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hey all. recently me and the gf moved to my hometown up north in nw indiana. apart from the fact her alabama car has the crappiest tires possible for winter the car seems to do half decent apart from one major problem.

the thing seems to take 8 1/2 years to warm up to where the defrost actually works. i was just wondering if the southern cars were designed differently than the northern ones or if there is some easy way to make it warm up quicker.

the other day for instance, it was about 15*f out, and i went out started the car, brewed a pot of coffee, filled my thermos and went out and the defrost was still blowing cold and the temp gauge hadn't even moved hardly. this is about 15 mins of running at minimum.

so while im sitting there freezing waiting for the windows to thaw i noticed the fans turn on about every 2 minutes. maybe im dumb, but shouldnt the fans only turn on when the car needs them to be on??

i could just be spoiled with my luxury car, but i know the fan thing isnt normal, atleast on northern cars. my buick dont even think about using the fans untill the car is atleast at 120*.


just wondering if anyone can offer up any ideas as to how i can get the thing to warm up a bit faster in these northern winters. thanks alot!!

 
Rep Power: 518

Think about this: You have a pot of water on the stove. It is a gallon of water. You have to burn a LOT of fuel to heat up all that water.

The engine is no different. The block holds (example) a gallon of water (antifreeze). You must burn a certain amount of fuel (KCAL) in order to heat (BTU) that gallon of water XX number of degrees. You can burn the fuel slowly (idling) or you can burn it faster (driving).....but you WILL burn this amount of fuel before there is noticeable heat.

Chemistry 101.





If the thermostat is good, then there is nothing else you can do to the engine unless you want to stick a block heater in it....and plug it in every night..

Things YOU can do are: Turn the blower fan OFF or down to the first click if you must have it on. The heater fan can remove engine heat almost as fast as the engine can create it when you leave it on full blast, you can almost double the amount of time needed to warm it up.

Or jump in and drive it. Driving it warms it up faster than anything, and doesn't waste fuel.


Radiator fans are supposed to run whenever the AC system cycles.
You have the defroster on, so the AC is turned on automatically.
The AC will engage and operate once its internal pressure is high enough to permit its operation.

 
Rep Power: 244

Remote start wouldn't help it warm up faster but you can warm it up before you go out to it.

 
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thanks for the info guys. given that in under about 45 degrees it never gets more than about 1/8th on the gauge i think i might go old school and get a piece of cardboard behind the grille also. i want to do a remote start on the car but honda refuses to copy the key for a spare to go in the brain for the transponder without the r/o who is in alabama.

any easy freeze plugs to get to? and if so what size are they? sorry for not knowing alot about the hondas. im too tall to sit in most of them comfortably so im stuck with the giant american ones.

as for driving to make it warm up, im just paranoid about putting a very cold engine under stress. ontop of that you cant breathe without fogging the windows up till its warm

thanks again guys.

 
Rep Power: 518

NO NO NO!

Thermostat. Do it right.

Cardboard is for idiots that don't understand how a thermostat works and are too damn cheap to drop $20 in their car if it really does need a stat.


Actually, PROOF would be to get a OBD2 scanner that can show coolant temperature in real time. See what it is while driving at highway speed after warmup. If it drops under 180*F after it has been warmed up, you need a thermostat.






Gotta have proof of ownership. Normal. YOU might be a terrorist because you don't have the title.
Factory accessory block heater screws in in place of the block drain plug next to the oil filter.

Majestic, had to go to 2005 to find it:
04008T44-S5B-100HEATER, ENGINE BLOCK 80.00 56.00
I bet if you talk to a human there you can get them to include install instructions with the parts.

 
Rep Power: 518

Hang on a second, looking up something else.

 
Rep Power: 518

Ok, read this. It applies to your car too.
http://dvpatel.homelinux.com/forumfiles/SN/A100200.pdf

Again, PROOF would be in a scanner that can display coolant temperature.



I've also been assuming you have a 7th gen car......?



The climate control is designed that way. It shouldn't turn the fan on until the coolant is over about 105(? depends on the year I guess) so you don't get hit with an arctic blast first thing.

This ain't a Buick and it never will be.

(I just gave away a fine 90 Park Avenue to my son. Great car.)

 
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i believe its a 7th gen.. 2002 on the registration, hood says 2001, i believe it was wrecked before.

i do love the giant luxury gm cars. nice power decent handling (atleast my model which is the same body as the 95+ riviera) and on the long trips from chicago area to her family in birmingham its like you are driving your couch. i only ever stop one time to get gas and dont feel sore or tired at all when i get there. lol

as for the hvac fan, i always start it with the heat off and turn it on after its going and it will freeze you out first thing.

sorry if i seem like im knocking honda. im honestly not doing it intentionally. its just the gf's first winter out of the south and im trying to make it as bearable as possible.

do you happen to know what the highest temp t-stat is for this car? if need be i dont have a problem swapping it out seasonally.


thanks again guys, i really appreciate it.

 
Rep Power: 518

That's 7th gen. 01-05.


