strox7889

I am at a loss and I'm hoping this forum in their infinite Honda knowledge can help. I bought my Honda like 3 years ago, I live up in Montana where it gets quite cold in the winter. Since purchasing the vehicle, in the winter if I warm my vehicle up to operating temp then start driving within a couple of blocks my car is ice cold again. If I turn the heater on too high while im just sitting stationary my car just wont warm up either. This is only in cold weather like single digits down to well below 0. I assumed it was my thermostat so after procrastinating for years this last weekend I finally swapped it out with an OEM thermostat from TAMA. It seemed fine for the first couple of days but yesterday and today have been down around 0 degrees again and its having the same exact issue, if the heater is to high the car will be ice cold without moving or as soon as i start driving the car is ice cold again. Is this just a Honda thing? Should I just put a piece of cardboard in front of the rad and see how that works or is there anything else i can try to do?

Thanks a ton for your help its driving me crazy lol

brakedrum

I think I recall just one or two subzero days in many years driving 93 accord. On such a day, the engine could not produce enough heat to to heat up the coolant to allow the heater blow proper heat. It would warm a little while idling, and then once the car was in the wind, the needle would drop down like the engine had never been started. Such days are so rare, that I cannot recall with certainty. But I do recall a day when I made my morning commute to work, which was about 15 miles, and never did get any real heat out of the vents. I was just glad the engine was willing to do its job in that kind of air. I remember she sounded very weird all the way up the road.

In your case, where the days are like this a lot, I would be more concerned about freeze protection. I think 60/40 antifreeze/water mix is recommended for normal conditions, but for cold like you live, 70/30, or even 75/25 might be best.