hey whatsup guys! today i purchased a 92 civic and am having a few issues. (knew about them before purchase) first and most important, the windows will not roll up!!! i live in detroit and its starting to get very cold. the front two windows were cracked about 6 inches open when i bought the car. they wont roll up or down at all and neither will the rear ones . im guessing maybe its a fuse of some sort? where might something like this be located? or maybe im wrong... ALSO another important thing... the heat isnt working properly... the engine is warming up to proper temp and when i turn the heat on it comes out hotttt for the first few seconds and then becomes luke warm. any ideas what may cause this and how to fix it? i feel like im getting hypothermia driving around and would like to survive through the winter if at all possible. any advice will be much appreciated...thanks guys!

 

This is going to sound REALLY dumb, but humor me for a second.

On the driver's door, there's a "lock" button for the windows, right? If so, press it and try the windows again.

A friend of mine recently came to me with a similar problem (but his windows were closed), and I had him check the button. Apparently, he'd hit it at some point, and didn't realize it was even there. His windows work perfectly now.

If that's not it, start checking fuses since none of the windows work. Will they go up/down if you use the switch on the individual doors? The fuse should probably be on the left side of the driver's footwell. If it's not there, it's under the hood, on the passenger side, next to the firewall.

 

Worst case you could take the door panels off, unplug the window motor and jump it to a battery to get the windows closed for now. Besides the fuse and switches, another common problem is breaks in the wiring in between the driver's door and the frame. All the circuits go through the driver's door so if one of the main wires breaks, none of the windows will work.

For the heater not working, take the radiator cap off (engine cold) and make sure the cooling system is completely full. Don't just look in the white plastic tank. If it is full there could be a blockage in the heater core. Also make sure the water control valve on the firewall (behind the engine in the center of the car where the heater hoses go through) moves to full open when you put the dash lever on full hot. It has a push-pull cable that goes to a mechanism on the bottom of the heater box inside the car.

 

my buddy has a civic same year... 1992. i unplugged his master switch and plugged it in mine, still none of the windows would work from the master switch or any of the other switches. i checked the fuses on the driver side under the dash and they were all good. is there like a relay or main fuse somewhere?? because the power door locks dont work either. or maybe its wiring. where does the wire usually break at if thats what it may be? and whats the easiest way to hard wire it to the battery? is there a terminal on the window motor or is there a harness that im gonna have to probe?? ALSO with the heat.... i opened up the coolant reservoir and there was water in there and it was frozen.... im not sure if its frozen in the radiator but im guessing it is... idk how im gonna thaw it out or whatever with the temperatures.... any advice???

 

my buddy has a civic same year... 1992. i unplugged his master switch and plugged it in mine, still none of the windows would work from the master switch or any of the other switches. i checked the fuses on the driver side under the dash and they were all good. is there like a relay or main fuse somewhere?? because the power door locks dont work either. or maybe its wiring. where does the wire usually break at if thats what it may be? and whats the easiest way to hard wire it to the battery? is there a terminal on the window motor or is there a harness that im gonna have to probe?? ALSO with the heat.... i opened up the coolant reservoir and there was water in there and it was frozen.... im not sure if its frozen in the radiator but im guessing it is... idk how im gonna thaw it out or whatever with the temperatures.... any advice???

 

It'd be best to park the car in a heated garage until it thaws, then drain the cooling system and refill with proper antifreeze solution. See if there's any space in the radiator, if there is, pour straight 100% antifreeze in there. It's risky to run the engine not full or frozen, but since you've done that already it may just be that someone put water in the bottle and the stuff in the rest of the system still has some freeze protection. Obviously it should be replaced ASAP though. You can take the plastic tank out of the car and bring it inside to thaw it.