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Heat, or lack of...


david-b
10-22-2006, 06:26 PM
Hey all;
Replaced the thermostat the other day as in my last thread. When it was broken, (always open), the heat when I turned on the heater in the car went on pretty quick. Quicker than usual. Now that it's changed, I had no heat today, and it was COLD!! Let the car warm up and still no heat. Drove about 7 miles each way and all it did was blow cold air.

Going to check fuses when I go outside, but it's really cold right now. Any other ideas?

xavier3jr
10-22-2006, 06:34 PM
check coolant level if not heater coil and there a bitch to replace. gota take the dash off...

Thor06
10-22-2006, 06:37 PM
So let me get this straight. Broken thermostat = you got heat in the car. New thermostat = cold air. Is that right? I dont know man, sounds to me like you've got some air in the system. That blows though...

blk_srt
10-22-2006, 10:06 PM
For the record its a heater core not heater coil. Check coolant level. Check engine temp when warm and see if it stays cold, over heats or is perfect

david-b
10-23-2006, 12:48 AM
I don't know what the deal is. I'm extremely pissed right now becauase it's about 30 degrees right now and all I had was cold air coming home. It's f-en cold!!

I realized that after I changed the thermostat that night, the heater worked. Actually, it was too hot then. So it started this monring with not working.

Coolant level is fine. Again, it's about a 80/20 mix of water and coolant, but I don't see that that would make a difference.

Engine temp is perfectly fine. Gauge itself still doesn't work, but logger shows normal temps across the board. I know sometime heat take a while with the little engines, but it never comes on, no matter how warm the car is on for today. This is sucking bad because I believe we're getting some snow tomorrow and it's going to be cold again. I need this fixed asap!! Thanks

gthompson97
10-23-2006, 01:36 AM
Sounds to me like the heater core took a shit on you. Pretty weird that it's so coincidental with you servicing the cooling system though.

david-b
10-23-2006, 09:54 AM
How much am I looking at for a heater core? How hard are they to install? Right now its 32 degrees and I have to goto work. Burrrr.

Thor06
10-23-2006, 12:30 PM
IIRC, heater cores themselves arent much more than like $20-$30, but they are a pain in the ass to replace. You have to completely rip the dash off which can be a time consuming feat. My buddy managed to get his off from the 1g in like 3 hours but I have heard that doing one in the Cavy takes ~6 hours just to get the dash off. Just get a Haynes manual so you know where all the screws are and go to town. I have to do it in my Talon too, not because its bad but to save on weight. It wont see another winter ever again so why have that extra shit in there? I have never heard of a heater core taking a dump and not losing coolant though, I think your problem is in the engine bay. :2cents:

david-b
10-23-2006, 12:45 PM
Do you think because I have more water than coolant that that would affect the heater? It's mostly water. I'm going to drain it all and refill with 50/50 and see if that fixes it. Autozone has the heater core for $130. More money than I want to spend.

david-b
10-23-2006, 10:20 PM
Ok, so I talked with my dad this evening. He asked if a piece from the old thermostat fell in when I took out the parts. I said I didnt think so, but then I thought about it.

Is there a little like fan blade on the stock thermostats? IIRC, I think (when mine was still in one piece) there was a little ^ facing toward the front of the car on the end of it. I didn't see it when I took out the thermostat.

So he thinks that something may have fallen in. Also, he asked how the heater system works. I personally dont know, even thought Im looking at the book right now. He said he remembers that older cars used to have the coolant go through like a "side" piece where the heat from it would warm up whatever and then goto the heater core, like right before the firewall. Is there something like this there? I'm going to try a flush, but I have NO time at all for awhile, till possible saturday.

blk_srt
10-23-2006, 10:24 PM
coolant travels either from the rad through the motor back to the rad or through the heater core back

gthompson97
10-23-2006, 10:33 PM
The coolant travels from the radiator, through the motor, through the heater core, and back to the radiator I believe. I don't think that not having enough antifreeze would cause the heater to not work because the more water, the lower the boiling point so technically the more water you have, the warmer it *would* run if there was no thermostat to "monitor" the water temp.

I'm kinda stumped on what your problem is, but you're sure that it's full of coolant? Maybe you have air in the lines, or like an air lock or something like that like Dustin said?? But I haven't ever heard of that in our cars, or ever to be honest.

david-b
10-23-2006, 10:44 PM
It's full. Resivoir is full. Over flowed some too. I have absolutly no time to do a flush this week, and possible not next week too. It was snowing when I came home today!! So cold. Have no gloves neither.

