overheating with ac OFF?

[mixmatch]

yesterday my car started overheating with the ac off but does just fine with the ac on. with the ac off, neither fan kicks on at all as the temp goes up, but with the ac on they both work as they should and the temp stays normal. before it started happening i was trying to push that black dash piece so it sat more flush with the rest of the dash. could i have knocked something loose or is it just coinicidence? my friend and i think its a relay problem.

any suggestions?

edit: just read somewhere a guy was having similar problems with his 5th gen but even when he changed relays it still overheated and was suggested the temperature sensor was bad and to check the computer if that was the case. my CEL has come on twice in the last month (both times it cleared when i turned the car on and off again) but it never overheated before yesterday and ive been running with the ac on and off since then. would a bad temp sensor cause a CEL?...well anyways im hoping its just the relay in my case

[alb_accord]

well dude u got a radiator swich and a temp swich.
the temp swich is near the engine block on the left side.

the radiator swich its on the left side of the thermostat housing. <<<<<check the radiator swich first. mine was disconected once(don't know how) check the swich then move to the temp swich.

[mixmatch]

well since the window relay and the cooling fan relay are identical i switched them to try to test the relay. the windows still worked but the fans still didnt come on. so i got a radiator sensor to try later when i get home from work.

so ur saying its the one in the hard pipe thats on top of the engine closest to the front of the car?

gonna test the sensors with a multimeter and see if output is same on new and old one and hope this is the problem cuz i dont know what else it could be.

fuse is good, relay i guess is good, fans are good, wiring is good so crossing my fingers this is it.

[Sho Nuff]

I had the same problem i believe the problem is in the fan relay, but the way i temporarily fixed it was by taking the plug that is next to the thermostat and bridging the conectors together. My plug was already broken in a way so that i can just tape the leads together. This was only a temporary fix till i can get the time to fix the relay, it makes the fans stay on regardless if the ac is on or not.