I liked all of the GM products I owned....except for a $40 1976 Chevette that came with my ex when we got married. The big FWD cars are great snowmobiles.
My V6 GMs all warmed up quite a bit quicker than the 4 cylinder GMs, and my Civic takes longer yet. But this car gets nearly double the gas mileage of the V6 GMs I had.


Factory stat is 180.
DAMN RELIABLE.
No options.


Aftermarket might have higher ratings.
Less reliable on average.

No matter what thermostat you put in there, the thermostat has no bearing on the length of time it takes to get heat. Simple laws of physics.

Another thing: If your thermostat was really bad (stuck open, opens at too low temp), the CEL should be on with a P0128 code.
Winter: We haz it here.
Coat, gloves, Carharts, long johns. No fashion shows here.
Tell her to put her big girl panties on and suck it up.
Tell her to be glad it isn't Canada.
No, you don't need to wonder if I am divorced or not.


Bonus: Some days we can run the heater AND the A/C in the same day!
Let her drive the boat.

 
Rep Power: 0

haha. thats my baby. its the first car ive ever modded. tint, tinted tails, led tailgate strip under the taillights and my favorite mod of all, this.

[autostream]http://autostream.com/ibcivicforums/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=1369& transactionid=1358384780-71194109159&posted_by=_www.civicforums.com&youtube _video_id=B5wHQsqvOsk[/autostream]

and this. its awesome for when you are at the drive in. no more running the car to keep it cool inside. just sit outside and back in. lol



as for the scanner, i used to have a bluetooth elm 27 and the torque app but the emissions people stole it when they tested my car and i didnt notice for about a week. guess its time to buy a new one.

 
Rep Power: 257

you have the car sitting in below freezing temperatures with the heater on full blast and you wonder why it takes 15 minutes to warm up. get in it and drive the dam thing its a modern car your not going to damage anything by driving it and wipe some rain-x anti fog on the windshield if its fogging up.

 
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sorry if i have offended you. i am just used to my buick warming up in about ten minutes or less in the same conditions with a much bigger grille and more to warm up in general.

 
Rep Power: 257

also make sure she has the proper amount of coolant in there if its low the heater won't work properly.

 
Rep Power: 518

Regular people still use CBs? LOL
Looks like it has all the stuff that kids like, color changing display and such. Trying to make them popular again?

I shouldn't say anything. I have had a pile of CBs in the past when I was a driving fool and driving 1000 miles in a day was a piece of cake.
Had a 100w hotfoot for a minute too.

Long ago, back when a personal cell phone came in a huge black bag and weighed 14 pounds.....It was rainy and 40 degrees.....The car broke down about 20 miles west of Indy and that radadio saved my *** and got me and the ol lady a ride to the nearest land line and civilization.







You really don't understand how an engine cooling system works then.

 
Rep Power: 518

HEY what about the ol blown head gasket that causes no heat at idle?

 
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sorry i thought i had mentioned that the cars have to face nw. we have assigned parking spaces and the apt complex mandates that we park forward in our spaces instead of reverse. so the result of parking this way is all the wind/cold comes straight through the grille causing the engine to be significantly colder than if it were parked normally.

situations like the one in the attached picture


as for the head gasket, the car has never smoked at all as long as i have known her, no milky oil either.

 
Rep Power: 518

Cars have zero living tissue, they are not affected by wind chill or having snow sit on top of them. They don't care how cold YOU feel.
When it sits outside without running, the engine temperature will be exactly the same as the ambient temperature, I don't care how much snow gets packed in there.
The ONLY time it could be a problem is if snow/ice/cold physically obstructs something from moving.

This head gasket on this engine does not normally fail in any of the ways most people expect.
They pump pressure into the cooling system, causing airlocks and makes the overflow bottle puke out if it is full enough.





After the engine is all warmed up and you are driving along enjoying heat.....and come to a stop......Does the heater blow cool air?

Is the radiator completely full? All air burped out?

 
Rep Power: 254

Redline motor?

 
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As long as there's oil in that engine your engine won't be harmed from driving it when it's cold. Just take it easy til it warms up. I don't rev higher than 3k until mine's warm.

I don't know if this is entirely true but I heard letting your engine idle for an extended period of time (15min.) can damage your catalytic converter. So you're better off driving the thing than wasting gas warming it up with the chance of hurting your catalytic converter.

 
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sorry if i seem like im knocking honda. im honestly not doing it intentionally. its just the gf's first winter out of the south and im trying to make it as bearable as possible

 
Rep Power: 188

With my 6th gen Civic, the temperature gauge is all the way to normal by the time I drive 2 miles, driving 40MPH on a more or less flat road, 30 F outside. Sometimes closer to 1.5 miles. The car is always parked outside so the engine is the same temperature as ambient. Everything is stock except for an upper grille block which helps.
http://s909.photobucket.com/albums/a...e%20for%20MPG/

Drive it when cold, just be easy on it because the oil takes a while to thin out. It should heat up pretty quick as long as the fan in the dashboard is just set at notch 1 speed. So like ezone said, it's probably your thermostat.

 
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yes. pm me and buy my clifford remote start :-) new in box. itll be in the classifieds soon.

 
Rep Power: 518

?? LOL