Anyone have that little fan piece on theirs? Just open the cap and see if it's in there. That piece is bothering me. Like I think that that's causing the problem but IDK.

gthompson97
10-23-2006, 11:01 PM
I don't know what you mean by fan piece, but I have a brand new thermostat in the pickup outside, I'll go take a pic really quick and show you what mine looks like. But if you're talking about something stuck inside the housing, then that's NOT supposed to be there.

david-b
10-23-2006, 11:44 PM
I wish I had a pic of what I was talking about. I was serious like a little fan. It was like a ^ The open side was facing toward the front of the car. the pointy part was connected to the thermostat. I know what the new ones look like. I still have the box right next to me from it. Wish I wouldve taken a picture of it long time ago.

gthompson97
10-24-2006, 12:07 AM
Are you talking about that little arrow thingy on the end of the thermostat?

david-b
10-24-2006, 12:07 AM
I think so. Maybe?

SLoe
10-24-2006, 02:42 AM
I think you probably have air in the system. Do the proceedure in the stickay for getting rid of it. Other than that maybe you got a bad thermostat (it happens) from the factory, or it's so cold that you never reach operating temp (unlikely). I don't believe the heater core could mess up in any way that would cause this problem unless it was leaking or bypassed. If after you get all the air out, it still does it, I would take the thermostat out and see if it's hung open. Did you check to see if the flap is moving when you move the HVAC control to hot? That could cause it not to get hot in the cabin.

How cold is it??? :icon16: Put a piece of cardboard infront of your radiator and see if it gets any hotter. :evillol: I did that the year I was stationed in Chicago when it got down to -80 windchill. :eek:

david-b
10-24-2006, 09:32 AM
I think you probably have air in the system. Do the proceedure in the stickay for getting rid of it. Other than that maybe you got a bad thermostat (it happens) from the factory, or it's so cold that you never reach operating temp (unlikely). I don't believe the heater core could mess up in any way that would cause this problem unless it was leaking or bypassed. If after you get all the air out, it still does it, I would take the thermostat out and see if it's hung open. Did you check to see if the flap is moving when you move the HVAC control to hot? That could cause it not to get hot in the cabin.

How cold is it??? :icon16: Put a piece of cardboard infront of your radiator and see if it gets any hotter. :evillol: I did that the year I was stationed in Chicago when it got down to -80 windchill. :eek:

I just replaced my thermostat the other day. Heat stopped working the day after I did it. Car is getting to normal operating temp. Car has never ran better. It is opening and closing properly.

It's not -80 windchill.... yet. I was 25 degrees last night, with a windchill of 10 or so. That was after I got home. I just have to live without heat for like 2 weeks. Grr. :screwy: :disappoin

SLoe
10-24-2006, 06:15 PM
^ That's what I am saying, MAYBE the new thermostat you bought is bad. I have gotten bad thermostats right out of the package before. :D

david-b
10-24-2006, 06:42 PM
It seems thought that if it was defective, the car operating temperature wouldn't be right. It's perfect. Warms up quickly, and doesnt overheat. I found some time on Thursday morning to do a radiator flush. Going to try that and see if it works.

SLoe
10-24-2006, 07:21 PM
It seems thought that if it was defective, the car operating temperature wouldn't be right. It's perfect. Warms up quickly, and doesnt overheat. I found some time on Thursday morning to do a radiator flush. Going to try that and see if it works.Try this David, let the car warm up, and feel the hoses going to the heater core. Both of them should be hot. If only one is hot then it is stopped up. How bout that?

david-b
10-24-2006, 07:48 PM
Ahh, sounds good. These would be exactly where though? I'm going to my girls house after work and I dont have my book with me. Where am I looking at for the 2 hoses?

SLoe
10-24-2006, 07:53 PM
Ahh, sounds good. These would be exactly where though? I'm going to my girls house after work and I dont have my book with me. Where am I looking at for the 2 hoses?Not 100% sure on the N/T, but I would say they are coming out of the firewall on the passenger side in all likelyhood. That's where most are located.

gthompson97
10-24-2006, 08:34 PM
They are right underneath the CAI, 2 hoses running right beside each other. They're rubber from the firewall and then turn into metal and one goes down to the lower radiator hose and one goes right in front of the head and into the thermostat housing.

david-b
10-24-2006, 10:00 PM
Well when I got home I opened the hood and had my little flashlight and all. I couldn't find the hoses on the passenger side. (Didn't get that last post in time). They were all kinda warm there.

