I'm not taking a personal shot at anyone.
But I do think people should realize....ALL vehicles that have sat any significant time, start up "cold".
The Fit, is just nice enough to give you a reminder.

If you ever owned a vehicle with a temperature gauge, nearly every time you started your vehicle, IF you watched it...the needle would move from Colder to Hotter..and hopefully stop at some point.
Most people would just ignore the temperature gauge until the saw steam or heard a sound.
I like that The Fit gives me a "The Engine Isn't Fully Warmed Up" indication.
IMO...it's a good thing.

 

I imagine most cars have some sort of temp indicators in the electronic dash. In good old days we had actual temp gauges as you describe.. I have had the odd one peg out at the top when blowing a rad hose.

The dumbass mechanic the first time she took it in should have explained how it operated.

 

Why are you saying some women shouldn't drive cars? That is mean spirited. I just bought my FIT and didn't know what the light meant, is that so wrong?

 

hahaha! zing too funny.

 

The internet forums can be harsh at times.
I got "coached" by a forum member for following the Maintenance Minder light for oil changes... which is around 12,000 miles for me.

Just don't ignore the orange and red lights or flashing lights on the instrument cluster and you should be okay.

 

Did I say women should not drive cars? No I did not . I said some people. I am sure the first time you took it back they told you it was for the engine not outside temp. That warning light is just so darn big it just drives us all crazy. Damn you got good eyes. Mine light is hardly noticeable.

 

I keep a full lower grille block in the winter and partial block in spring/fall months and I always keep an eye on the actual coolant temperature through my ScanGauge2. Since I'm Canadian and our temperatures are in Celsius (C), I will share the values I've noticed and anyone curious can feel free to convert these to F with Google

* Blue (cold) "idiot" light stays on until about 51-52 C, after which it disappears.

* Standard operating temperature is 81 C, regardless of season. I'm assuming this is when the thermostat allows coolant to pass through the radiator, but the "gate" is not fully open.

* The cooling fan only starts operating if the temperature reaches 93 C. This is likely the point when the coolant passed freely through the entire system.

* I have never seen the Red (hot) "idiot" light come on, so I don't know what temperature triggers that. The hottest I've ever noticed was around 99-101 C, and I pulled over to remove one of the grille blocks.

Since the blue idiot light disappears at 50 C but the normal operating is at 81 C, I would NOT recommend anyone to start revving high as soon as the blue light turns off, as the engine is clearly not fully warmed up yet.

PS:
I know the temperatures above are those of the coolant and not of the engine oil. This means the engine oil is always somewhat hotter than the coolant, however better to be safe than sorry.

 

Based on my GD, the reason Honda didn't put a real gauge in is because it would scare folks,, the fans on a GD don't come on till like 230F And then pull the temp down to 190(ish) and it cycles back and forth all the time,, horrid way to run a engine.. Reason the GD is hard on head gaskets and radiators.

I added a extra sensor and tied a relay bypass in to trigger the fans in a tighter range, so far after a year works great and the car gets about 3 MPG average better.. I use an Ultraguage to monitor, daughter is driving the car in college and she actually pays attention to the ultraguage, since its up on top of the dash to the Left of the cluster..

 

Good info in your post, above.


Just another thing to remember: warm COOLANT doesn't mean warm OIL. So even with today's recommended low-viscosity, high-flow oil, you should restrain yourself from high-revving the engine for a few miles. (I observe a period of about 6 - 7 miles, 15 - 20 minutes of driving.) That gives the OIL time to fully reach operating temperature.

 

I'm going to give this thread a BUMP because I was searching for an answer to this question: How long does it take before YOUR blue thermometer light turns OFF?

For me, it's about 2 minutes, or a bit less than a half-mile of residential street driving.

The car is brand-new (2018 Fit EX-L); I just put its first tankful of gas in at 000,271 miles. And, as far as weather conditions, San Diego has been in a heatwave with temps in my area of 100+. The car sits in a garage, which stays hot all night. But that's AMBIENT temp, not ENGINE temp - I mention it just to add a data point/context.

 

There could be differences between all of us in this section of the forum and you because we have a different FIT than you. We have Generation II and you are a Gen III. So that is one difference to consider when you post here.

My '11 Sport is sitting in 77 deg F / 84% RH and the "cold light" went off in approx 2 mins sitting in driveway. My after market UltraGauge device noted 127 deg F when the light went out. So, 127 - 77 deg F = 50 deg on approx 1.4 gallons of coolant in circulation (not that it's circulating on start up - not sure on the FIT but many engines use a two-stage thermostat to short circuit the coolant flow to keep it around the engine until the engine hits a certain temp and then the full cooling system is engaged).

Again, I don't know how much of the cooling system is being utilized in the initial "blue - light" two (2) minutes but if it was the full 1.4 gals, then that is about 12.5 pounds of antifreeze. It takes 1 British Thermal Unit (BTU) of energy to increase 1 pound of water 1 deg F, so to increase 12.5 pounds of antifreeze (water) by 50 degs F (127 - 77), means that the engine "threw off" approx 625 BTUs before the blue light shut off on my car / my ambient conditions. 625 BTUs divided by 2 minutes = 313 BTUs per minute.

If you start out at 90 deg F, blue light goes off at the same 127 deg F, that is a 37 deg increase times 12.5 BTU to increase the full cooling system i deg F, so your engine threw off 463 BTUs or yours require 162 BTUs less "wasted" BTUs to turn off the blue light. 463 BTUs divided by 2 minutes = 232 BTUs per minute.

You should realize that the "rate" (313 vs 232) at which the coolant system comes up to 127 deg F has to be the "same" under under "normal conditions" whereas in the Arctic, it might never get to 127. There are probably a 1000 more variables going on but a 2 minute period for the blue light to turn off seems normal.