96 voyager 3.3 no heat issue and new member

[One Foot]

Hello everyone. I'm new here with a new-to -me voyager. At the moment I'm trying to diagnose a no-heat problem. It rains a lot here and not having a front defroster is a bit of a problem :-/

Once upon a time I was an active member of another online automotive group (ramj+w) that was excellent. The good the bad and the ugly. Lol. After lurking a bit here it seems this is that kind of place. Anyway, nice to meet you all!

[One Foot]

Haha. Crap. I guess u need to know what the deal with the car is.

Everything was groovy. Then the heat just stopped and only cold a/c air would come out the dash. A bunch of jiggling knobs and dials only got one or two blasts of hot, otherwise it's ice cold.
Checked the coolant. It was low. Topped it up and nothing. Water pump need replacing so I did that. Along with a new fan belt and a cooling system flush at midas on the big machine.
Next day I had heat. ..until the engine reached temp. Then cold again. Sigh.

OK. New thermostat. Bleed the system. Still nothing.
I have a question here. How big a bubble would air lock the system? How long will it take for any and all bubbles to be expelled? How do you know if there are any left?

So I read a bit more and I try the recalibration bit. Worked like a charm. Now I have cold air and a code! Yippee!!
Wiper button flashes once followed by 4 flashed of the button just below it (the intermittent wipe button)

Also, the thermostat bypass hose is kinked and I have no idea what condition the bottom end is in as my back is f@€#D and I can't get down there to look.

I think that covers it
Thanks

[MikeCStig]

Originally Posted by One Foot

OK. New thermostat. Bleed the system. Still nothing.
I have a question here. How big a bubble would air lock the system? How long will it take for any and all bubbles to be expelled? How do you know if there are any left?

So I read a bit more and I try the recalibration bit. Worked like a charm. Now I have cold air and a code! Yippee!!
Wiper button flashes once followed by 4 flashed of the button just below it (the intermittent wipe button)

Also, the thermostat bypass hose is kinked and I have no idea what condition the bottom end is in as my back is f@€#D and I can't get down there to look.

To answer your first question, it would take a pretty big bubble to completely airlock a cooling system. Think of it this way, it would have to be big enough to occupy a large portion of one of your main radiator hoses, and if you bled the system, that should have sorted it out assuming your water pump and thermostat are functioning properly.

There are 2 things that I would be concerned about. First, the issue you mentioned with the windshield wiper switch and the code which I assume is triggering the check engine light. These are potential signs of an electrical problem, which on a Plymouth voyager ( or a dodge caravan) from that period would not be unusual.

You also mentioned a kinked thermostat bypass hose. That is definitely something that should be addressed, in fact I would look into that first. You may just want to replace that hose because if it's been kinked for too long it's probably damaged and liable to burst at any time. If that doesn't work, I'm sorry to say that you're in for some electrical troubleshooting, but hopefully it's just the hose because that would be a much easier fix. Good luck.

[One Foot]

Thanks Mike. Interestingly enough, the check engine light is not on. Just the flashing wiper lights.
Changing out that hose is next on the hit list. I've read that the nipple it attaches to on the bottom end tends to rot out so I'm going to get the daughters bf to crawl around under there and have a look.
Are you familiar with the rotting nipple issue?

Haha. That just sounds wrong.

[MikeCStig]

rotting nipples, that's a new auto repair innuendo to me. Anyway, I haven't heard of that issue before, but if the nipple is poorly placed it wouldn't surprise me. Damn, now we're talking about poorly placed nipples... you know it's also known as a bleeder screw right? Maybe we should switch to that term before this thread gets too far out of pocket