Any ideas why, after so many repairs and $$$$ with a AAA Certified Repair shop, the temp gauge that sooner or later shows the needle HOT? Everything accounted for - thermostat 5x, radiator 3x, computer, maintenance, etc etc etc. " It’s fixed !!" and then it’s starts all over again. It’s got 186,000 on it, couple of minor wrecks, all maintenance kept up, still driving it but the needle goes back up again and again. Funny thing, water levels remain the same, no smoke, no red engine light, slight smell of a hot engine but nothing else so far. Still, that needle!! This has been going on a couple of years. Want to figure it out before I get rid of the car. And I ain’t going back to that AAA shop. Any suggestions, guesses? Thanks
Did you ever change the radiator cap? They don’t always come with a new radiator. Also possible, the water pump, fans, hoses etc. When it gets hot, have you ever put the heater on its highest setting and turned the blower fan on its highest setting to see if the temp comes down?
This series of Civic is very fragile when overheated, once or twice, and the head warps and the headgasket is blown. So if it never actually overheated, then you might have a bad temp gauge sending unit, which is not unheard of. They do occasionally fail. When it reads hot, you could unplug the sending unit, the gauge should drop to cold. If it doesn’t, then a wire is shorting to ground, or the gauge itself is bad. A good shop should know this, maybe you need to find one more familiar with Honda’s. Hope this helps.
I, too, like the idea of the temp sensor unit. Had a similar experience years ago, turned out the wiring on the sensor was loose and oily, cleaned the contacts - problem solved.