Car heating up problems

[Beansley]

So I just bought my 2018 hatchback sport touring in rhe beginning October of 2018. In late November I got a ktuner 1.2 and flashed the ECU with the 21psi map activated by pressing the eco button. It's been a mild winter here in Ohio so far so there's only been maybe 10 days or so under 35 degrees What I began to notice is that if I drove the car from a cold start, it takes it FOREVER to warm up. If I'm in the city doing 50mph or under it will stay around 1/4 on the temp gauge and I have even had instances of actually watching the needle go back down in temperature when I'm not accelerating and going down a hill. What really made me notice this is the fact that the car obviously won't be warmer up all the way and it will still blow colder air. There's also been a time where I drove to a store about 5 miles away, left the car running with my girlfriend in it and came back out and the cars temp gauge actually dropped while running. I really haven't beaten the crap out of this car, I can probably count the number of times I've turned the eco button off to play with the tune and even then I didn't go too crazy. I emailed ktuner and they said the tune shouldn't affect the car warming up and to flash back to stock and take to the dealer. My car has less than 4500 miles on it (90% highway). My question is, is this a problem, have I been dumb to keep driving it? I haven't had the time to flash back to stock and make an appointment due to work and the holidays.

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[jeffNB]

I have a 2.0L (bone-stock) with the same problem. If the outside temperature is less than -10 ~ -15C, I can drive the car in an urban environment and the temperature gauge does not come off the ‘pin’. It does, however, heat up if driven at highway speeds, like you stole it.

Honda has made these engines so efficient that there is little wasted energy to warm the coolant.

There is a person on the board from China that claims Honda provides an electric heating element in the HVAC for instant cabin heat. The Prius has a coolant loop in the exhaust stream aft of the catalytic converter for faster warm-ups.

This is the worst Honda I have ever owned for lack of heat. It is a joke for a car manufactured and marketed in Canada to have such a poor heater. With this and the oil dilution problem, one can surmise that Honda did little cold weather testing.

The dealer had mine for a day to troubleshoot and changed the thermostat and no improvement was noted. I partially blame the foolishly-low 170F thermostat. I am tempted to pinch off the upper radiator hose on a cold day to see if that helps matters.

 

[latole]

Funny to hear you, our two family 's Civic heating system work great and outside temperature here are 14 F

No need to have the temperature gauge at the middle / normal . Heat come when in the very low position

 

[Deezy]

Mine definitely doesn't heat up like my 2004 Civic does. That thing will melt your feet off!

 

[87elco]

If your used to 8cyl or 6cyls it will seem like it takes long

 

[dc2turbo]

it's a 1.5L engine that doesn't produce that much heat at idle.

You can drive it in S to speed up the temps with cold starts.

My 6 speed heated much faster than my CVT since I'm able to rev it a bit higher

 

[Brettjod]

I have a 2016 2.0L and I've noticed the same thing basically since brand new. Takes forever to heat up. Even when its around freezing outside. I'm just south of Calgary Alberta. I can drive from my house to Mcdonalds for a coffee then head out of town for work. That's about 10 mins of driving and a few mins of idling and its barely throwing heat by that time. But yet my wife's 2015 Escape with a 2.0L EcoBoost is basically up to running temperature after about 3 blocks. Not sure what Honda has done differently but it's fairly annoying especially when it gets down to -25 celcius. And having the block heater plugged in doesnt speed it up much.

 

[SCOPESYS]

Would there be anything to gain in blocking off part of the Radiator in very cold weather to make the cooling less efficient. ?

I have not even looked at the Fan or radiator in our 2018 Si. (yet)
Will later today .. now my curiosity is peeked.
Not going to do that right now, it's 3am and below 23F outside at the moment .

I assume it is an electric fan. 1 or two ?
Is it controlled, or on all the time. ?

 

[latole]

Would there be anything to gain in blocking off part of the Radiator in very cold weather to make the cooling less efficient. ?

Never do that ?

Yesterday , at 21 F ( - 6) I drive my car 5 minutes at city speed ( 30 miles / hours) before I have some light heat from air vent.
5 minutes later very good heating at 55 miles / hours.

My car sleep outside.

 

[CameraGuy]

In 15 degree weather, I’ll let my car run for 15-20 mins sometimes, the gauges doesn’t even register and the heat is mildly warm, I was thing about card board in front of the radiator lol it’s an 18 SI with 4000 miles

 

[turbo lover]

I use a block heater and have most of the grille blocked off, it definitely seems to help.

 

[SCOPESYS]

Never do that ?

Yesterday , at 21 F ( - 6) I drive my car 5 minutes at city speed ( 30 miles / hours) before I have some light heat from air vent.
5 minutes later very good heating at 55 miles / hours.

My car sleep outside.

"NEVER do that" .....WHY ????

At least if you are going to tell me what to do, give me a reason why.

Maybe not if you are doing Highway Driving.
But if you are making a short trip, at slow speeds, why not ???

 

[latole]

Fix the issue, first car may overheat.
Car engine is more important than you.

Don't use plaster, fix the issue or there is no issue, it is you ; you look the temperature gauge, I look the heat from the vent

 

[Sasksport]

Never do that ?

Yesterday , at 21 F ( - 6) I drive my car 5 minutes at city speed ( 30 miles / hours) before I have some light heat from air vent.
5 minutes later very good heating at 55 miles / hours.

My car sleep outside.

why not? winter

Fix the issue, first car may overheat.
Car engine is more important than you

winter fronts for cars are very common in cold climates. they work fine, it will not overheat, you just have to remove it when it warms up again.

 

[turbo lover]

Fix the issue, first car may overheat.
Car engine is more important than you

I monitored the temperature in my old car with a ScanGauge. The temperature did not increase much over normal operating temperature, even on a summer day when I blocked the grille to do some worse-case-scenario testing. In winter, the car still ran at normal operating temperature with the grille blocked off, the only difference was that it warmed up faster. On very cold days like -30°, the car was only able to reach normal operating temperature when I blocked off the grille. It was around 10°C below normal with the open grille, even after 2 hours of driving.

I have not had a chance to test in the Civic yet, but I do not expect it to be different.

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