Stupid Heater

I've been noticing that when I warm my car up the temperature gauge will go just a bit above the bottom line (which is where it normally should be) and its nice and toasty in my car but after I drive for a while it starts dropping and I end up freezing to death cause it doesn't give out any heat in the car. Is there something wrong with my heater or is it that its just so cold it keeping my car from heating up or something? Its been around 20-40 degrees in my area.

Thanks,
William "Trigger" Thompson

replace your thermostat, it is likely stuck open... it should be right there where your upper radiator hose enters the engine

Is that something pretty simple to do or should I take it somewhere and get it replace?

Thanks,
William "Trigger" Thompson

i cant remember how many bolts on a honda, just follow the top radiator hose to the engine, there will be a hose clamped onto the thermistate housing - you need to remove the bolts holding this housing on. the thermistate will just fall out or you may have to give it a quick tug and it should come right out. you will need to install a new gasket, make sure you put the thermistate in the correct way then bolt it back together, fill your radiatior back up with a 50/50 mix of water/antifreeze.

good luck, it is a very easy job
Kyle

Great thanks, sounds simple enough. Now one more quick question, where can I find a thermostate and gasket?

Thanks,
William "Trigger" Thompson

any auto parts store... Parts America, Autozone, Advance Auto, etc... and don't let them sell you a bunch of crap you don't need either, a lot of the places around here try to do that to you. like hey, you need some sealant with that, and some water pump lubricant, and blah blah blah... just get your thermostat, the gasket may or may not be included with the new thermostat. check it when you are at the store... if it has it then don't worry about buying one. but yeah, make sure you have extra coolant to put back in the car because you will lose a decent amount when you do this. and don't just let it spill out on the ground either... i hate when people do that, I mean come on this stuff is toxic...

also, I can't remember right off the top of my head but I think you will only need to take off 2 bolts to do this job, you probably don't even need to take the hose off, just take off the bolts, push it out of the way and change the thermostat, then put it back in place and put the bolts back in

Thanks, you guys are awesome. I'll start on that sometime within the next few days and if I have any problems (I hope not). I'll post back here and get some more help!

Thanks,
William "Trigger" Thompson

OK, I followed the top radiator hose to the engine (it goes in right beside the headers almost) and took off the little box shaped piece (it had a tower looking thing with a hole in it on top of it). But nothing fell out and nothing was in the box. A good amount of radiator fluid did leak out but nothing else... Did I miss something here?

Thanks,
William "Trevor" Thompson

how long have you had this car? it is possible who ever had it before you took the thermostat out. if this is the case just get your new one and put it in and you should be good to go

haha no thermostat...:|

Actually, I didn't look on my car... I've got a wrecked '94 Civic in my backyard (I wrecked it last Nov) and the heater worked fine on it... could I of unbolted the wrong one or something? I followed the top radiator hose to the engine, unscrewed the 2 bolts but as I said...nothing was in it. It almost looked like it was too small to fit a thermostat but what do I know?

Thanks,
William "Trigger" Thompson