armadadrive

Hey folks! I have to admit I'm fairly unfamiliar with car maintenance outside of headlamp changes, battery swaps, and a few other basic things.

So, to get down to it - my car is a 2005 Civic LX-G 4-door sedan. In the last 6 months as the weather here in Canada has gotten colder, I've noticed that the car was taking longer and longer to "warm up" and start blowing hot air into the cabin (even though the dial was cranked all the way into the red). Now, it's at the point where if I'm driving at a reasonable speed then warm air starts coming out like it should. However, if I have to stop in traffic or at a red light, it drops back down to a chilly breeze.

A friend of the family suggested that the thermostat for the in car heat is still a "mechanical" piece on an '05, and that there is likely some problem where it's not allowing heat in from the engine until higher temperatures are reached than what would normally be required. I have no idea if the heat in an '05 is computer controller or mechanically controlled, and I also don't want to let a service station get into me for a few hundred bucks "exploring the problem" since I can't really help them diagnose the issue with my lack of experience.

So yeah, that's why I've turned to you guys - the enthusiasts! Hopefully this is a problem some of you have encountered before and you can give me some advice as to what to suggest a shop look at first? My car is due to be inspected in March, so I'd like to get this fixed while it's in getting a new sticker.

TL;DR - my car is blowing cold air into the cabin even after the engine has been running for 10-15 minutes. If I'm idling in traffic for too long, it's just plain cold. I need to actually have my foot on the gas to get hot air to come through the cabin, regardless of where on the "red" spectrum the control dial is.

mikey1

you have left out the most important piece of information in all this.....

WHERE is your temperature needle/guage reading through all of this fiasco?

armadadrive

Actually, I have no idea. I'll look next time I'm in the car. I have a friend who works in the service department at a Honda dealership and he has just informed me that it's most likely low coolant or even a leak in the steel coolant pipe that runs across the back of the motor. Apparently they tend to rust in this generation of Civic.

ezone

Coolant level is low in the radiator, air is trapped in the heater core.

Where did the missing coolant go?
Could be leaking, could be a blown head gasket.

Since it is what it is, it probably needs a head gasket anyway and that's a perfect time to change out that pipe that rusts.