Hi, I have a 89 Honda Civic LX 1.5L. I had a heater hose that had a leak in it causing it to overheat. I fixed that, but now I can't get it to stop overheating. Sometimes, it starts and sometimes it does. I checked my ECU and it gave me a TDC code. Can a bad distributor housing cause it to overheat? Also, would that cause the sometimes starting or not starting at all? I have checked the wires going to the distributor and all the fuses. Does anyone have any other things I can try?

It overheated from the heater hose and possibly cracked the head. Run a compression and radiator bleed down test(AKA Leak down).

Have the starter checked, I had a similar issue in a nissan the throttle body coolant line was leaking down on the starter and it eventually caused it to sometimes to start and not start. The solenid on the starter could be sticking check that first and also check the thermostat and hoses for possible bloackages

I know the bad heater hose hose caused it to overheat, but fixing that didn't stop the overheating issue. I know the radiator fan is working because it kicks on at the normal temp stage. Why would it still overheat with the hose fixed? Could that hose be blocking the fluid flow?

Replace the waterpump, thermostat and all related gaskets, either the waterpump is bad or the radiator is clogged or it could be a bad temperature sensor or a faulty gauge

I forgot to add that when thermostats get old they can have a tendency to stick shut causing it to overheat once the engine warms up.

Ok, thanks. I'll try that.

Tweety, you may be missing the point about overheating. Yes, the heater hose caused the initial overheating but in doing so, the overheating may also have caused a blown the head gasket or cracked the head. Did you bleed the system to purge the air? Some Honda's have a bleed screw on the thermostat housing body. The failing to start could also be caused by water in the cylinders, due to a bad head gasket or cracked head.