I have 2000 accord dx .My problem is because when i turn the heater on and the car is in idle mode it never warm up even after 30-40 min. of running the engine if i drive it heats up but after while .I changed the thermostat at honda diler ship and i stil have the same issue.Also my gas mileage became pretty bad like 15-17 litres per 100 kilometers.

 

I had a 91 oldsmobile with that problem,I replaced the heater core and my problems went away. I can't see the link between faulty heating and poor fuel economy though.

 

Hi there,
And welcome to the forum.
Be a bit more specific what exactly is not warming up - the cabin (Insidethe car)or the engine or both.
good luck

 

the link between faulty heating and poor fuel economy is that if your car doesn't heat up properly is going to spent more gas.thanks for the tip anyway

 

Is there any way my thermostat opens before 75 - 80 degrees and that is why it doesn't warm up faster.

 

It's possible for a new thermostat to be bad. But that really doesn't explain how it's doing exactly the same thing before & after you get the new one. (Is it exactly the same??)

Does the temperature gauge indicate cold?

Or does it indicate normal but the heater never gets hot? I'm wondering if the engine IS getting hot but something's broken or disconnected with the heater.

 

Don't want to hijack, but I'm interested in this thread as I have similar problem. After 10-15 mins of driving the heater works nice and warm (blows warm inside the cabin) but the temp gauge only goes as high as 1/4 of the way and never goes any higher. Does that sound like the problem original poster was describing?

 

Walmark, yours sounds like it might(?) be an inaccurate gauge. (That's not the most expensive accurate gauge in the world...)

Maybe that position on the gauge is normal. My Hondas usually run about 1/3 of gauge; yours isn't that much lower. Does it get up to that point in a reasonable amount of time?

 

I'd say 5-10 mins it gets there, so yeah, reasonable. However, it doesn't tend to go much higher (come to think of it, it might be 1/3). It would be nice if that was something not needing fixing right now (I only had a car for 4-5 days).

About thermostat - I know there is a way of checking if it is stuck open or not. Something about starting car cold and touching rad hoses as they should have different temperatures or something. Can anyone give a quick summary of how to do this and what would be the conclusions? Thx a bunch!

 

Walmark - You temp gauge on the car is at the proper level and it takes 5-10 min for the cars to warm up in the winter.

The radiator hoses should have a similar temp if the thermo is working properly. When the thermostat is stuck closed (car overheats) the top hose will feel hot and the bottom one will be cool due to no circulation of coolant. A stuck open thermostat will have both hoses cool and the temp gauge will jump around when accelerating, because more air cools the coolant when accelerating and the thermostat can regulate the coolant temp.