

Yeah, damn, I just don't want the damn guy to rip me off and tell me something is wrong with my car that really isn't wrong with it. Well wish me good luck guys. Laters.

[Twistedframe]

Well, tell him that you ONLY want to know what's wrong with it, because you will fix it yourself. You don't have the equipment to test it so you need him to do it.

Chances are, he will tell you what's wrong, and you really can fix it yourself.

If nothing else, you can let us know whats wrong and we'll tell ya how to fix it! :)

I'm drunk.

[96Accord96]

Haha, that was funny. You just told me what you thought, and then were like "I'm drunk" :p

[96Accord96]

Aww damn man, my poor baby is hurtin' for certain. I noticed that lately my car has been getting hot really fast and really easy, even if I'm going in the 40's and have a lot of air being taken into the cars engine bay. Well tonight on the way home I was on the freeway and I heard like a grinding noise in the engine and let off the gas and it went away, and didn't happen anymore after that. I wasn't even going fast, was just going about 80 (considering it was like at 11 at night on the freeway).

So then later on I was in the slow lane and merged onto another freeway and put the gas down pretty hard so that I could regain some speed, and the car went into its usual high RPM's and right afterwards I smelled like a burning smell coming in through the air ducts. I have my A/C set for it to take air in from the outside and not cycle it from the inside air. And so the hot air from the engine comes through the air ducts and that has been helping it stay cool for a bit when it gets too hot. So the smell of burning was pretty strong so I got worried as hell cause I didn't want to fuck my engine up or fuck it up more if it already was. So while the burning smell was there the temperature gauge was pretty high. It's also pretty damn cold outside, but not even that helped. So I'm going to try and take my baby in to the mechanic tomorrow and see what the fuck is wrong with her.

What do you all think the problem was?

[96Accord96]

Damn well I figured out what the problem was. I'm almost 100% sure it's because I have a bad radiator cap. Because I refilled my anti-freeze about a week or so ago and today when I checked it, it was empty. Also, there was remnance of anti-freeze all around the radiator cap and looked like it obviousely was leaking. I guess because the cap can't handle the pressure anymore and is old. I don't think I have a leaking radiator because there was only anti-freeze around the cap, and I don't have a leaking hose because the hoses were clean as well.

Also, I took the radiator cap off and added water and that damn thing must have taken like 2 gallons, no joke, lol. I also topped off my anti-freeze container so because I'm going to take my car in tomorrow for an oil change and to check as to why my car was getting so damn hot, and whatever it is, get it fixed.

I then took my car for a spin and it didn't get hot! It just got the usual warm, but didn't get close to the redline. So I was all happy n' shit. Feels good to know I'm going to have a car that I can get stuck in traffic with. :p

[5peedCoupe]

Here ya go-

http://www.twistedframe.com/fanSwitch.jpg

I think you will need a 19mm deep socket.

You will lose some coolant. Not to worry, just plug it really quick or top off with water afterwards.

i knoe this is old .. but my fans dont come on??? lucky my coolant is still pretty new and car is doing really good to stay cool.. but it is starting to get hot down here.. anyways i am gonna replace that switch in that pix.. but i seen antoher one just like it rite behind the distrubitor.. anyways.. anyone know of any other switch or have my problem?? fan comes on when ac is on i tink.. forgot but most likely cuz car would really over heat.. but any help will do so plz help anyone?? thx in advance