1995 Honda Accord Overheats

I have almost 300,000 on this car. The heater was operating funny before I replaced the thermostat , Car was overheating then , but I found a crack on the top of the radiator so I replaced it along with upper and lower hoses. I checked the fans to make sure they were both working, replaced the temp switch just in case it was tempermental. I have not replaced the WP - but that was on the next to do list (as there is not much else to look at) - except it seems that it is nicely located :-( , Coolant was changed with the radiator / hoses / thermostat.

300,000 miles, that's great! I've heard that these cars can go that distance on the engine and transmission. My car was the EX model and had the VTEC Engine, a breakthrough technology for passenger cars in 1995 and pretty much straight from the Indy race cars previously. Also, the transmissions in the mid 90s was really the best. Honda contracted out their transmissions later around 98 or 99 to an outside company that did a lousy job and there were a lot of failures in those cars especially around 2000. That was very embarrassing for them and I think they brought that back in house later. These cars were great and should have their timing belt and water pumps changed at the same time at 90,000 mile intervals or every 7 years or so. Don't forget that time and mileage are a key factor with rubber timing belts. The good news is that they can be more easily changed than a timing chain. You really never know when the timing chain will break and cannot even see the damn thing. Changing the timing belt will make your car seem like new again, really makes that dramatic of a difference. If you have 300,000 miles on your car, I imagine you've had to do this more than once?

I was going to do this Job myself - but given the location of the WP, and my lack of time I called someone they will do it and the timing belt at the same time for $750 ish,(a lot for a WP). I think I will ask about the main seal / bearing seeing as they will have it that far down. (Amazingly I have not changed the timing belt yet, was not planning on keeping the car so long - but my other vehicle needs quite a bit of work - so with no time - I kept it.

It's all labor, it's cheap insurance to do the water pump when the timing belt is done. I don't recommend skipping these, if they fail, you'll ruin your engine. Of course if you sell the car, its no longer your problem, but someone will undoubtedly ask you about it.

Have you checked the heads and gaskets for failure or cracks? I Have had those go bad on several cars but no indication of a problem (water in the oil or excessive smoke etc) other than the constant overheating.

Water pump on back side of engine is leaking, looks like a WP job. The location of it is really bad to do it myself in a day - so this will be a shop job (bummer). The heads seem fine , no missing, no signs of leakage, fuel economy has not dropped - I keep a close eye on that even 1 mpg tells you something is wrong. I had a different car when it dropped like that I replaced the PCV valve - the thing most people ignore and never replace and my mpg went back to normal (point is that even 1mpg will tell you if your car is not behaving like it should.) So I do keep an eye on that.

Im having the same problem iv done WP AN FANS ARE TURNING ON RADIATER IS NEW HOUSES R GOOD BUT NOT NEW THERMOSTAT IS NOT EVEN IN IT ITS JUST A HOLE THROUGH IT BUT IT KEEPS GETTING HOT AFTER ABOUT 10 TO 15 MILS AN I CANT FIGURE IT OUT SO I HOPE SOME ONE CAN HELP ME WITH A FEW IDEAS..THANK U..

@Guru5MHK5 If you have a new WP, your fans are running , your radiator is new (you should verify flow and pressure) after that the only thing I can think of is you have a head that is cracked or a head gasket broken. Check your oil to see if it has coolant - the 'oil level' would be rising as coolant is ending up in the oil pan. You can get a block tester $40 to check it out as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4FoUc6fRNs

What about the relays? Have I changes them? I had relays go bad in my PT Cruiser all the time.