After staring my 2018 EX-L the low temperature indicator stays on for a few seconds then turns off. Is this normal?

 

Mine stays on sometimes for a few minutes.
It is, exactly what it is.

You'll notice The Fit doesn't have a temperature gauge. The low temperature indicator is just letting you know the engine isn't fully warmed up yet.

Personally? I try to take it easy driving, until the indicator turns off.
But it's illumination when you first turn on the vehicle, when the engine is cold, is perfectly normal.

The only strange thing, is after my vehicle sits all night? It actually stays illuminated for me, sometimes for a few minutes. My engine rarely get's up to temp in "seconds".

 

The light turns of when the engine reaches the normal operating temperature. Honda doesn't say what that is but it's probably in the 180 F range or higher. In the summer my light goes out within a couple minutes. In the winter it will easily stay on for 5 to 10 minutes or more. Perfectly normal. I do wish though that Honda had installed a temperature gauge rather than an idiot light.

 

The cold warning lamp is there only to tell you, hey, let the seals expand a little before terrorizing the other drivers on the road.

 

When you say comes on for a few "seconds" is this when you first turn the vehicle on and several icons illuminate as part of start up?

Because it's not a problem that it is illuminating, but may be a problem if it's only coming on for a few seconds, then you NEVER see it.

My experience is if my Fit has sat unused for several hours, the cold temperature illuminates upon start up...solidly and for "minutes" not seconds.

 

Yes, you are right. I should have said a few minutes.

 

According to my Scangauge the low temp light goes out once the coolant temp reaches 50 degrees Celsius. Normally that happens after a minute of idle and another minute or so of normal driving.
In regular conditions the normal temperature hovers around 80deg and the highest I have seen was 92. in stop and go traffic on a hot day.
I am assuming there is another light indicating "too hot" but have no idea when that one comes on.
I usually wait until 70deg before I get it to redline.

 

If you've already been driving the car and have warmed it up, and if you park somewhere and do a little shopping, when you come out and start the car again, the engine may still be warm enough that the light only comes on for a few seconds, or indeed doesn't come on at all if you've only been away from your car a very brief time.

 

let the car warm up, THEN go for a drive

 

The blue temp light in my 12 Civic goes out when ECT reaches 127.4*F (53*C) (Ultragauge)

I figured the Fits should be about the same, but never actually checked it.



The colder it is, the longer it takes for the engine to reach that temp. That should be obvious.

What I told my GF when she asked about the light:
In the cold of winter, when the blue light turns off, that's about the time you can turn on the heater fan and actually feel a little warmth coming out of the vents.

 

i just start driving gently as soon as the engine turns over and shift into D. this is da same in -10F weather on cold start. no need to idle/warm up modern cars (unless -40F or below), just drive gently until the light goes out and drive another 5min or so gently cause the oil temp probably hasnt reached 180F yet.

 

With 0W20 synthetic which flows so easily even at very low temperatures there's no longer any real reason for a long idle period - or in most cases for any idle period. The engine is being well lubricated as soon as it starts.

 

Even with thick oil, the oil is flowing as soon as you start the car. Start the car, put on your seatbelt and by the time you've switched into Drive the car is ready to drive.

 

I don't do any real warm up. I start the car and as soon as my phone connects to bluetooth and starts streaming music, I put it in drive. Take it easy for about a mile (which is about the time I get out of the residential neighborhood), then drive normally.

I do something similar with my 2004 4runner and it's using conventional 10w-40. Engine still runs great with 160k+ miles on it. Modern engines don't need the long warm up times IMO, that just wastes gas.

 

That's exactly what I do @2Rismo2. No need for sitting idling waiting for the car to warm up anymore, the modern synthetic oil, seals, tight manufacturing tolerances, computer engine management, etc, makes it unnecessary. With the direct injection engine it may actually contribute to carbon buildup on the valves.