I looked at the hose going from the thermostat housing to the coolant tank (it's not a clear hose) and it was all foam. I went to open the overflow to see if it was foamy also, but it was too hot to open. (It's metal now). I could see the little track of the side showing that it was just about full. There was more coolant that had also overflowed out too. Any ideas there? Foamy coolant!

SLoe
10-24-2006, 11:57 PM
Well when I got home I opened the hood and had my little flashlight and all. I couldn't find the hoses on the passenger side. (Didn't get that last post in time). They were all kinda warm there.

I looked at the hose going from the thermostat housing to the coolant tank (it's not a clear hose) and it was all foam. I went to open the overflow to see if it was foamy also, but it was too hot to open. (It's metal now). I could see the little track of the side showing that it was just about full. There was more coolant that had also overflowed out too. Any ideas there? Foamy coolant!
Air man! Air in the system. ;) Or someone spiked your radiator with soap. :lol: Get the air out. I thought you had done this already? Look in the overheated sticky:iceslolan I put this info. in there. Basically what you want to do is over fill the radiator and overflow tank, let it idle for about a half an hour with the heater on full blast. Then shut it off and it should start bubbling in the overflow tank, this is the air bubbles exiting. Then when it cools down it will suck the fluid minus the air back into the radiator, and presto! The rest of the air (if any) will be expelled during normal driving. ;)

david-b
10-25-2006, 01:17 PM
I've been working on this the whole morning. Got everything going, redid everything, then a leak started at the gasket on the thermostate housing. So I had to take apart again and now it's drying (gasket seal) with the new gasket installed. Then hopefully it'll work. It did seem to get a little warm in the car the first time I tried it out before it started leaking. Hey how about that, first gasket I've ever blown!

Mikelb
10-25-2006, 01:31 PM
lol... yeah, I'm going with air in the system... I was told to take the cap off the radiator, and cut the car on... then keep filling the radiator for 5-10 mins or op temp... I've had air in the lines before, after awhile, it'll start overheating the car, but it always starts as no hot air...

if your heater core goes bad, it'll usually leak on the passenger side floor board...
but if one of your gaskets went bad, that could be where the air is coming in... keep us posted

david-b
10-25-2006, 03:56 PM
Heat works! The gasket was only leaking because I had retightened it up too many times now. It was thin and I guess the pressure from it decided to cut it threw. Good times. I hope the heat continues to work as I don't have time to deal with this shit. Inside temp gauge still doesn't work though :-(

So I got it going and the heat is working fine right now. Went to get the car wash at this place. Had a coupon for a free wash since the guy that owns the place came into my store and was a dick and I helped him out. I got a free wash out of it. I went there and they washed it, did inside and out. I get inside and everythings all moved around and messed up. SAFC and datalogger sitting all sideways and falling off. And suddenly, I have no tails, inside, or parking lights. WTF. It was fine when it went into the wash and came out, bc they weere still on. They were off then when the guys did the windows and wiped it down. Bastards. Fuse was blown, replaced, blown again. Turns out (after an hour of trying to figure it out), they touched the gauge pod or hit it, and now somethings shorting out there. Bastards.

SLoe
10-25-2006, 06:29 PM
lol... yeah, I'm going with air in the system... I was told to take the cap off the radiator, and cut the car on... then keep filling the radiator for 5-10 mins or op temp... I've had air in the lines before, after awhile, it'll start overheating the car, but it always starts as no hot air...

if your heater core goes bad, it'll usually leak on the passenger side floor board...
but if one of your gaskets went bad, that could be where the air is coming in... keep us postedThat's called packing. It's not what I would do to get air out. Doing the idle trick will work every time. Sometimes if there is enough air in the system, the thermostat won't even open so filling the radiator while it idles doesn't always work. So every time I replace a thermostat, I fill the block through the Tstat hole and then put the Tstat in. The water will fill the system from the bottom up, displacing the air as it goes. Just leave the rad. cap off when you do it. :D

david-b
10-25-2006, 10:44 PM
Just wanted to show my broken thermostat
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c183/truloveat18/Daves%20Pics/1025061258-00Custom.jpg

SLoe
10-25-2006, 10:58 PM
^Beautiful.

gthompson97
10-25-2006, 11:41 PM
That is a piece of art David, almost better than Picasso! :)

Good to hear you fixed your heat though.

Mikelb
10-26-2006, 07:40 AM
damn... I've never had a t-stat go like that...

I guess you know what you're doing... when you break something, you really break it... lol

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