96 taurus no heat

Ok so i have a 96 taurus gl 3.0. I have changed thermostat and heater core and flushed the coolant still no heat. it blows good air just wont heat up any ideas?

Do the heater hoses get hot? Does the temp gauge in the instrument cluster indicate the engine is getting up to temperatur? Have you made sure the cooling system is full and there isn't air trapped in the system?

Does your Taurus have the electronic climate controls or the manual controls? Is the heater control valve opening to allow coolant to flow through the heater core?

-Rod

are you sure that you never got heater hoses bacwards? if you never it could be water pump look in radiator see if it's circuliting but make sure it's cooled off. another thing could be your radiator cap.

hoses are hot no hose is reversed that i can tell and temp reads fine. Its a manual dial and there is no radisator cap but there is a cap on the cooalnt jug which is brand new

When you changed the heater core was there a lot of junk in it? It's not unheard of for the water pump impeller to disintigrate and plug the heater core. But, if that occured, I'd expect the temperature to get very hot since the coolant would not be circulating well.

-Rod

yah i dono if they changed since my son had one the battery under the jug? and you sure you got a good thermostat or never put it in upside down. theres no heater contol valve on there is there? because i will not work on a ford tarus.

Check the blend door to see if it is working. It is located under the center of the dash. Look to see if it is moving the lever while someone is working the temp. control lever. here is a pic.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s214/way2old1/taurusblenddooractuator.gif

I put a water pump in my 2000 Taurus 3.0 Vulcan engine yesterday and now have great heat. I flushed the heater core in the past but that never helped either. Remember, when you flush the core, you must pinch off the bypass hose completely. Over 50% of my water pump fins were gone and the engine temperature was always good and never ran hot. Also, while I was in the mode, I remove all of the metal heater core tubing because it was starting to rust and always was damp at the joints. Napa had all of the hoses and fittings required for $53.00. I started at the core with 2 pre-made 5/8" 90 degree hoses, attached a T fitting to each to retain the bypass hose, ran 5/8" hose from the core out T to the connection on the drivers side, Ran a short section of 5/8" from the core in T to a 5/8" to 3/4" fitting and ran 3/4" hose the rest of the way to the pumps 3/4" fitting. I measured, layed out, and assembled the 90 degree hoses to the Ts and bypass first and then lowered the assembled hose arrangement to connect to the core. Get rid of the metal tubing, it is a problem waiting to happen. Good luck.

I have to "blow out" my heater core on my '97 Vulcan every year when it gets cold because it always gets plugged up with sediment during the warmer months. The '96's and '97's are know for this problem, I believe. In fact, the entire cooling systems on these cars are routinely corroded inside and always shedding sediment. I really should replace my water pump because I'm sure it's all corroded in there. 5 years ago I pulled off the hose at the top of the pump and the neck came out with the hose all corroded. I ended up hammering in a brass neck piece and it's been there ever since with no leaks. Also had to replace the blend door actuator as Way2Old mentioned above. My door had been making a thumping noise because one of the gears inside the actuator had cracked teeth and every time that spot on the gear came around the door would fall to the down position (blocking heat). If this is your problem, as a temporary fix you can stick a piece of something (I used a 1" square piece of plastic cut off a laundry container) into the slotted silver "sliver" bar that moves up and down when the door moves. This can fix the door in the UP position so you'll have heat flow.

Ok i reflushed it again there was a bubble in the heater core I dont know how but it was there finally heat again

hmm heat seems to be intermittent now i dont know whats going on i might have to reflush it again

The core is probably blocked again. I just re-flushed my core again this past weekend. Lots of sediment came out. Need to replace the water pump this weekend...

When you changed the heater core was there a lot of junk in it? It's not unheard of for the water pump impeller to disintigrate and plug the heater core. But, if that occured, I'd expect the temperature to get very hot since the coolant would not be circulating well.

The 3.0 Vulcan seems to be able to tolerate very little coolant circulation, especially in cooler climates. My '97 Taurus water pump impeller was almost completely gone and the engine temp always shown just under 1/2. It never overheated (20 - 30 min. trips around town) this summer with A/C in MN. And the temp gauge rarely went over 1/3 this fall and winter. Never used coolant - degas bottle always showed the same, adequate amount. I finally pulled the water pump chasing the 'no heat' issue this month and found (or rather - didn't find) much of the impeller left.

The heater core was mostly plugged, but a simple back-flush with a garden host wasn't nearly enough to clean it out. After a minute or two the water was running out clear (first back-flush). I forward-flushed it just for the heck of it and got a little more crud out before it almost completely clogged again! It took several passes either way to get the crud/sand out. I was still getting a few grains of sand/rust even when the water was almost completely clear, so don't judge based just on the general clarity of the flush water.

The heater core sits at an angle and heavier sand/rust particles seem to settle well into to the bottom edge. It's VERY difficult to agitate water through that area of the core well enough to float the sand/rust out, even when using fairly good water pressure. I had a bit more luck spraying water into the hoses so a lot of bubles were force in with the water. I was pretty paranoid about blowing out what is - by now - probably a pretty corroded heater core.

[Warning::screwy: conspiracy theory follows - please don tinfoil hats NOW!]

