so ... id think these two problems were unrelated but JIC ... have an irratic idle still havent resolved but im pretty sure its the IAC ...in the process of taking throttle body off a couple times the coolant lines have come off a time or two and got some coolant in engine bay ... directly below the TB coolant lines is the T stat and fan switch ... well all of a sudden i notice car is running a touch hot at speed like right at half or a tick over ... as ill stop at a light itll typically creep up depending how long it gets all but all the way up ...

heres the weird thing even if the cars sat over night upon start the temp gauge will go straight to about the exact normal opp temp something like a tick or 2 above 1/3 on the gauge how can this be the car is bone cold at this point ? oh and the AC fan comes on when a/c is on but the primary fan does not come on now at all ? did i get coolant on the fan switch and short it ? is this short why it goes straight to temp upon cold start ? what should i check first ?

 

oh ya is there a fuse for the fan maybe blown ?

 

There is a 'radiator fan relay' in the underhood fuse box. That's all I can find. Also, check the connections at the radiator fan, it may have loosened/disconnected.

While you are there, perform the TB coolant bypass by looping one of the TB coolant lines back to the motor, that will cure any 'coolant spilling' going forward.

Possibly, get some CRC QD Electronic Cleaner Spray and saturate the connectors while unplugged. It will clean up any residue coolant/grim that may be present and reconnect the switch. Hopefully, that will help. Also, if you do not have the 'Mugen Cooling Mods' this might be a good time to consider, that is, if you are so inclined to spend the $$$.

Good Luck.

 

so do you think the fan would be enough to cause the car to run alittle hot ? and creep to almost full hot at a light ?


also why would the car from a complete cold start show normal op temp on the gauge instantly ? im thinking shorted fan switch ?

 

I have in the past read, especially on the 2G TL side, posts where people have the fan sensor or fan itself die, and stated that only the AC fan comes on when at temp. They complain of overheating, so I believe that if the radiator fan does not perform properly, you will notice it on the temp gauge.


When I cold start my car in the morning, the temp guage needle is always at the lowest point.

Also, I found in the manual that the #3 & 6 fuse in the driverside fuse box have 'Radiator fan control module' listed as components or circuits protected.

 

thank you ill look at those two fuses

 

My radiator cooling fan motor died and I noticed that the car is a little warmer then normal sometimes. I checked the fuses and swapped the cooling fan/AC fan relays but that did not solve the problem. Finally I swapped the plug connections with the fans and thats how I found out that the motor is out.

I'm currently in the process of swapping out the new and old motors.

 

ill give that a shot do they reach easily >?

 

Yea, I think so. You might need a flathead screwdriver to unclip the harness from the fan shroud but I remember at least swapping 1 of the connectors, even if you can't reach both of them.

 

so what about why my gaguge reads normal op temp even after sitting over night ? where is the sensor that tells the gauge how hot it is ? is it the fan switch ?

 

Its the temp sensor:



#14, the sensor at the top of the water passage.

 

so civic is the sensor also the reason the fans not coming on ?

 

^
The link below has a PDF of the manual for the 99-03 TL. The 'Engine Cooling' section, page 10-2 in the manual or page 243 in the PDF file, has a troubleshooting area that may help your process of elimination.

http://home.comcast.net/~amberlani01/ServiceManual.pdf

 

any chance you can link just that section ... im having trouble with the 700 megs down load

 

Nvm

 

omg im dieing... 800M file i got like 5 megs loaded

 

so interestingly i messed with the temp sensor harness and right away upon cold start the gauge read full cold ... it jumped around alittle at first im assuming maybe some corrosion still present ... but then it stablized and slowly krept up to regular op temp and stayed there however no sign of the primary fan coming on however after sittin idling a bit the temp crept up some and the a/c fan did kick on even though ac was off ... so ill have to test the other fan next ill just jump it straight to battery and see if it turns on

 

You can jump it too. I thought about doing that but I didn't really know which prong on the connector was positive and negative so I just swapped the connectors, that seemed easy enough. I'm curious to see if your fan is busted too.

Also the troubleshooting in the service manual is essentially checking the fuses, swapping the relays then checking the fan by hooking up power to them.

 

i swapped the horn relay for fan just left em swapped cause they had the same numbers on the replays horn works fan doesnt ... next i will jump when i have time

 

you fixed the leak, right? did you properly bleed the system? Air pockets can cause the car to register erratic temps.no leak pretty sure just a bad connection at sensor seems to work normal now ... however the primary fan is dead

 

Any luck fixing this?

 

As for his fan not coming on, it's probably the motor. Thats what failed for me.

 

fan motor is bad ...the sensor just had a bad connection because now the temps show normal after messing with harness...

 

Should be an easy fix.

I needed to remove the battery and overflow coolant take to take out the fan. And even that was a tight squeeze. The hardest part about removing the motor is the rusty phillips screws holding it in. You might strip those pretty easily so what I did was use locking pliars and unscrewed it from the rear by clamping on the threads. It will ruin the screws but you don't want to put those rusty ones back on anyways.

The motor itself if pretty pricey, about 125 from the dealer. Don't bother looking for aftermarket, they don't make them, only for the Premium models. Another option is the junkyard/recycler or used on ebay.