cooling system trouble

[onelove4everyon]

93 Accord EX

One day i'm driving and my coolant temp gauge climbs to the top. Luckily I turned my heater on full blast just in time to keep it out of the red zone. I don't have any funds available so i've been careful not to let it get into the red zone.
Now when I drive it, it takes a while for it to climb to the upper reaches of the temp gauge, but it will stay relatively cool, if I keep the heater on level 3 or 4 out of a scale of 5 ( 0-1-2-[3-4]-5)

What could it be? Thermostat?
What should I do?

Any feedback appreciated!!!

[91accord4door]

could be your stat..... if u havent replaced it in awhile do so now. are your radiator fans coming on? if not you couldhave a faulty coolant temp sensor (located near thermo housing). also if you fans are not working could be a fan relay, could also need a lfush/fill. change your thermo/flush/fill and get back to us, also check tomake sure fansare turning on.

[onelove4everyon]

Well, I did notice that my fan almost always turns on, WHEN I turn the car off, like at the store or on the driveway, after I drive.

I've checked the coolant and it appears to be sufficient, in b/t the Min and MaX lines on the reservoir.

Thanks for reply

[alb_accord]

well dude. first of all check if the fans come on. turn the AC on and see if the fan work. then go for a new thermostat. if it still does that then check for water in the radiator. when the car is COLD open the radiator cap and see if u need coolant. add if u need more. then after a week see if u need more. if u do then ur radiator is leaking. to check for leaks do a preasure check. rent the tool from autozone

then if everything is ok check under the car and see if there is any leaks near the water pomp. if there are leaks then u need a water pomp.

[SSMAccord]

I recently changed the clutch in my EX, once i put the car back together the fan would turn on whenever the key was taken out of the ignition from the on position. The fan switch at the end of the upper radiator hose turned out to be the problem with the fans. The temp gauge was also being strange and turned out to be the coolant temp sending unit under the distributor.

[evol90accord]

Originally posted by onelove4everyon
Well, I did notice that my fan almost always turns on, WHEN I turn the car off, like at the store or on the driveway, after I drive.

I've checked the coolant and it appears to be sufficient, in b/t the Min and MaX lines on the reservoir.

Thanks for reply

your fans are turning on when you shut the car off to continue cooling it because its overheating. Thats normal. If you have fans running with the car off, then you know that your condensor fan and relays are fine (there are two fans). Check that the other fan comes on when the car is warmed up. It might need a new relay or it could be the whole fan motor is bad.

what reservoir? the overflow tank? Add coolant directly to the radiator, not through the overflow tank.

[accordztech]

the way u check if a fan works is unplug it and run it directly to the battery

then if that works then u look into the fan temp switch. there are 2. one on the upper radiator hose, thats for the condencer fan, and then one on the thermostat thats for the radiator fan. these are green connectors.

then you can look into the fan timming relays

but first off your over heating possibly...shouldnt even be driving.

when its hella hot be carefull and pop ur hood and feel the top radiator hose, it SHOULD be hot...and then feel the bottom longer one...if that one isnt as hot as the top one then ur thermostat is fuked.

anyways thermostat is maintanence...as well as a system flush.

take problems one step at a time, starting small and going big unless you know whats up

[evol90accord]

Yup. Mmmhmm. That about covers it. I have personally found that the motors and relays go faster than the sensors and switches, but accordztech is right. Test the smaller stuff first and find out for sure before you start swapping out parts. Otherwise this could get expensive really fast