Ok well first thing. My female friend bought a 95 Civic and its having issues

1st and most main question is. What motor might it have. It has no markings at all and niether does the car...???

2nd its over heating bad and very fast, lastnight it was 31* here and it had sat for about an hour and was totally cold... started it and imediatlly it warmed up, but stayed a lil below normal. Started driving it and it started heating, I was driving normal. so i turned on the heater and it started to go down, (the heat wasnt as hot as it usually was btw) then started driving normal and it heated up again, quick. So i started to give it more gas speeding up moderatly and it would go down. then got on the highway and it would go down and run about normal. get back into town and boom hot as hell again. WTF?

I dont know if its the t-stat or the water pump but i can really only afford one and would like to get it right the first time.

I personally am a chevy owner but still love the civic so needless to say im more familiar with domestics but ive got about a 3 hour time frame to fix it when i start so if someone could tell me whats going on the would be AWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEE

Thanks in advance...
John

 

sounds to me like your fan isnt turning on.... either a bad fan or maybe something small like the temperature switch is bad ...

but for the motor markings look right here on the motor...

follow the upper radiator hose and look right down.... youll see a flat spot and thats the motors stamping location... i painted my motor/tranny black so its not as easy to see.


heres the motor stamping on my old motor, preaty oily and dirty but it looks like that... very hard to see when its all dirty.... will help read it beter if ya take like a scratch pad and go over it it should make it easier to read....

 

Ok awsome, but like i said domestic owner lol, I know heating cooling is the same on anything or most anything but could u give me a short run down on this, cause im trying to gather all the info that i can before she gets here to work on it at 11 today which where im at is 3 hours away, and ied like to make sure that i get it right the first time cause i have little money and she needs her car tomorrow so if you could thorow any suggestions other than this that you think might be a more positive match that would be well appriciated, cause i just dont get it but my first thought would have been t-stat or maybe air in the system cause a friend of mine and hers added antifreeze to it and it didnt start tilljust afterthat, but i think he was smart enought to have the fan on hight heat and floor. Atleast i hope... but other than that, i read more on here and seen it could be awater pump which i thought about then head gasket and like you said fan, and i can already feel a headache coming on plus my lack of sleep wont help. but thanks for what you have told me, and on the stamping location... Anything elseill appriciate...

 

First you need to be sure it's completely full and bleed the air. With the engine cold, take off the radiator cap and open the little bleed screw on the fitting on the front of the engine where the hose to the top of the radiator connects. Pour coolant into the radiator until it is full and coolant comes out of the hole in the bleeder screw. Then tighten the bleeder and put the cap on and fill the plastic bottle about 1/2 full of coolant.

Test drive and see if the problem persists. When the engine is hot (on the verge of overheating, but don't let it actually overheat), the lower radiator hose should be hot and the fan on. If the lower hose doesn't get hot you probably need a thermostat. It costs under $15.00 and you can change it yourself. Unlike many cars it is mounted in the lower hose fitting near the starter not in the upper one on the top of the engine. If the lower hose does get hot but the fan is not on there is a problem with the fan system.

Check for leaks in the engine by leaving the cap off and rev up the engine if bubbles keep coming out of the radiator this usually means there is a problem. The bubbles are exhaust gas that leaks out of the engine.

Also if you keep losing coolant it is leaking out somewhere. If the level in the radiator is going down but the bottle is overflowing you need the radiator cap or it may be a bad head gasket. Overheating even once will damage the head gasket or warp or crack the engine.

If the engine says "VTEC" on the top it should be a D16Z6, this is a 1600 cc engine. If it says "16 VALVE" on the top it's going to be a D15B7, a 1500 cc engine. Either one the cooling systems are identical.

 

Thanks for all this guys ill be looking at her car soon and hopefully i can get it right the first time... Aside from no sleep seems fairly straight forward.

 

let car run and see if the fans come on where radiator is or but ac on and fans should automatically come on. if it still over heating i would change thermostat and radiator cap. check oil is there water in it. when car is runing is there steam coming out of the exhaust? if u need any more help let me know. i work alot on hondas. u can pm me or email me at mitchkaren1225@yahoo.com

 

On a '95 the radiator and condenser are side by side and turning on the A/C will not activate the radiator fan. That does work with many other cars where the condenser is in front of the radiator and the same fan(s) pull air thru both.

 

I had a similar problem with my 94 accord ex. until the radiator blew on me. It just turned out to be the radiator was getting bad until it popped open. This was like 5 yrs ago and since then no more over heating problems