Spent yesterday trying to fix my son's CRV's heater. As is --- from the dealer --- it would take 15-30 minutes of driving to finally blow warm air. And it never got real hot.

Bought one of those Lisle Radiator Fill Kits. This thing works. Parked car on slight incline, so radiator was uphill. Cold morning start. It took 35 minutes of running the car at around 2000-2500 RPMs. But, finally after 20-25 minutes, air bubbles came out. The heater now starts to blow hot air about 1 minute after cold start. And the hot is a lot hotter. So, this little device really works. Very easy to use. Comes with a variety of adapters, for different manufactures and positions of the access to the coolant system.

 

Good to know. CR-Vs from 2017 on with the 1.5L turbo take much longer to warm up. A serious issue in northern areas.

 

The CRV seem to have very small passageways with the heater line. It took us about 10-15 minutes to fully discharge all air bubbles. They just kept popping up.

 

I purchased one of those funnels anticipating changing out the S coolant. Have not yet. Glad to hear it works well.

 

Do you know what year CRV it was?

 

I just mine yesterday. I plan on using it sometime this winter.

 

We bought my son a used 2014 model. According to previous owner it's always had heater issues. Not hot enough.

 

Key is to run car at 2000-2500 RPMs, have the car parked on an upward slope (radiator at high point). Heater full hot setting with fan on. Run a good 30 minutes or more to get all of the air out of system. I occasionally squeezed the top radiator hose to get any trapped air out of the hose and top of radiator.

I filled the Lisle reservoir to about 1/3 from bottom with distilled water. That way, I could tell when the thermostat opened, as colored fluid started passing and mixing into the this reservoir. The process lost zero water. I had to neither fill the overflow tank nor remove coolant.

Patience is the key here. It took a good 20 minutes, to see any air with this CRV. At first, there was big frothy air discharge. Then, the process yielded occasional tiny bubbles.

Good luck to those trying this process.

 

My stupid renaults always had to be bled or the cooling system wouldn't work and you would blow a head gasket.

 

Yep, the Lisle funnel works well! I used it on the S2k when changing the radiator. Works like a charm.