I just did a drain,flush,refil, and a new thermostat on my 00 civic ex. i did the bleeding method ive seen on hondatech. my question is at idle the car takes foreverrrr to open the thermostat and get my bottom radiator hose hot. So i do know that the thermostat opens and the bottom hose can get hot then the fan kicks on. But even after i did all that i took it for a ten min ride. have good heat but when i got back home and the bottom hose is cold. Ive tried it a couple times. like i said i have good heat but everytime i get done driving the bottom hose is cold. This is my daily driver and i drive a hour to work everyday in stop and go traffic, so i just really want to make sure its all up to par and last me a long time. and i would think after the car warms up and then i drive it itd still be hot?? i just dont want to mess something up on my dd, id rather figure it out now. thanks guys

 

oh i forgot to add, my coolant temp gauge in the car does not work, so im not sure if its actually running hot or cold. i really want to fix it. i just started trouble shooting it, ive tried the jumper wire from the temp sensor and got nothing. so i have to also figure that out asap.

 

it can take up to 30mins to get that thermostat to open up and get the fan going...

might be a good idea to fix that temp guage as well.

 

def trying to fix the temp gauge asap, ive been trouble shooting it here and there..i fig it might take a while to warm up, but i dont see how it would warm up then go for a drive and come back and the lower hose be cold.

 

^that's because you're driving the car and cooling it again as air goes through the rad!

Idle it with the rad cap off until the fan turns on and top up the fluid when I sucks into the system. It'll take a while.

 

So it's normal after driving around to have the lower hose cold?

 

I wouldn't worry about it if everything looks fine on the temp gauge.

 

Well I'm trying to find a new gauge cluster ASAP bc my temp gauge is broke.. So hopefully everything's fine

 

It's very risky to drive without a temp gauge.

 

Sure your sending unit below the distributor is not bad, I would test it, it is the one wire sensor.

 

I did the test where is stuck a wire from the sensor wire to a ground then turned the key on and it's suppose to jump the needle up and it didn't do anything

 

It could be a bad cluster or a bad wire wire that runs from the sending unit to the cluster.