I have a 2020 Honda Civic.
Starting a few weeks ago I noticed that there was no indication on the cluster gauge for the coolant. I turned off the car and turned it back on. It appeared and worked as normal. So I started driving it. This happened a few times.
However recently, I had this same problem. No temperature indication. I turned off the car and turned it back on, and it did not reappear. I got worried and checked, there was plenty of coolant in the reservoir.
so I decided to bring it a Honda dealer. I drove it for several minutes, with no temperature indication on the gauge, then it turned on and showed that it was operating temperature.
When I got it to the dealer it was still working.
I explained the symptoms after I dropped it off. The dealer said there was nothing wrong with the car, and could not replicate the problem.
This is a newer car, so I can’t experiment with buying cheaper aftermarket thermostats or temperature sensors to see if that’s the issue. Only options is to buy the expensive Honda ones.
Any idea on what may cause the issue I’m having?
The car has about 20,000 miles on it.
Thanks!
No idea but if it is a 2020 and not a misprint do nothing to void the warranty let the dealer figure it out.
see if it always does it when you first start it up in the morning. if it does then let the dealer keep it over night so they can see it happen in the mornings.
My 2015 Honda did not have temp gauge. Just a blue light for cold. Which went off when motor was warm.
Yeah, agreed. There’s a blue light for the coolant being cold, like when it’s cool in the mornings. Then there’s a red light for the coolant being too hot.
If there’s no light on, then there’s nothing to worry about. Actually, I’d say if the red light isn’t on, there’s nothing to worry about. Drive on.
It takes more than a few minutes for the engine to reach operating temperature. When the engine is cold you will not see an indicator “needle”.
This is what I saw, no indicator needle. Even after driving the vehicle for several minutes. After several minutes of driving on the highway the indicator needle suddenly appeared in the middle between the cold and hot lines. There was no gradual indication to the middle. Meaning there wasn’t an “indicator needle” that started at cold and slowly rosed to the middle.
The dealer said there were no stored codes, and reset the battery.
It seems to happen when the engine is “cold”.
When we picked it up from the dealer. Sure enough there was no indicator needle. Showed one of the service people that worked on the car, they weren’t able to duplicate the problem when they worked on it. Likely because it was hot after we drove it to the dealer.
They didn’t offer a solution. Maybe other civics have the same problem. If not it’s going to be a whole can of worms. Is what they said. It might just be my civic.
Any ideas?
just a thought. maybe its the gauge in the dash. do you notice if the temp in the car has a effect on it working or not? the reason I mention it is because in my truck when ever it is cold in the cab. like if I have the a/c on the odometer is blank. in the winter it is blank until I put the heat on and it warms the cab. then it will come on. mine is the solder joint that needs to be redone in the circuit board. just wondering if the inside temp in your car makes any difference.
If there’s no indication of the temperature when the coolant is ambient (cold engine), that’s probably normal. If the engine is at operating condition and there’s no indication on the gauge, that’s a problem that needs to be corrected asap. 10 minutes of idling in the driveway is usually enough bring the coolant to operating temperature. If you determine for certain there is an actual problem, the cause could be something easy to fix, like the associated connector (near the sensor in the engine compartment) is loose or corroded. Those sensors usually have a thermistor, who’s resistance varies w/temperature. You might ask your tech to remove the sensor and measure its resistance as it is gradually heated with a hair dryer. The resistance should change gradually, and the values of the resistance should match the manufacturer’s specs. Thermistors are an uncommon part to fail, so if there’s an actual problem, I expect it’s an electrical connection problm somewhere between the sensor and the computer which reads it. There’s been no work on the cooling system which required it to be drained, right?
Right there’s been no work that required anything in the cooling system to be removed, replaced, or drained.
I haven’t noticed anything when the cabin is cold. Although this winter might be a good time to test it out, when going on a long drive. Although I don’t know if turning off the heat in the freezing cold while driving it at operating temperature would make the cabin cold enough.