D17A3 engine 1.7 L
96,000 miles. I bought the car with 83,000 miles in August 2011.

Initial complaint.
AT IDLE: no heat.
Above 1750 RPM: Enough heat to chase you out of the car.


Jan 24ish
Local shop put in a 190* t-stat and did a cooling system flush. They recommended a water pump. I had it done at the tech college to save me $450+ in labor.

After Jan 24ish
Performed the Heater Self-Diagnosis after the cooling flush/t-stat above did not work. If passes.

2/14
Had the timing belt and water pump changed at the tech college. Cost is parts +5%. They also put in a thermostat and flushed the cooling system for the initial complaint.

2/17
I got 6 blocks from the school and the CEL came on. Took it back to the tech college and they tested a bad "#4" coil. They replaced it.

2/24
Fiance calls me up and tells me that the CEL is on and it's running rough. Had her drive it home.

2/25 - Hooked up my laptop to the car. I have ProScan for getting into the computer to read the codes and see what's happening with the engine. I had a P0301 error.

I swapped the #3 and #4 coils to see if it followed. It did not. Still had the P0301 code

I swapped the #1 and #2 coils to see if it followed. I now had a P0300, P0301 and P0302 code
I replaced the spark plugs in #1, 3 and 4 cylinders. #2 will not come out. I had a P0301 error and the tech school just replaced the coil on "#4" cylinder when I picked it up. They were counting from the wrong side of the engine.

Miss is not being seen anymore.

Is that sticking plug a sign someone tried pulling a spark plug on a hot engine, or more likely a bad head also causing a gas leak into the engine coolant?

 

No heat at idle is almost always because the cooling system is not completely full. Park the car on level ground, wait until engine is cold, then remove the radiator cap and check. Look in the radiator itself not the white plastic tank. The radiator should be full to the top.

Driving with insufficient coolant leads to overheating and possible head gasket failure or worse a cracked engine.

 

Sorry, should have mentioned that. Radiator is filled to the neck and the overflow to the top

 

Try touching by hand the inlet and outlet hoses connected to the heater core. A significant difference in temperature on the two hoses might be due to a valve not opening properly or a partially clogged heater core. You did a coolant flush, was the heater core flushed separately?

 

I was told that they used a flushing machine at both locations to flush the cooling system.

The tech school gave me a reading of 150* at the dash vents.

One thing I have noticed is if I have it on full heat, high fan, it gets cool quickly.

If I put it on half heat, medium fan, it doesn't cool as quickly.


Think I will go in and visually verify that all the doors/valves are working like they should.

 

 

No clue.

Sold the car without ever figuring it out back in 2012.