On a whim, I bought a 1988 Civic LX with 174K miles in October 2013.
The idea was to save on gas over my Ford Expedition.

Well, now things are starting to "pop up" that didn't when I test drove it.


Battery would die leaving headlights on for 5 minutes, replaced under warranty.


The brake pedal is soft.
- Master cylinder was replaced before I bought it.
- I replaced the shoes, drums were fine.
- Pads and discs are fine.
- I've bleed all four wheels, might need to be re-bleed.
- Not sure how to know if the booster is good or not.


Suspect Overheating
I was told the previous owner had installed a switch on the dash to turn on the radiator fan at one point.
The switch remains with nothing attached to it as I cleaned up all the wiring that wasn't connected to anything.
The fans do turn on if I turn on the AC, but I'm not sure if the coolant temp sensor is functioning properly (no wiring diagrams) and/or the thermostat is stuck (I really don't know where the temp gauge is suppose to read "normally"). The radiator and coolant looks clean.


The hose from the heater valve to the engine was replaced last week (sprung a leak) but I haven't bleed it yet.
Hint: If a hose feels firm, then a part of it feels like a you are pressing on a baloon = replace it.


Window pops out of track.
Drivers window pops out of the track closest to the door hinge when rolled all the way down.
Pulled the regulator cleaned, re-greased, reinstalled. Same thing.
Hopefully the new regulator that's in transit will fix it, can be returned if not.


One issue I have been having is I'd start the car (no problem), drive 1/2 mile to the store , come out, and it would crank but no start. I'd wait a few minutes and crank to where the the battery sounds like it is almost dead and it would eventually start.

I pulled the Main Relay yesterday and reflowed all the solder joints, and reinstalled.
Started right up, no issues so far with starting a second time so far.

The solder on used on the main relay is really poor quality, remove as much of it as you can and replace with quality solder.
I personally use 63/47 solder as it flows well, and be sure to use liquid flux. Your soldering should look "volcano shaped" and be shiny, not balled up and dull looking.

One tip for soldering is, clean the tip of your soldering iron on a damp sponge, melt a tiny dab of solder on the soldering tip, then touch the point you need to reflow. This has a tendency to transfer the heat much better and without overheating the component you are trying to solder.


Tonight, I park at the store, come back out go to start the car and got the high pitched sound of the starter remaining engaged. Is this a fluke? Signs the starter going bad? Flywheel?


I have a small rip in a CV boot too, gonna try and use a inner tube vulcanize repair kit to fix it.
When they replaced the tranny, they did replace the axles. And I really don't have the tools to replace the whole axle (which is cheaper than just the boot) over a stupid idiotic thin walled frickin rubber boot that is such a PITA to replace for such a crappy part that should be thick enough to last like a bazillion miles before needing to be replaced!

Oh, the tranny was replaced with a junkyard special by the previous owner.

Part of this thread is a phuk me rant/vent as I cant get one thing fixed before something else breaks, and the other part is if anyone has an insight (other than explosives) at what else I should be looking at here?

Some times it has that smell like it's overheating, but I don't know for sure as I haven't had it long enough to know what is "normal" and I don't want to just replace parts at random if it's simple as some bad wiring.


If you have any thoughts/ideas on some of these items, I'd appreciate it.
Just getting a little overwhelmed by being hit with them all one after another.

 

Bleeding the cooling system is important.

The radiator fan sensor is on the back of the engine block above the alternator. It is simply an on-off switch that closes when the temperature increases. Temporarily bypass it by unplugging the wires and jumping them together. The fans will now run all the time the key is on. Test drive like that, and if no overheating, replace the switch.

The temperature gauge should come up to halfway and then stay in nearly the same place through all driving conditions.

The thermostat is in the lower radiator hose where it meets the engine. There is nothing in the water outlet fitting on the top of the engine. Don't remove it looking for the thermostat.

 

Ok, finally got a chance to bleed the coolant system.


I found the radiator fan sensor; there were actually two "sensors":
one between the oil filter and the alternator (the one I wanted), and
one right above the middle of the oil filter (no clue).

I pulled back the rubber boot and found one wire not even connected.
I shorted both wires out and the fans turned on.
I tightened the connector a bit and connected them back to the sensor.
Ran the car at idle for 20+ minutes and the fans never turned on.
Rev'ed up to 2500RPM for about 5 minutes, and still never turned on.

Turned on the AC and fan on high; radiator fans turned on and I let it idle that way till it cooled down a bit. Sidenote: As the AC clutch cycled on/off, so did the radiator fans.


The temp gauge NEVER got even half way.
At idle for 20+ minutes, it read about 17%.
Idle for 20 minutes plus 2500RPM for 5 minutes, it got about 34%


Thanks for the tip on the thermostat, I would have pulled the top-hose bracket =)

The manual I have shows three temp sensors, but not one of them where you told me, and they all say "THERMOSENSOR" *sigh*. And I can't find the wiring diagrams.

 

The sensor directly above the oil filter is the oil pressure switch. It turns on the "oil" light on the dash when there is low oil pressure. It isn't connected to anything else.

The fan switch you were working on doesn't trip on until the engine block temperature is slightly above normal. You may have to drive the car to reach that in a practical time.

The other two temperature sensors are screwed into the end of the cylinder head underneath the distributor; they are hard to see without removing the distributor. One controls the gauge on the dash. The other tells the computer when the engine has warmed up.

 

Ah, good to know about the oil pressure switch (for future reference).


The spot where the fan switch is located in really a PITA to get to and if I can't tell when the fans are or not running while driving, it does me no good.

Any idea where I can find the wiring diagrams?

Maybe I can tap into something under the dash to connect an idiot light temporarily to tell when the fans turn on while driving, then I know it's working or not.

 

Some links are posted at the top of this forum to download manuals. I don't know if they're still good.

Since touching the wires together started the fans, you know that the fans and wiring are good now anyway.

The fans are really only needed when the car is sitting still in traffic. In motion, that tends to force enough air through the radiator. If you see the temperature going up, pull over and get out and check if the fans are on, and if not, engage the A/C to force them on.

 

I'll look again at those links; everything but the wiring diagrams so far =)

Yeah, I know I can use the AC to enable the fans, just didn't want to ghetto them like that especially if someone else is driving the car.

Thanks again for the help, much appreciated!


The window regulator came in today, so will see if that prevents the window from popping out if it's track tomorrow.

 

Installed the new window regulator, seems to have fixed the glass from coming out of the track.

I did a comparison of the old/new side-by-side and I really couldn't seem much of any difference between the two other than one arm was slightly bent down and there was about 1/8" slop at the pivot point where the two scissor arms cross:




Now it looks like the temp gauge isn't working at all *sigh*, I also notice when the engine is cold that the rpm's at idle pulse between 700 and 1200 RPM. I'll try to re-bleed the coolant system and see if that helps.