its like 28* out and it takes forever for my car to heat up. even longer if i turn the heat on before it is fully heated up. Also if it is heated up, i cant leave the heat on and let it idle or it will cool back down. anyone else have this issue? i put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiatior and that seemed to help. I have no AC i think removing the condenser in front of the rad is why it takes so long to heat up.

 

How far do you have to drive? My '97 GSR has always taken forever to heat up. I literally drive about 6 miles on surface roads or 2 miles on the freeway with the heat off to attain full temperature when it is below 20°F.

it has been that way since the car was new. I replaced the thermostat when the temperature dropped after fully warming.

 

It takes my car about 6 miles to warm up too.. i have to drive 1:15 one way to work in the morning. I guess its not just me, which is good to hear. I just changed the thermostat and coolant so Im good there, my last teg didnt have the ac either that why I thought that could be the reason. Thanks man.

 

I always thought it was a GSR thing. Perhaps it is just the full size radiator.

 

my ls did that too ... even when it was cold out and I would be on the freeway, the temp would go almost all the way to the C .. but I think that was a different problem

 

yea, sounds like a different problem, my cousin had an ek with a half rad and his literally would not warm up in the cold. he had to put cardboard in front of his too haha. I guess its not really a problem, but more of an inconvience

 

Don't run your heater until the car has completly warmed up. The car isn't blowing any warm air anyway.

 

Your thermostat is stuck open. Change that out (make sure you get the stock temp!), and you'll be good to go. It's probably a 30min job. Easy to do. Get some coolant, too, because you will lose some.

Edit: Missed the part you said you already changed out the thermostat. But there have been cases where new thermostat was defective or not the correct temp. I'd change it out again. Most of them are lifetime warranty parts so you should be able to exchange it for free.

 

Not sure if you're trying to say that running the heater is part of the problem, but it shouldn't matter at all. Coolant is not being circulated with the thermostat closed, so it's not like it will take longer to warm up due to that.

 

If the thermostat was stuck open, which it honestly sounds like it could be, running the heater would only make the problem worse.

 

honestly, ALL of my honda's have done this in the cold.. they take FOREVER to heat up.. i havent checked the thermostat on my DA, but i KNOW my 89 LS and my 88 ef with the b16 took FOREVER, and there was NOTHING i could do about it.. hahaha..

at least you know your cooling system is doing its job

 

My 2000 GSR reaches running temp in under 5 minutes in the morning for me. I don't idle it to warm it up, simply start the car and drive gently (light acceleration, low rpm) until its ready.

I replaced the thermostat a bit over a year ago, as it took forever to warm up before that and would lose temp cruising on the freeway. I think they might fail to fully close as they age long before they "stick" and mandate replacement.

Does the LS have the same "oil cooler" that the GSR does (more like coolant heater)? If not, that might explain why my GSR heats up much faster than my 91 LS did (it took 15 to 20 minutes to heat up).

 

sounds like u need a thermostat. the o-rings probly went bad. mine did that. it would warm up, i would turn on the heater and temp gauge would go to COLD and warm up again. changed the thermostat. problem gone.

 

I'm almost positive that the LS never had an oil cooler. Not all GSR's have them either, only 94-96 I think?

 

Many people are missing the point. The OP and me both have cars with normally operating thermostats that stay hot once hot. They just take a while to warm when the weather is cold. 50 degree F air temperature is a far cry from sub 20 degree F temperatures. If you don;t ever see snow, it isn't cold.

The 97-01 GSRs did not come with the oil cooler. I have one installed on my 97.

 

Thank you, i know my thermostat is fine, we just live in too cold of weather for the acura's i guess lol

 

Sunnuva....!!! Don't know what I was thinking. Coolant is still being circulated through the heater core with the thermostat closed, which acts as a mini radiator. My bad.

 

It shouldn't. There's a mechanical valve on the line to the heater core which is closed when you move the cabin temperature control to "cold". So if you have it set to "cold", and the thermostat is closed, the coolant shouldn't circulate through either the main radiator or the heater core, or else something is wrong.

 

I have the same problem in my eh2 with a gsr. It takes me 15 minutes to get to work and it will just be getting warm. But once its at operating temps it wont drop while I'm on the freeway. My friends gsr takes 2 miles and its already climing.

edit: I have the stock half-size radiator