Hey guys!

I am new to this site. I have spent a fair amount of time of poking around here and have been quite impressed.

I have a 2006 Acura TL Base 5AT with 160k. I am the second owner. The first owner was a doctor who had the "pocket depth" to support maintenance of the car. When I bought the car, I was handed a stack a service records dating back four years with over $6000 spent on the car. Timing belt, water pump, rear suspension, regular oil changes, motor mounts, transmission fluid flushes, radiator drain/refill(no full system flush) as well as every time the car was in, it had a wash/clay/wax/rainx/deodorant detail done. Needless to say, it has been well taken care of. Did I also mention it came with sport rims on it and the stock rims also which are equipped with Blizzak Tires(I live in a "salt" state).

Lately I have noticed the heat hasn't been quite what I have expected. I have done some poking around have have found that it could possibly be the HCV(Heater Control Valve). After taking a peek under my hood, I noticed the cable that controls the valve literally "L"'s; by this, I mean the section between the "O" that goes around the lever on the HCV and the Black/Blue cable(black in my case), has a 90 degree bend in it. All other pictures I see on this forum and online of the cable show that the cable has no bend in it. I am only but to assume that the cable is faulty and needs replaced.

I am, of course, no certified Acura/Honda technician and if one was to advise me of alternative thinking, I would not be close-minded. I have trouble finding this cable for sale online and need help with a cheap, reliable solution.

On to my next question, is the HCV faulty?
When I take and push it as far as I can down toward the ground(fully open), it seems to make it allow more heat in the car, but it is no where near how HOT my father's 2008 TL will get. His car will roast your ass out of the cab. My HCV looks like the lever and surrounding areas are white(possibly a little corroded?).

I'm not sure if it was a mistake or not, but I took the advice of a technician over the phone and found that sometimes when the car runs for a while, even when driven, one hose that leads TO the heater core is HOT and the other(FROM the HC) is lukewarm/not as hot as the other. He lead me to believe the heater core is clogged, so I found one online much cheaper than the dealership price and bought it.

After finding out it may just have been the HCV and cable I feel like an idiot and now turn towards all of you, who I have discovered have much more knowledge than I about Acura TL's.

On a side note, I have driven Hondas since I have been licensed and really love my new TL, they are such a sweet sweet, stylish and high performance car. One cannot ask for much more, except maybe an AWD system; but, we'll leave that for our friend over at Subaru.

 

the valve itself is made by plastic over time it fragile and break off causing your coolant constantly flow into heater core, replace the valve and you should good to go.