97 GS-R slow starting heater

[milli]

Hi,

Lately I am noticing the heater in my 97 GS-R does not start blowing hot air until 10 minutes after starting the car. It used to heat up with in a minute however cold it was outside.

Any ideas why it is taking so long to heat up?

Thanks.

[Mannyb18b]

my heater only gets warm once my temp. guage starts movin up a lil bit. Its not really possible to have warm air blown while the engine is cold. Where was the needle on the guage at when it would blow warm in the first minute?

[whtteg]

10 mins is about average I would say.

[milli]

Hot air starts blowing 6 minutes after the engine heats up(needle in the temp gauge would be roughly half way in the dial).

I don't live in an area where you get subzero temperature. It never used to be like this. It would almost start immediately or I would never notice the time it takes to heat up.

[whtteg]

Originally Posted by milli

Hot air starts blowing 6 minutes after the engine heats up(needle in the temp gauge would be roughly half way in the dial).

I don't live in an area where you get subzero temperature. It never used to be like this. It would almost start immediately or I would never notice the time it takes to heat up.

You can't rely on that the heater will be warm or hot in a set time every time. There are a lot of factors that will change the length of time it takes for the heater to get warm or hot. If it is only taking 10 mins than that is not bad.

Do this though, start the car and let it idle for about 10 mins. Where is the temp gauge at? Now drive the car down the road for 10 mins not stopping. Where is the temp gauge?

[milli]

Originally Posted by whtteg

You can't rely on that the heater will be warm or hot in a set time every time. There are a lot of factors that will change the length of time it takes for the heater to get warm or hot. If it is only taking 10 mins than that is not bad.

Do this though, start the car and let it idle for about 10 mins. Where is the temp gauge at? Now drive the car down the road for 10 mins not stopping. Where is the temp gauge?

Before I could do this I found my coolant leaking and had splashed all over the engine. It was almost out of coolant. Had to take it to a shop and found my radiator was leaking. When I asked about my heater problem I was told it could be 'cause of the coolant leak.

Do you think coolant leak was messing up the heater? I couldn't find a logical reason why coolant leak would impact the heater start-up.

Thanks

[kornflakes28546]

it would make sense that the engine would get hotter...faster with less coolant. what color was the coolant? was your engine smoking when found there was a leak? a buddy of mine has a CL and he had a leak and there was some shitty neon orange coolant all over his engine.

[milli]

Originally Posted by kornflakes28546

it would make sense that the engine would get hotter...faster with less coolant. what color was the coolant? was your engine smoking when found there was a leak? a buddy of mine has a CL and he had a leak and there was some shitty neon orange coolant all over his engine.

It was green.

[milli]

After googling I found the reason why less/no coolant would delay the heating. The heated coolant is sent to heater core and air blowing through the core sends out hot air. When there is no/less coolant, it takes a while for the heater to blow hot air.

[kornflakes28546]

there you go, problem solved... now you just have to find the leak. shouldn't be too hard to find where the neon green fluid is coming from.

[phr0zen]

Originally Posted by kornflakes28546

a buddy of mine has a CL and he had a leak and there was some shitty neon orange coolant all over his engine.

Believe it's called Dex Cool, and it is supposedly able outperform conventional antifreeze.