My accord 92 keeps overheating when idle or in traffic. my A/C also turns warmer when i'm idle... i can understand getting slightly warmer but it gets a lot warmer to where i'd just rather have the window open. I have replaced the thermostat and i don't think the old one worked anyways, i flushed out the coolant and replaced it with dexcool. i replaced the cap so i'm sure that's not the issue. However i have noticed that when my foot is on the gas the gauge goes back down. i tested that to make sure it wasn't the fans because i don't really feel like replacing those nor do i know when they come on... i'm guessing when the thermostat pops but apparently it hasn't felt the need to do that or the fans just don't work... either way my FIRST problem is that when i put my foot on the gas, that's the only time it cools down. about the radiator cap, i just bought a new one and it seems really difficult to get on compared to the other one... could that have something to do with it? i saw that someone had the same problem i did earlier in the posts and they just replaced the cap... so is it possible i just bought a faulty cap? any input would be nice! thanks.

 

it sounds like a fan issue to me..........
try an easy thing first,, start the car put the a/c on make sure the compressor is engaged and both fans should work, this trick will work assuming all is ok with the a/c system.. Now if fans do not work, get a big screwdriver and bang on the fan motor if fan comes on you got a bad motor ,, if fan still does not come on , then we have to trouble shoot it the long way around..

first off, chk the fuses , underhood fuse box, the relay, underhood fuse box, if ok. start car and let it warm up, till the t-stat opens, lower radiator hose must feel hot ,, if after running for a while and temp gauge starts to go above 1/2,, .. jump the fan switch,, it is located on the t-stat housing, green plug 2 wires going to it,, unplug it and jump those 2 wires together at the green connector, if fans come on you got a bad fan switch,,
if they still do not come on, chk to see if you get power and ground at fan motor plug . if you do,, you got bad motor if you don't you could have bad wiring to fan motor,
try this and post results

One of these days i will write an A to Z on how to trouble shoot non working fans..

 

You could put a meter across the two wires that go to the fan motor. If the meter reads 12 volts, it means that the power is getting to fan motor. If the fan doesn't start, then it means that the fan is bad.

 

absolutely.........i think it could also be your water pump

 

thanks guys, from the things you've told me i do believe it's probably the fan. however, why does the engine cool down when i put my foot on the gas? does it cycle more coolant into it or something? also, how do i check a fuse to see if it's working? i found it but i'm not sure how to test it to make sure it isn't the fuse without buying a new one. BOTH fans don't seem to be working in any situation. I'm guessing it's either the wiring or the fuse. I do have a voltimeter so i can test the wires going into it. any suggestions would be a lot of help. thanks.

 

It could be possible that when you hit the gas, you are going fast. When you go fast more air passes over/through the radiator and cools off the coolant in the radiator. The fan pushes air into the radiator and when you go really fast your car runs into alot of air, doing the same thing as the fan. If you go on the highway and your car doesn't overheat then your fan is the suspect. I dunno if you want to try this.

 

If you haven't replaced the waterpump I'll put my money on that.

I had the SAME problem. The reason the guage would go down when your pressing the gas is that there is no flow in your system till you rev it up because the fins on your waterpump are probably toast (my situation) The fans would also NOT come on because the temp sensor for the fan is on the thermostat housing and was not getting any flow of "HOT" water to that because of the bad thermostat and the fans never came on making me think the fans were dead. If you look up my post history you can probably see the saga that I had with it and it just turned out to be the waterpump.

HTH,
Brendan.

 

well guys my cars old and i just started investing my time and money into fixing it because it just apparently needs it. so i'm going to go ahead and fix the waterpump and also fix the fans... how difficult would it be to fix the waterpump and how would i go about doing this? also, how difficult would it be to replace every aspect of the fans (besides the thermostat because i had just replaced it) and also how owuld i do this as well. I should probably get a manual but at the same time there aren't large free portions of my day that i can sacrifice often. thanks guys... all your input is being appreciated.

 

Give us some history on the car?

How many miles? When was the timing belt done if at all?

It takes roughly 4 hours to do the waterpump and timing belt on this engine. Depending on your level of expertise, you can probably tack on a couple more hours to that, perhaps even turn it into a weekend project.

I recommend getting one of those kits off ebay that include a new waterpump, tensioner bearings, timing belt, balance shaft belt, and a couple various seals. It's good to do all that at the same time while you're in there doing either the waterpump or timing belt.

Regarding the FAN issue, if the waterpump is not circulating water, the fans will not come on because no hot water is reaching the fan switch on the t-stat housing as I said in my last post. If the car has over 100k miles and the timing belt hasn't been replaced, you're better off starting there and replacing the waterpump in the process.

Brendan.

 

That's what my water pump looked like that came out of a 30-40k JDM motor.