mc2 not warming up

[dreadi]

So I drove to the Bristol meet last night, about 40/50 miles or so, and the car temperature gauge never really moved. For a lot of the trip it was at the bottom or up a little bit and if I stop at traffic lights it moves up to sort of a third of the way up.

Is it meant to sit at the half way mark on the temp guage? Every other Honda I have had did and did within a 5/6 miles of driving.

New thermostat or something more sinister?

[Dave]

You will loose a bit of coolant mate, which can make a bit of a mess in the engine bay. Try and put a lot of rags around and under the housing to soak up most of it before starting the job. Once you take the housing off, the thermostat will be easy to see and remove. Just a case of popping the new one in. You will have to bleed the coolant system after its all back together. There should be a how to guide for this, but if not let me know. Some mb's can be a bitch to bleed the system, some seem to be no bother! Mine was naturally a bitch to bleed! Lol the trick is to remove the radiator cap, then to start the engine, and let it idle whilst you slowly compress the lower hose with your hand. You'll see the fluid level rise in the radiator. You want to press the hose enough to get the level to the tip of the radiator filler, but not overflowing it. You should see bubbles escaping as you do this.DO NOT ALLOW THE ENGINE TO GET UP TO TEMP!. You keep pressing and releasing the bottom hose for about 3 to 5 mins, then turn the engine off and allow to cool down. Then repeat this process again and again till you see no more air bubbles coming out the filler neck. Remember to keep turning the engine off to avoid it getting hot. Its harder to bleed when its hot. Then do the same procedure on the top radiator hose. Once no more bubbles are seen when pressing that hose, go back to the bottom hose again and repeat. You may need to do the process quite a few times, alternating between top and bottom hoses. Its a simple but time consuming job. There were other wee tips in the how to, to help speed things up a bit, but its deffo worth doing this proceedure well as it will ensure the coolant system is operating fully and properly

[Dave]

Meant to add turn the heater fan on full speed, and in the hot position whilst doing this procedure!

[Krzys]

It might also help if the front of the car is raised when you bleed it as air bubbles tend to travel up to escape, I had an airlock in the heater matrix which was a sod!

[simpo]

Mine was a bitch to bleed

[dr_broon]

Yup, mine too

[Krzys]

There is a wicked 'how to' for doing this.

http://civic5.com/forum/topic/6013-how-to-fill-and-bleed-a-rad-the-awesome-way/#entry198433

This one?

[dreadi]

I just took it to my mechanic after as I thought I'd get a few things looked at whilst its there like why it handles like a pig. ( rears have 3.5 degrees camber, fronts have 2 and 1/4....)

Turns out the thermostat was in the wrong way and it was broken..

[Krzys]

Oh nice! New one gone in now has it? Shows how important wheel alignment is.