02 Taurus w/ little or no heat

[Antman08]

My heat has been giving me problems of late. The guys at work say that it could be a thermostat stuck open. It could be a leak. It could be a water pump and nobody gives me the same answer twice so i come to the o'great forum once again.


Problem 1 the temp gauge doesnt even make it to half like it should and when i come to a stop it drops down.

Problem 2 i get white smoke or steam from the hood after about 10mins of driving.

Problem 3 when i turn the heat on of course no heat but i have no smell of radiator fluid or oil but a smell of burnt hair.

Problem 4 Its started to idle at 600 where before it was idling at 800

Problem 5 When i lift the hood there is somewhat of a griding but not its kinda hard to explain on the left side of the engine near the serpentine belt n alternator area


Before i go and take it somewhere i wanted some of yalls opinions. to see if its an easy fix or if i need a flush and/or thermostat.

[tripletdaddy]

Originally Posted by Antman08

My heat has been giving me problems of late. The guys at work say that it could be a thermostat stuck open. It could be a leak. It could be a water pump and nobody gives me the same answer twice so i come to the o'great forum once again.


Problem 1 the temp gauge doesnt even make it to half like it should and when i come to a stop it drops down.

P1 Sounds a lot like a stuck open thermostat.

Originally Posted by Antman08

Problem 2 i get white smoke or steam from the hood after about 10mins of driving.

P2 I can't tell how it is related to lack of heat and need more detail. Could be a leak, but does it smell like hot antifreeze? A leak will lower the system operating pressure, but I wouldn't think it would greatly lower the coolant temperature. A bad radiator cap could leak causing the steam.

Originally Posted by Antman08

Problem 3 when i turn the heat on of course no heat but i have no smell of radiator fluid or oil but a smell of burnt hair.

P3 If this bad smell is inside the car, you probably have a leak. It may be the heater core, but if the smell is stronger outside, than hopefully it's just a hose or the radiator cap. Is the antifreeze disappearing any? Recently, two posters here mentioned their overflow reservoir leaking. Offhand, I don't know of a connection between no heat inside and low engine temp while stopped caused by an inside leak. You may be low enough on antifreeze to prevent the antifreeze from getting to the heater and radiator due to poor circulation. If the bad smell isn't hot antifreeze, a burnt hair smell can be from a dead mouse stuck where it is hot. Eventually, the smell will get worse, but I wouldn't know how the mouse is connected to the low engine temp.

Originally Posted by Antman08

Problem 4 Its started to idle at 600 where before it was idling at 800.

P4 Maybe the engine temp low is messing up the computer?

Originally Posted by Antman08

Problem 5 When i lift the hood there is somewhat of a griding but not its kinda hard to explain on the left side of the engine near the serpentine belt n alternator area

P5 Could be A LOT of things and not necessarily related to your heat problems. First impression, you have an idler or tensioner pulley bearing getting noisy in need of replacement. From there, it could be anything that connects to the belt: alt, ps pump, ac comp, water pump. Your symptoms don't really indicate your wp is bad.

Originally Posted by Antman08

Before i go and take it somewhere i wanted some of yalls opinions. to see if its an easy fix or if i need a flush and/or thermostat.

A flush wouldn't hurt if you decide to try things yourself, change tstat, etc.

[Antman08]

well thanks for all the answers. I dont have any leaks inside or out and the burnt hair smell only happens when I turn on the fan. I cant smell anything outside either.

so i guess ill take it in and get a flush and maybe a new cap for my overflow tank to see if that is causing the steam issue.

[LeSabre97mint]

Antman08

When you do take it in have them do a cooling system psi test.

Welcome to AFs!

Regards

Dan

[Antman08]

i had a friend flush it and we put in a new thermostat in and i have heat whooohooo


btw i am not new to the forums but my old login has a password problem and the email recovery wont work but thanks for the re welcome.