I am having a couple of problems. My car started overheating recently when sitting at idle and I noticed that the cooling fan doesn't come on once I turn the car off. The A/C fan does come on when the AC is on. I checked the two fuses for the cooling fan (one in the engine and one under the dash) and they are both good.

I don't believe it's a blown head gasket as I did a test as someone suggested and opened the radiator cap, turned the car on, and checked for bubbles. (no bubbles).

I was thinking about the thermostat or the coolant itself. When I looked in the resevoir the coolant was pretty grimy. Would dirty coolant stop the fan from coming on?

I've been looking for instructions to change the thermostat and found some but wasn't really clear on the instructions. Can someone lay them out for me?

Also, I am getting the EGR valve issue and was looking for assistance on anything I can do short of paying 500 bucks for Acura to fix it.

 

if you car is under 150k, get it fix asap from acura

 

We do it that way - take off EGR valve (not really easy to do in Inspire, but steering column on your car is on the over side - may be it will be easier), strip it and under the lid put instead of usal washer wholemetal washer, made, for example, from beer can. It prevents falling of exhaust into intake - its really better for the engine (espesially after big millage), but not so much better for the environment and cat. I dont know about your country requirements specifications of detrimental impurities consistense in exhaust - in Russia its ok, car can pass the Euro-1 tests whith such mods.

 

My car has over 150k miles. I took the car to the shop last night and the acura people changed the radiator cap and said that the cooling fan was running. Luckily they didn't charge me because when I was driving home the car wasn't overheating but when I pulled into my house and opened the hood the fan wasn't on and didn't turn on when the car was turned off.

Does the fan only turn on under certain conditions?

Also, can anyone say how hard it is to get to that EGR valve and clean it? I saw instructioned on the legend site and wasn't sure if they are the exact same for a 3.2 TL. Don't want to pay the $800 that acura is asking for the repair.

 

it is the same as the legend... i did it 20k miles ago but didn't take pics or do a writeup.. sorry... your fan should come on after long driving or on hot days... u are in NJ... this morning when i drove into work... 40 miles and pulled into the parking garage, my fan kicked on when i turned off the car...

did they check the fan switch???

 

I'm not really sure what they checked. When I went in they came back and said the cooling fan was working fine. The fan that isn't coming on is the drivers side fan. My car doesn't appear to be overheating now, but when I turn my car off after driving for a long time the fan doesn't come on afterwards. Which fan is the one that comes on after you turn the car off?

Also, where is the fan switch for the drivers side fan?

 

I don't know this for a fact, but I am pretty sure the radiator fans are thermostatically controlled. For example, when it is cold they probably will not turn on. When it is hot they should run pretty frequently.