Honda Car Forum

any ideas??? my car will only overheat after driving about 20 miles on freeway and come to a stop. once moving the car will come back down to mid temp. i had to turn on the heat today in an accident so it would not overheat. i took to the dealer and they said they could not verify. i checked the coolant and made sure there was not an air pocket. coolant looks good, both fans are coming on. the car has 65k on it. when i come to a stop and it is on mid if i give it gas and rev only 500-1000 rpm's the gauge will rise. has me stumped. any thoughts????

Go to a RADIATOR SHOP, not an auto repair, and get it checked, Sounds like a plugged radiator.

the condition you describe is what happens when the radiator cooling fan is not working. the car won't overheat immediately because you have to drive it for a few miles to get the engine up to temperature. when you're driving there is enough air coming over the radiator so that the heat is carried away. the radiator fan is only used to pull air over the radiator when you're going under 30 mph or you are at stops. if the temp rises as you slow down and come to a stop then the radiator fan isn't working.If you have air conditioning on the car then you can turn it on when you see the temp rise; if the temp drops with the air conditioning on then you've confirmed that the radiator fan is inoperative. turning the air conditioning on turns on the condensor fan automatically and that will do what the radiator fan normally does.the usual cause of a radiator fan not working is a seized fan motor. there is a temperature switch that turns the fan on that can go bad but typically its the fan motor itself.hope that helps

my civic did the same thing and i had to replace the thermostat. after about a year it started acting up again but it was really sporadic like what you are describing so i started looking around under the hood and i found where i hooked a wire into my distributor it had grounded out and "burnt" up right by the engine temp sensor. so that one was my own fault. the temp sensor should be in a similar spot on your engine; just under the distribute on the head itself, its a single wire i believe its yellow with no tracer