No heat when driving

[dlaw]

Have a 2000 camry. When idling the heat works but as soon as I start to move the temperature guage goes below the "cold" and I lose heat in the car. Any ideas please.

[Mike Gerber]

Start by checking the coolant level in the radiator when the car is cold. If low on coolant, it can do this. If you do find it low, fill it up with a 50/50 mix of coolant and water and then have someone check the cooling system for leaks. Coolant is not used by the engine during normal operation. If low, it has a leak somewhere.

Next, I would replace the thermostat. A defective thermostat can also cause this. This is an easy DIY repair. You will lose a bit of coolant when doing this so have some around to top off the cooling system when done. Again, use a 50/50 mix. If you don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, it is a relatively cheap thing to have done at a repair shop.

Enjoy the snow.

Mike

[GSS123]

You may want to pick up a gallon on Toyota coolant. Toyota uses there own kinda red colored stuff. They'll give you all kinds of reasons why you should use it. You'll find people on this forum both for and against usind OEM supplied products. My goal is to get 300k miles out of mine so I go with OEM and DIY most of the time.

[cdlubbe]

hello:I have a 1998 Camry Le and it does the exact oposite of what your car is doing.When driving down the road,it puts out super heat and then when you come to a stop and let it idle,it still puts out heat,but not as hot as when driving down the road.After the engine gets to normal operating tempature,the gauge always reads about center,or slighly below center.Not sure if that is normal or not? I just recently bought this car.
Would anyone know if this is normal or not?
Thanks in advance.
Chuck

Originally Posted by dlaw

Have a 2000 camry. When idling the heat works but as soon as I start to move the temperature guage goes below the "cold" and I lose heat in the car. Any ideas please.

[dlaw]

Changed the thermostat, actually put one in there. What was there looked like a dummy thermostat, didn't have the lower half.
Anyway thanks 4 your advice. My heat works ok now. Feels like "hell" in there sometimes if I turn it all d way up.
Thanks Mike. Also did the 50/50 mix too.

[Mike Gerber]

You're welcome.

Check the coolant level again in a few days. It will usually go down a bit since it's hard to get all the air bubbles bled out of the system and you will probably need to top it off.

Mike