The sand is casting sand from the engine block. It's unclear whether Ford didn't clean the 96 - 99 Vulcan blocks well enough before assembly, or if coolant cavitation is shaking loose sand that normally wouldn't come loose in other engine blocks. Either way, it's almost always there if the coolant is really rusty.

Ford issued a series of 'courtesy recalls' (i.e., 'secret') while the cars were still under the three-year warranty to address the problem. Sorry - it would cost about $1500 today for the same 01-11-6 TSB (http://blizzard.zmm.com/waterpump/BrownCoolant.pdf)repairs. It wasn't a safety recall so no freebies anymore :mad: - don't even bother asking your dealer. And keep in mind that this expensive work was done for free (courtesy of Ford) simply for rusty coolant, overheating and/or no heat.

It goes something like this: The impeller is eventually sanded (worn) away by loose casting sand circulating in the coolant. The impeller generally did not break into pieces, and the blades were not dissolving through electrolytic corrosion (back then, under warranty, anyway). Ford saw this problem in two and three-year-old cars with no other significant corrosion issues except for seriously rusty coolant.

The TSB directed mechanics to replace the water pump (worn or not), flush the radiator and heater core, remove the rear frost plugs and flush the block (yep! Block flush. New car under warranty!), connect everything back up and then do a special neutral-pH rust-dissolving flush (different than a standard chemical flush) and THEN clean everything out again and fill with 50/50 antifreeze.

Are they done yet? Nope...

The service bulletin also called for the installation of a heater-core bypass hose. Yes, on pretty much a new car. The sole purpose of that hose is to keep the upper left of the block from being starved for coolant IF THE HEATER CORE BECAME PLUGGED! Kind of a curious addition to a NEW car's cooling system after it leaves the factory, no? Like Ford engineers suddenly became afraid that the heater core would mysteriously get plugged and fry the engine! (only while under warranty, of course)

OK - they must be done with the service procedure at this point, right?

Sorry - now add a can of Ford's secret sauce: FW-16 coolant conditioner. This is normally used in diesel truck coolant (http://www.dieselmanor.com/fleetguard/DCA4.asp)to 1) boost the level of anti-corrosive stuff in old truck coolant, and 2) provide anti-cavitation protection against cylinder liner pitting. This is never used in 'normal' passenger car coolant in the U.S. that I know of - you change the coolant way before something like this is needed. If brand new coolant has plenty of anti-corrosive stuff, then why would a Ford TSB for a passenger car call for the odd addition of FW-16?

My guess (for the Ford lawyers out there) is that Ford suspected cavitation was responsible for shaking the casting sand loose way up in the block somewhere. Kind of like a free ultrasonic bath for the inside of your block - courtesy of your 'regular' passenger-car coolant. Stop the cavitation and you stop the sand bath. There is normally a tiny amount of casting sand left imbedded in every block, but normal foundry cleaning removes anything that could possibly come loose and cause a problem. Normal engine vibrations are probably not responsible, otherwise Ford wouldn't be worried about tossing in a can of anti-cavitation SCA additives during the 'secret' service.

Once loose, the Vulcan's casting sand keeps circulating and grinding away surfaces in the coolant path - like the impeller, for instance. All the extra metal particles that ended up in the coolant oxidized fairly easily. Since most of the worn metal was steel/iron, it turned to rusty sludge. This made the coolant pretty conductive. Conductive coolant is.... well, bad. In addition (or because of this) the metal pipes on the firewall seem particularly susceptible to rusting out. Oddly enough, the heater core and radiator do not seem especially vulnerable to corrosion in these models, although some people seem to go through heater cores/radiators pretty regularly. Rust sludge usually takes it's toll first. Maybe it 'protects' the heater core from corrosion by plugging it up!.


Now, I'm not suggesting every 'no heat' problem needs a water pump, block and chemical flush, and FW-16 secret sauce. It's just interesting to know Ford's curiously extensive 'fix' for the problem back when they would have been stuck paying for subsequent (waranteed) engine repairs. And since they're not under warranty any more, well... it's your fault for not changing the coolant or letting it get too low at some point. Too late for secret sauce.

Already mentioned this in my thread, but I'll mention it again here because it's applicable:

I just replaced my original factory water pump after 10 years and 164k miles of driving. I've got a GL wagon 3.0 Vulcan. The pump came out with all the impellers intact, but where each one bends at a right angle there was a hairline rust crack through each one. Probably hurt flow somewhat, but my temp guage never went above half scale EVER. Also, my heater core has blocked up every year for the last 5 years or so. I just flush it out with a garden hose from either side back and forth until no more sediment comes out. I've never used the "special sauce", but I have flushed with the TSB "ph Iron Cleaner". Didn't seem to do much - same problems remain. I've since done 2 or 3 Prestone Super Flushes with the same result as the TSB stuff.

There's no question that the TSB "H" hose - which was already installed on my car when I bought it new at the beginning of '98 - is a kludge fix based on Ford knowing that the heater core would be forever plugging up.

Anybody who owns one of these cars '96-'99 needs to stay on top of the cooling system corrosion problem by repeatedly flushing out the system and refilling with clean coolant. And even though I didn't change my water pump until 164k miles, I'd recommend installing a new one if you've bought the car used or if your heater core has needed repeated flushes to make your heat work.