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My friend’s 2004 Honda Civic LX is blowing nothing but cold air. A few months ago, he allowed a “mechanic” to pour some stop leak garbage in to attempt to fix a blown head gasket. I already flushed out his heater core (it WAS clogged, and is no longer,) checked all the fuses, verified the flap moves freely and the blower motor is all good. Replaced the thermostat as the old one would only open at 210F. I burped/bled the cooling system so there shouldn’t be any air in there. The cable that attaches to the heater control valve isn’t stuck, and the valve appears to move about 90 degrees when the heater is turned on and off. Both hoses to the heater core are cold, and the hose from the engine to the heater control valve is lukewarm. The only thought I have is that the lever on the valve snapped off internally and even though it moves on the outside, the inside doesn’t open. I’ll be checking that tomorrow afternoon. Anyone have any ideas in the event that the valve is not the issue?
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Start looking at replacing the valve and/or hoses leading to/from the heater core. The stop leak probably jammed them up too 🙁
Stop leak====EVIL
I said to him many MANY times to stay as far away from that crap as physically possible or he’s going to have issues. He didn’t listen and touched the stuff. He’s having issues. Funny how that works xD
The stop leak did exactly what it’s designed to do, plug up stuff. It clogged up what he wanted to have clogged up, and then it continued to clog up everything that he didn’t want clogged up.
No self respecting mechanic should ever get within 100 feet of it…
Alright so let’s work with what we’ve got. Probably going to have to look at replacing ALL hoses + flapper valve that have that garbage in it. Easy cheap replacement is an eBay silicone hose kit.
New valve:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=869883&cc=1425451&jsn=341If you haven’t already, make sure you are using an OEM Honda T-stat….apparently most imports only like OEM T-stats and aftermarket ones tend to cause issues (see: Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus, etc).
Good luck. Hopefully your friend learned his lesson.
Well, I grabbed another hose and temporarily bypassed the valve entirely until I can get a new hose and control valve. The hose from the thermostat to the control valve was the only clogged hose and he now has heat. It was basically solid inside that hose with stop leak…
Not the best job, but it’ll work long enough until I can do it properly.
I would add that stop leak can completely and rapidly destroy an engine if there is a head gasket leak. It uses sodium silicate to bind with glycol to bunch up a leak. Sodium silicate is powdered glass. If that gets into the combustion chamber, it immediately grinds deep grooves into the cylinder walls. Within seconds. It makes grooves so bad that the engine can’t even be rebuilt.
Remember cash for clunkers? They had to destroy the engine and they did so by pouring sodium silicate into the oil resivior.Quick update. If you look at the first image I posted, you might notice that I forgot to put the hose clamp on… I had to rescue my friend in a parking lot that night when the hose popped off and spewed coolant all over the road… whoops… After clamping it down and filling it up with coolant again, it runs and heats fine. It only needs to last a week until the new hose and control valve arrive next Tuesday.
I also got an admission out of him:
[size=2]me: https://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/8-Service-and-Repair-Questions-Answered-Here/66190-2004-civic-lx-no-heat#178224
see that last comment?
Jonathan: yeah, you sent me a screenshot
me: yeah
you’re lucky
<font color="#0088ff]Jonathan: I learned my lesson[/size”>
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