Hey All,

Hoping I could get some insight from the wealth of knowledgeable TSX owners here. The problem I'm having is the cooling system in my 2012 TSX, 4-cylinder, with about 20,000 kilometres on it.

Up in nowhere land of Canada, we had a cold spell last week where temperatures reached nearly -30C. During this period, I noticed it took an extremely long time for my car to reach a comfortable temperature. When I left work with the vehicle parked outdoors, it took almost 30 mins for it to warm up and was only comfortable when I was almost home. Even when the block heater was plugged in, the heat didn't come on sooner. My commute is a good 25 kilometres in city driving that takes roughly 40 mins during the winter season.

I popped open the hood to realize that the coolant level was just below the minimum level in the reservoir. I thought that was odd for a vehicle less than 2 years old but didn't notice any sign of leaks in the engine bay or on the garage floor. When I got to a dealer to pick up the specified coolant, the service manager overheard me and had a look to see what was happening since it was unlikely that much fluid loss could have occurred due to evaporation.

He showed me that the lower radiator hose was completely cold while the upper radiator hose was fairly hot and suggested that the thermostat might be fried. As he questioned me further, I noticed that the temperature gauge in the instrument gauges had been lower than usual but I thought that was attributed to the cold.

As the dealer didn't have the part, I made another service appointment for yesterday to have it checked out but after a full day's diagnosis and testing, they haven't been able to find the cause. I didn't think the issue was that big until I was sent home with a rental vehicle today as they highly recommended I didn't continue to drive it and didn't have an available loaner vehicle. Unfortunately, the service department was closed when I got to the dealership so I don't have technical details on what they tried.

To sum it up the issues: Lower radiator hose cold, only mildly warm heat output from ventilation system, long engine warm-up times with relatively low temperatures even after extended driving.

Any thoughts on what might be causing this? Of course, I'll update the thread with info from the dealer but it seems they themselves are pretty clueless now.

 

At least, it is covered by the warranty. It seems a thermostat problem or maybe your water pump. The other thing that can cause that you coolant has frozen. They should check at what temperature your coolant freezes.

 

True. They've spent almost 3 days of time diagnosing the issue. Bet Honda Canada isn't going to be pleased with this.

They replaced the thermostat and flushed the coolant with 60% coolant strength (standard in Alberta) with no luck. Next culprit, failed water pump...hopefully not.