97 Accord LX, 122k miles

Just purchased yesterday, car ran well during test drive. A/C was not too cold at first, but cooled as the test drive went on. I figured it was just becasue I live in Vegas and it was 110 degrees.

After buying the car, I drove home around 12 miles which was mostly on the freeway. The engine temp was correct and the a/c was even nice and cold after a few freeway miles, until I exited the freeway and pulled up to the gate of my neighborhood. The temp started rising quickly and the needle was less than a hair under red by the time I pulled into my driveway and the a/c was lukewarm. Turning the a/c on/off did nothing the the coolant temp.

I took it for a test drive on side streets later to get it up to temp and the a/c only would cool slightly as I sped up. I kept the car under 45mph and after 5 minutes of driving and sitting at a stoplight the coolant temp started to rise above the midway point and was climbing slowly. I left the a/c on and looked under the hood and neither fan was spinning.

Radiator is full, reservoir was correct, condenser and cooling fan fuses ok, relay ok.

I guess I would like to know if the two fans are connected in some way or are they totally independent electrically?


Thanks for any help!

 

If your car overheats the AC will stop working when the pressure reaches a certain point. On my 1995 when it overheated the AC stopped along with the fans. If your Accord overheats at a stop it is most likely Radiator airflow related such as the cooling fan not coming on or the radiator is clogged inside or more likely caked on outside on the condenser side. I believe both fan work at cooling as well as when the AC is on. If you end up changing the thermostat at some point get a Honda one. If you have a copper cored radiator look for the fins detaching from the rows near the bottom.

 

Thanks.

I forgot to mention that I let the car idle until it got up to temp and it stayed there for 10 minutes until I turned it off. During that time I turned the a/c on, it never got cool and the a/c fan did not come on. If it was working before the overheat (which I do not know), should it revert back to working under normal temp after shutting down due to an overheat?

 

Start the car, turn on the a/c, open the hood, then tell us if both fans are running.

 

http://www.techautorepairs.com/overheating.html

here you go ,, do a little reading,, it will help diagnose the issue.. ,

 

So the problem was the fan timer, or should I say lack of a fan timer! It was missing. Thanks for the help.