first off: 03 civic sedan ex 5 speed manual
sorry if its a repeat i searched and couldnt find anything with my particular symtoms

ok so ive recently gotten into a wreck and im basically rebuilding teh front end myself. all replacement parts are new oem
so ive replaced the radiator and hoses and the system is all up and go but there are 2 problems
its still over heats and the heater doesnt work
note i havent put in coolant for now its just distilled water becuase i want to make sure th esystem works befroe filling it with poison that might have to be drained and delt with
i suspect the problem is that the radiator fan isn't turning on to cool it off(havne proved this but i have NOT seen it turn at idle as the temp approached nominal) ive tested the fan by giving direct power and it turns great all fuses are good
i think it may be the thermostat but i dont wanna buy parts and find out theyre not the fix. also might be the water pump but im not sure (which is why im here)
next is the heater, the blower is fine but the air is coming out nice and colld when you drive itll sort of get a bit warm then turn the fan on and it loses all of its heat(water pump?) any help is greatly appareciated!
thanks to all
Chris

 

welcome to the forum. if the rad is new, the fan is working, check to see if there is power going into the thermostate sensor, if there is power there, and the temp gets hot for the fan to go on, the thermostate sensoris not allowing the power to go through to power up the fan. If you have not touched the water pump there should be no problems unless you did not change it with the timing belt. If you don't understand what I am writing, email me acmech52@yahoo.com I'll try to explain better.

 

yeah i understand it all, ive replaced the thermostat in hopes that it would solve the problem but it was no good its still doing the same thing, coolant is getting into the upper hose but it doesnt seem to be going into the lower hose, the thermostat i used isnt oem(and frankly looks like crap next to the original) so i'll probably get another thermostat and sensor, i shorted the contacts going to the sensor and the fans kicked on so im assuming the fan problem is the sensor but would that stop coolant from moving thorugh the entire system? becasue the heater still doesnt heat and again still overheating
thanks Chris

 

ok well things have gotten a bit better.

the engine now will TRY to hold its temp, i found the issue(stupid overlook on my part) after putting in the new stat i forgot to flush it and get all the air out of the system. so i let all of the air out. the heater is getting luke warm(not as hot as it should but better than before) and the fans are kicking on so i dont need to worry about the sensor.
its still over heating though
im thnking let even more air out(i let out what i could while it was cold and didnt feel like waiting to get the rest out after running it)
also i AM still using water which i think might be part of the problem becuase its attemting to cool it self with the fans and they kick off after it reaches nominal so im thinking part of it might just be that the water cant carry enough heat
note: its reaching nominal staything there then over heating a bit more slowly than before
again thanks to all who help out
Chris