genemc

I flushed my coolant today in my 04 TSX with distilled water. I started the car and put in the OBD2 reader to monitor the coolant temp and it is not showing any temperature. I know the OBD2 sensor works because I see the RPMs. In the past I never noticed if it was properly displaying the coolant temp. After about 10 min, my temp gauge settled maybe 10% below the midpoint (the usual position regardless of how hot or cold it is). So maybe a little below 40% towards H. The fan never went on but I do know that it works because it goes on when I turn on the AC. I left the car idling for about 20 min total.

After I shutdown the car I noticed the lower heater hose is cold so I don't think the thermostat is opening. I wanted to check the OBD2 coolant temp because I wanted to see if it should be opening. I did get new upper/lower hoses and a new thermostat because I figured I'd change them while I was in there changing the coolant even though they're still relatively soft. I'm at 190K and have had the car since 105K and don't know if the PO changed the hoses. I was going to do a couple of flushes before swapping them.

My two questions are:

1) Why would the coolant temp not show any value in Torque? Do I have a bad coolant temp sensor? Does the TSX have two coolant temp sensors? The temp on the cluster works but the OBD2 doesn't. I know on my NA Miata there are two, one for the gauges and one for the ECU.

2) It looks like I need to remove the fans in order to give myself enough room to remove the thermostat. Is that how everyone else does it?

Thanks.