thumperk15

Sorry everyone, I'm new, and will introduce myself this afternoon, I apollogize. I have a '06 that I gave to my G/F, we are now married, and she loves that car. It having some minor issues though, after about 45,000 miles in the OD. It will warm, uhh, not really familar with the car much anyone, gave it up at about 20 grand on OD, first year I had it. It usally shows 1 or 2 bars under half way, between cold, and hot. It got a few away from hot a few weeks ago, but that was it. It doesn't want to blow hot air, even when a warm engine, she has to fight with it, gain speed, or play with the heater controls. It may get hot, and then go cold. Today, this morning, the temp fluctuated up, and down in temp a little, and she said it affected the heater, not sure how, maybe in heat. Whats the deal with this thing? LOL. Its really cold outside, and heats a must. No warrenty, and a diagnosis at the dealer is like $70 bucks. I was hopeing to fix myself maybe.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

seems to me like a faulty thermostat. if its not working properly, it may prevent coolant from reaching the heater core. or you might have a clog somewhere in the system, or the water pump may be going bad. chances are with that new of a car, its just a sticking thermostat. another small possibility is the temp dial switch is broken. had that happen to my bros 03 rsx not too long ago. everything worked fine, its just when he turned the dial, it would always stay cold even if it was on hot. turned out to just be the temp switch.

CraigW

iTrader: (1)

Check the coolant level.

jgcentury

^Again, GB has the answer! That bad **** beats me to the punch 99 times out of 100.

thumperk15

Thanks guys. I'll start with the simplest cheapest thing, and the fact that it has got hot once. I'll change the T-stat, and hope its not expensive, and see if that helps. Its a good car, but has its issues. Where does the TB coolant hoses run? They are on the drivers side, but where are the lines running to the heater core? I'm guessing on the passenger side, but on a Civic who knows...lol.

thumperk15

Just checking in. It was a 1/2 gal low on coolant, well, 1/2 gal, but I also filled up the coolant overflow too. I'm just wondering where the coolant went. Water can evaporate, and that happens in my hotrods in the summer, but that sounds like I could have a leak. I know that I checked the coolant before the cold set in, and it was full.

Thanks. The heater is now warm when it has one bar on the temp gauge.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if theres no leak, it could be a small headgasket leak which would suck. do you ever smell burning coolant? inside the car?

thumperk15

It never smells like coolant, and never shows signs of leaking any. She had my old '95 S-10 Blazer before I gave her this car. It would always seem to get low, and it would get warm, because of it. I checked it out many times, and never saw signs of it leaking either. I even ran it once for about 15mins, and no leaks anywhere. Later I would find out that it was the Waterpump. I guess it was having its days where it would dump it out, and times it wouldn't drip one bit.


Thanks for your help. Without any help from this site, and I wouldn't have ever checked the coolant till spring maybe. On a newer car that isn't running hot, I would have never checked the coolant. I never thought a little low would cause the heater to go cold. I take it, the heater lines are high enough on the engines cooling system that a little low will cause the hot water to not circulate thru the heater core.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

do both radiator fans come on when you use the A/C? sometimes one or both go out and coolant overflows or burns off. so you found the waterpump had a bad seal? i guess thats better than rebuilding the motor lol. i think just having lo coolant wouldnt affect the heater core, that prolly happened from the water pump not turning and circulating the coolant.

thumperk15

I meant that to be a different paragraph. I was rambling about another car, that I'm hoping isn't the same as this one is...lol. I just added coolant and its fine, but still wondering where the coolant went.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

okay well check the fans. if they both work, you have a small headgasket leak thats burning coolant in the motor. another thing to try is with the car cold, open the radiator cap and start the car. warm it to operating temp by revving upto 3k rpms. turn heater to full blast and watch to see if any air bubbles come out the radiator top. keep adding coolant if it goes down. the bubbles should stop after 5-10 mins if there is just air in the system. if the headgasket is blown, bubbles will never stop. you can also do a compression test on the motor and a coolant system pressure check.

thumperk15

I'll check that asap, but its rainy outside today. I hope thats not what it is. I can't see why an engine in a car so new, can have a blown gasket.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

mine blew at 50k miles. lots of stuff happens for no reason. ive seen some civics parts last for years and others break in a few months, completely random.

thumperk15

I talked to a guy that had the same car as me, talking bad about it. His had 10,000miles, and blew, and I could hear his engine knocking still. He had right at 11,000 on it, and thought it could go anytime. If a engine is well taken care off, and driven good, that shouldn't ever blow at low miles.

Things some people don't know is that the '06 Civic has a K20Z3, and it does have a rev limiter, but only when going up in gears. When you race, and downshift, maybe even in the wrong gear, it will not kick in, and may cause you to hit over 9 rpm, BAM!! engine gone! The guy I talked to didn't know, therefore his fault.

This car has never been raced, never mistreated, and never driven outside of what the rev limiters job does...lol.