Coolant Problems

[Civicfanatic]

I have a 1997 Honda Civic DX and it's been a pain in my neck lately. i have had it for 5 years and its been great with no problems til recently. the engine is a d16y7. about a few months back my temp gauge started climbing in stop and go traffic so i would throttle it up a lil and temp goes down, kept toping radiator off until it stayed full, still climbs, noticed a clicking sound coming from around where my water pump would sit so i changed my water pump and timing belt while i was at it, still climbs. i then changed my radiator since it was pritty beat up anyways and radiator cap to a new oem cap and radiator hoses, still climbs, so then i changed thermostat with new oem thermostat still climbs but now it wants to just climb even when driving and stay in the red put a temp gun to it and it gives a normal operating range reading about 134 degrees on the cam cover 200 on block 130 degrees lower hose 150 on upper hose oproximitly and car idles and runs fine when driving, even seems to run better, no smoke out my exhaust at anytime, pass leak/pressure test warm and cold, i even changed out the coolant temp sensor on upper hose and temp sensor sender unit from a part i bought at checkers didnt change lower temp sensor to thermostat housing or fan relay, fan kicks on when temp on gauge reaches the red so something is going on?????????????? my thought could be electrical problem or the other sensor, even could be the sender unit i bought is set to read totally different temp, extremely frustrating. my engine light doesnt even come on either when it hits red?????

[Xeryon]

From your description I might have missed something obvious. When the temp gauge climbs to the red is the engine actually overheating or is the gauge reading incorrectly?

 

This is going to sound silly: you did all that work but have you checked your fuses? If the thermostat temp sender fuse is blown you can have overheating issues and the rad fan may kick on when it should and everything. Car generally will perform ok when moving as moving airflow and the fan blowing are just enough to cool the motor to keep serious damage from occurring.

[Civicfanatic]

thanks for the help! turns out i figured it out after thinking about it for a sec. it was actually wanting to overheat before i changed out the water pump, but since i bought and changed out the sender with one from oreillys it was the problem because it has a differently rated resistor in it causing me to get and incorrect reading, changed it out with the oem one and havent had a problem since! i had already checked fuses and all before i put my first post up.