The interior temperature setting for my '93 Accord is stuck at HOT. The knob still turns, but it does not change the temperature setting. When the weather was cold and raining, it was not an issue, but now that summer is (almost) here, it is beginning to bother me. Since this is such an old car, I'm sure the air re-direction controls are all mechanical with mechanical linkages. So does anyone know how easy it is to find what linkage was broken? I hope I don't have to disassemble the whole dash to get to the linkages. I guess even Honda cars do break down.

But is there an alternative to living with the stuck temperature setting if it cannot be easily fixed? Note that the vent selections are still working (as far as I can tell). So I can have hot air coming from the dash, the foot-well, or defrost. Choosing recirculate does not help either because it just recirculates the hot air. I don't want to waste the AC on this because gas is so expensive. Any suggestion is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Like most cars, your coolant inlet valve to the heater core is likely in the OPEN position. Go under the hood and find the 2 heater hoses that go in and out of the firewall. On one of these, you should find this valve. From this valve should be a cable or solenoid. See if you can tell if the cable has come loose. Move the heat control knob inside and see if the cable moves but not the valve. You can either figure out a way to secure the wire or just manually move the valve in the direction it needs to go.

 

Thanks, Dave. Since it is nothing urgent, I will look at it when I have some time.

If it is the valve that is stuck, is it fairly easy to replace?
Or if the mechanical linkage that is broken (a broken cable or something), can that be repaired inexpensively?

Obviously because the car is so old, it is not worth spending a lot of money on repairing such a minor thing, but I'd like to get it fixed if it is not too expensive. Thanks.

 

The thing you need to look for is #1 in the following link:

http://www.hondaautomotiveparts.com/auto/j...ry5=WATER+VALVE

See the thing on top of #1? That's the little lever that must move to open and close the water flow to the heater core. Yours is likely stuck in the open position. The cable going to that thing on top is likely slipping through the slot. Have someone in the car move the heater control lever or knob and watch what the cable does. That will be your clue. It might be as simple as tightening the lock screw (tighten it when it's at full hot position). To buy a new valve is only about 30 bucks as you can see.

 

Just in time for summer.

 

That happened on my 92 Accord. It turned out the back of the knob had cracked and when you would turn it, it was just rotating around the actual metal turny thing that adjusts the valve. Maybe give the knob a good pull towards you to see if the back is broken if the Xviper suggestion doesn't work. I feel cool that I gave advice in the same thread as Xviper

 

Thanks for the comments. So was your problem fixed eventually? If so, how difficult a fix was it (i.e., did they have to disassemble the whole dash to do it)?

Yes, I am feeling the heat -- just in time for summer.

Thanks, xviper, for all your digging into my problem. I'll look at the end of the cable and see if it moves the valve.

 

I ended up just riding around with a pair of pliers to turn the metal thing that controls the temp setting. Ghetto, but it worked Good luck
Jonathan

 

Then there's the "America's Worst Handiman's" solution if you don't quite want to mess with the stuff on the heater hose or behind the dash adjuster:

Get a pair of longish needle nosed vise grips and open the jaws. Wrap a good few layers of duct tape around each jaw so the teeth are cushioned. Go out and find the inlet heater hose (the one with the valve on it) and just used the vise grips to clamp the hose shut till you can get around to spending more time with it.

 

As the outside temperature slowly climbed up to the 80's, I finally looked under the hood and traced the operations of the knob to the valve. Seems the cable is not moving a lot when the temperature setting knob is rotated. I think the cable is probably coming loose at the knob end and it will cost big bucks to disassemble the dash to fix the cable. For now, I just manually set the valve to turn off the heat (the valve still moves). I guess I will manually turn it back on when winter comes.

Thanks, xviper, for all your help with this.