why doesn't my heater work?

[K87]

just wondering if anyone knows wat could be wrong with my heater to make it not work. i've only owned the car for a few months now, and the heater has never worked. wondering if mayb its a fuse problem, or i dunno. i dont have air con as it is, but the little heater function should still work, rite?

[Reeder113]

Originally Posted by K87

just wondering if anyone knows wat could be wrong with my heater to make it not work. i've only owned the car for a few months now, and the heater has never worked. wondering if mayb its a fuse problem, or i dunno. i dont have air con as it is, but the little heater function should still work, rite?

Check out your thermostat. They're cheap (probably between $5 and $10), and they're fairly easy to replace. You may need a new one. A broken fan belt, water pump, or leaking antifreeze can also cause your heater to stop working, but if it were any of those your car would probably overheat, which is why I'm leaning towards the thermostat.

[jcaxe]

Check the water level in the radiator?

[denisond3]

Even if the thermostat was stuck fully open, the coolant would still get warm enough that you would feel some heat coming out from the vents near your feet - unless you had some other problem. I dont know about 96 Excels, but if you have the selector lever set so that fresh air is brought into the car - you would feed some warm air flowing, just by buzzing along the highway: Even if the fan wasnt working at all. It wouldnt be much though.

Another thing to check; do you get any heat to the defroster outlets on top of the dashboard? Thats usually where the air goes if the heater is vacuum operated, and there is no vacuum. In that case, look for a vacuum hose that has come loose, either under the hood or under the dash. The heater in my 87 is all operated by little cables. If I had no heat I would assume it was a clogged heater core, or a broken 'door' inside the heater. A remote possibility is that someone bypassed the heater (this isnt too hard to do by re-routing hoses behind the engine). Bypassing a heater usually means the heater core was leaking.

[buyadvice]

A car engine when in function produces lot of heat and when this excess amount of heat is produced and when this excess amount of heat is not removed the engine gets destroyed. It’s the car cooling system that removes the excess heat and saves your vehicle. Because your car’s heating system and cooling system works simultaneously, the heating system malfunctions are caused by the problems in the cooling system.

[vickyhooper]

A low coolant level (often due to a leak or weak radiator cap), but may also be the result of not getting the cooling system completely filled. If you've just recently changed the antifreeze, check the coolant level in the radiator to see if the radiator is full. An air pocket in the heater core or a heater hose may be interfering with the flow of coolant through the heater core. One way to tell if the coolant is circulating through the heater core is to feel both heater hoses. Both the inlet and outlet return hoses should feel hot when the engine is at normal operating temperature and the heater is on.

[noname22]

ust wondering if anyone knows wat could be wrong with my heater to make it not work. i've only owned the car for a few months now,