To anyone with heating problems

[theclarks1]

I just want to let you guys know that a while back dad again had some issues with heat. WE replaced the thermostat last year due to lack of heat and that kind of solved it. Well this year the time came and he had NO heat. Well, come to find out that we took off the heater hoses and had little to no fluid come out of the heater core. He took a water hose (regular garden hose with a low pressure nozzle on it) and just sprayed the hose in there. It came out with lots of gunk in there and after that it works fine. We shall see if his fix lasts!! Hope this helps!!

[blazes9395]

If you find a lot of sludge in the heater core like that, chances are the rest of the cooling system is exactly like that too, specificlly the the rad. A very good thing to do at this point is to get that coolant system flushed real throughly. This will help the whole system be more efficient at heat transfer, and also will avoid you having another problem like this down the road.

The idea is to keep this sludge from not building within the engine block coolant passages, cylinder skirt surfaces, and generally within the coolant system. Poor heat transfer as a result of build-up causes hot spots in that location where there is sludge buildup. Poor heat transfer reduces engine life in many ways. One such way is engine denotation. Hot spots tend to make engine knock worse, and we all know what denotation causus if it gets bad.

Thats why it is important once you see the sludge building up, to get the system flushed and checked to make sure everythingis good.

[theclarks1]

I didnt really see any sludge, more like obstructions that were dry. Nothing that really made any sense. I guess that the whatever was in there could have been sludge at one point but since then we have flushed the system and seems to be working flawlessly. Thanks for the advice!! You guys are great!!

[berniescout]

install flush kit and go to town flushing it. when finished use prestone dexcool with distilled water to get a 50/50 mix. new pressure cap. don't use the gm cap

[riptide44]

definitely dont ignore the rest of the cooling system - flush it all out really well - that sludge could also be from someone adding alot too much stop leak at some point . get it all out of there ,

[Sgt. JB]

I have a 2003 Century that up til now has been no trouble, 64,000 miles. Suddenly the heater stopped working. The A/C works fine but no heat or defrost. Any ideas were to start?

[theclarks1]

When you switch it over to defrost or heat, do you hear kind of a hiss when you switch it? The control is normally worked by vacum. If you can also get to the point o see the heater box under your dash then look for a little lever that moves when you change it from heat to cool. If you arent getting any air out of there when you switch it though I would say that the vacum line going to the switch is bad. Thats what makes it switch from one to the other.

[ericn1300]

Originally Posted by Sgt. JB

I have a 2003 Century that up til now has been no trouble, 64,000 miles. Suddenly the heater stopped working. The A/C works fine but no heat or defrost. Any ideas were to start?

You'd be better off starting a new thread in the Buick forum, could be a problem with the controls or switches which would be different.

[ericn1300]

Originally Posted by Sgt. JB

I have a 2003 Century that up til now has been no trouble, 64,000 miles. Suddenly the heater stopped working. The A/C works fine but no heat or defrost. Any ideas were to start?

You'd be better off starting a new thread in the Buick forum, could be a problem with the controls or switches which would be different.