filluptieu

I have a 1994 prelude si H23a. it has a rebuilt engine that supposedly has a complete rebuild. well when i got the car the upper a/c line was missing. and so there was no a/c. (ill explain the rest about what the a/c has to do with this at the end)

Well after about 9 months of having the car, the prelude when it sits in traffic it tends to overheat pretty quickly.

So with not having the time or money (college student) i didnt fix the problem. well i got lucky and ran into a little bit of money and fixed the a/c and it blows ice cold! i live in san antonio, tx so its HELL down here at temp over 100 degress everyday.

Now the problem is that when the a/c is running it overheats within the next 10 minutes. and it doesnt cool down unless im driving pretty quickly.

I changed the thermostat .
i filled it with antifreeze coolant instead of 50/50. The driver side fan seems.
to pull air fine, but doesnt always stay on.
and the a/c fan kicks on right away once the a/c is turned on.
no leaks.

I honestly just want the car to run fine! im in college and dont have much money.

so im really confused.... my question:

should I just relay the driver fan to run the second I turn on the car? and have it running non stop. is that a good idea? where should i relay the positive too? and is the fan going to break if i run it the whole time while i am driving?

Any advice would be great! thanks guys

indylude18

Bad idea, you will burn out your fan.

Do both fans come on when you turn on the A/C, and does the radiator fan run before the car starts to overheat? Does the car only overheat when you idle alot but not when you are on the highway?

Kronn 98SH

I had basically the same problem. I had a small coolant leak from the lower rad hose. I fixed the leak and replaced the thermostat (unknown aftermarket brand) but the overheating still occurred. So I replaced the thermostat again (this time I used a HONDA OEM tstat) and my problem was cured. So if yours isn't Honda, you might replace it again.

__________________
1988 Prelude S - victim of an 80mph backflip
1991 Prelude Si - sold
1989 Accord DX - impounded
1998 Prelude SH - totaled on 3/29/12
2006 CRF150F - sold
2006 YZ250F - sold

filluptieu

okay once the ac is running the AC fan (passenger side) runs the whole time its on, the other fan does not. it starts up everynow and then from what i am aware of. and the radiator fan runs after it starts to heat up. it over heats at idle, and it also over heats when im on the highway but on the high way it goes back to normal after about a minute of driving.

and really? the OEM makes that big of a difference?

indylude18

Yeah cheap parts can cost you way more in the long run. Do you recall if the t-stat you put in is a failsafe? If you really wanted to you could test the t-stat in hot oil or something, but it would be easier to just exchange it for a new one to rule that out as being the problem.

Also IIRC both fans should be turning constantly when the AC system is running.

lovemylude95

If it's not your thermostat, theres a chance it could be the radiator itself or the hosing. If the car is overheating quickly, i'm thinking theres a chance that you're not getting enough coolant flow through the engine. Not sure what you're major is, so you may know all this, but whats happening is that when the car turns on, coolant is moved through the engine where it absorbs the heat energy from the engine itself, it is then moved into the radiator where the fins and fans disperse the heat energy out of the system, cooling the fluid and passing it back into the engine.

if the fluid isn't flowing, the car will not be able to cool at all. But that would seriously overheat the car and probably do damage to the block. This would be an extreme case, and isn't really likely, but worst comes to worst it's not hard to replace a radiator.

Kronn 98SH

There are LOTS of possibilities when it comes to overheating. If you aren't losing coolant, you probably have a bad tstat or a clog in the system.

__________________
1988 Prelude S - victim of an 80mph backflip
1991 Prelude Si - sold
1989 Accord DX - impounded
1998 Prelude SH - totaled on 3/29/12
2006 CRF150F - sold
2006 YZ250F - sold

spin_r_g

Well if you're not over heating on the freeway then the coolant is moving through the system and air is cooling it. If you're over heating in traffic and idling you could have a combination of things.

To the original poster have you driven around with the a/c off? Does the car over heat? Does the fan on the passenger side turn on on it's own?

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kingdavid332

I have a 95 Si H23a and with my car when I turn the A/C on both fans run the whole time. I would guess it should be the same for your car.