2018 Honda CR-V, not so hot

 I can spring my wife replaced her Mazda CX-9 with a brand new 2018 Honda CRV LX.  She loves the little car and I have to met it’s actually pretty fun to drive for a crossover commuter box.  It’s got plenty of room for the kids car seats and good storage in back.  All in all it’s a pretty great car but… 

 It doesn’t get hot.   Since the temperatures have been below freezing (which they will be from October to April) her car struggles to keep coolant temperature up high enough to not blow straight cold air through the vents.  The dealership said unfortunately that’s normal for the 1.5 L turbo engine in these things and there’s nothing they can do.  I mean I can tell when her thermostat opens I think when were first driving it from cold because I can watch the temperature gauge plummet and feel the air start blowing cold. 

 Has anyone heard of this problem and hopefully fix for this problem yet?  Or has anyone had luck getting a dealership to buy back a car that doesn’t work in the climate they live in?   We really can’t take the depreciation hit and feel like we shouldn’t have to because it’s not our fault Honda didn’t design the car to work up here while having no problem selling it here. 

Cover the grille?

I'd say there's almost definitely something wrong with it.  I know 2 people who have Civics with that engine (a 2016 and a 2017) in upstate NY and neither has had trouble staying up to temp and producing heat with temperatures in the low single digits (not sure it's gotten much below zero since either of them has had the cars). 

Yeah, the whole point of a thermostat is to prevent that from happening. It has longer term consequences on fuel cost and engine durability. I would bother them until they fix it. 

The '57 444 Volvo I had when I was a kid had what looked like a roller blind in front of and at the bottom of the radiator.  Had a ball chain that you raised it with.  The chain latched into a small fitting on the radiator support.  You just blocked off the radiator until it got warm enough to produce heat. 

Original Volvo part number 79930

I have actually seen some 18 wheelers with something similar that snapped in front of the radiator/grill and unsnapped down the center to let air through to the radiator.

Bet something like that would work.

I, too have a friend with a 2017 1.5 turbo Honda and it gets plenty hot in the winter. And I live in Wisconsin where -10 is normal for a few weeks every year.

If Honda made a mass market car in 2018 that was known for not having working heat below freezing they would be getting dragged by the press like nobody's business.

Sounds like a crappy dealer problem.

yeah that's weird.  my SE does that on medium/long runs but then it's a 22 yr old E36 M3 box. you can watch the temp needle go down once you put on the heat and it'll blow cold if you're only doing highway miles.    I would trade your CR-V in for an old Lada man those things had great heaters. 

In reply to skierd :

I don't remember hearing anything. I'll prod some of the service writers tomorrow and report back.

My mother has a 2018 CRV and it has no problem making heat in Alberta.

let's see if we can get this to as many pages as the misfiring Camero sic. 

My sister bought a 2018 EXL AWD three weeks ago. We took it to Big Bear - it was snowing and hot like all other cars we have . No issues at all 

Sounds like it could be an issue with the thermostat (although that's for the dealership to troubleshoot).  I'd also poke around some Honfa-specific forums to see if anyone else has a similar experience. Sounds like it's not an inherent issue with all 1.5 engines, so there must be something else going on.

This makes me wonder if they still suffer from the same issue as the 2012 -16 models with scale build up in the heater core. 

I performed the tsb for this on my 12, it helped a bit, but it still does not have nearly the air temp of the 98 neon I had.

I have been thinking about tossing a bottle of water wetter in the system for better heat transfer to the core, but I am afraid it might be counter productive. 

Moved to Minnesota 36 years ago. Block heaters, oil pan heaters, grill covers, cardboard in front of the radiator etc. was the norm. Now, those are things of the past. Present day automobiles/light trucks face winter without them. Winter testing is done in Northern Minnesota. If your dealer Service Manager cannot/will not assist you, ask to talk to the Regional Manager.

I've heard this complaint online before. Honda was attributing it to the thermal efficiency of the new 1.5 turbo. That combined with the larger heater core to accompany a vehicle the size of a crv, with the fan set on high with fresh air and cold exterior temps.... I could see where the complaint might stem from.

The typical crv owner is probably very easy on the throttle and keeps revs low.  Owners of civic SI's probably don't experience this issue. It's safe to assume someone who pushes their vehicle harder, probably wont notice this trait. 

My suggestion would be simply to drive it harder.

The first gen CR-Vs had barely adequate heat - I think the system was spec'd for the Civic and the CR-V had much more interior space to heat. Then, they had the scale in the radiator issue, which made things worse. I would have hoped they had this issue fixed - it's been about 20 years since the first gen CR-V came out!

 So driving into town today I got to take the CRV by myself and try to see what it’s actually doing.  It was relatively warm today, around 0.

 I warmed it up by starting it while I loaded up the kids and it probably ran for 10 minutes.  Temp gauge was still on for cold and the air coming out of the vents was also cold. It’s about 2 miles to the main road from the house; the 1st mile is uphill the second is downhill.  I put the car into S and it warmed up but not completely driving up the hill.  By the time we got to the bottom of the hill it was almost completely cold again. Once on the main road, it took maybe 1/4 mile to get the temp gauge up fully. At the first stop light I was able to watch the temp gauge drop from the middle down to almost full cold while I waited for it to change, and the air from the vents got colder too. Once moving it warmed up again, and got cold again at the next light, and there’s only so aggressive one can drive on ice covered roads in town.

 My wife’s concern is that it barely gets warm in the car on her 10 minute drive to work.  Her CX9 could damn near roast you out of it on the same commute in the same temperatures and had no issues at stoplights. My Mazda6 would do this when it was -30 and colder, which was acceptable but still not ideal, but the CRV does it at much warmer temps. Is it really too much to ask to have heat at idle at or just below freezing?

I’m concerned the engine won’t last with this kind of heat cycling, and that it won’t keep her warm if she (or all of us for that matter) ended up in the ditch in it. 

FWIW dealer service appointments are 3-4 weeks out. I don’t think I can put a cover on the front since it has the adaptive cruise control and other active safety features. I guess the next step is shoving a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator...

Just found this:

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-repair-maintenance/honda-delays-cr-v-turbo-engine-fix-details-rollout-plans/

Out of curiosity, if you let the car warm up (at idle) with the cabin heat turned off, does it come up to temp fully?  If so, then does just turning the heat on (while still parked and idling) drag the temp down? 

Sounds like a faulty thermostat.

skierd said:

Just found this:

 

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-repair-maintenance/honda-delays-cr-v-turbo-engine-fix-details-rollout-plans/

So did Honda forget how to make reliable cars or what?  In the last 20 years, I’ve heard of bad trannys, cracked/ leaking blocks and now this.

In reply to rustybugkiller :

Honda and Toyota are both no longer what they once were.  They got complacent and let themselves slip a bit and then (most of) the others got better, so suddenly they don't look like they're a cut above anymore.