heater won't heat

I cannot find my old thread to continue it, so I will have to start over.

I have tried repeatedly to do things to my car, to get the heater to heat like it should. So far I have gotten up to luke warm.

It started with the slider control for the heater, it would not slide over to the hot side. Before when the switch would slide easily into the hot postion it would, indeed get hot.

After trying again and again to fix this problem I just went to the place where the wire ended up, under the hood, and ripped the wire out, and pulled the mechanism up with pliers, thinking all I would have to do this summer is push it back down.

This, however, did not work, it would not get hot no matter where I placed the mechanism.

So I replaced the thermostat, and I assume you can not reverse these as you could the ones from the sixties, in any case that did not work.

Next I took the control mechanism that the wire went to, and ripped it off the firewall, and joined the hoses straight to one another,

This did not work either.

Yesterday coming home from work car starts to over heat, how ironic is that? I cannot get heat into the drivers area of the car, mean while my engine is burning up.

When I got home I left the engine running and the heater on.
Popped the hood to see what was going on. Notice that the top radiator hose was jumping to the point that it moved from the clip that was holding it in place. AH! Ha!

Replaced the top radiator hose, as it was limber enough to suck shut and dislodge itself from its moorings. I got it now.

After replacing the hose I did expect the heater to work great again as it always had. But, Noooooooooooo!

It now gets warm no where near hot, just warm, as in luke.

I have checked the hoses as I was asked the last post I had.

The heater hoses are hot enough, that you cannot hold on to them very long, both the one in and the one out.

So in checking the hoses I also checked the bottom radiator hose. This is what I found, I do not know if this is the way it should be or not. But here it is.

Hose going in to the thermostat hot as hell, hose leaving the thermostat heading into the bottom of the radiator, cold, ice cold. Heater was on, and the fan in the wide open positon at this time. Blowing luke warm air. I also tride to squeeze the hose to check to see if it needed replacing but it seemed to be better than the old top hose, but I did notice as I said it was freezing cold, and their seemed to be no pressure in it, I could almost close it completely with out any problems, such as stopping the flow of water, it seemed to be empty.

Afte this I took the radiator cap off < again with the heater on full> and noticed that their was no flowing whatsoever. I do not know if this is what should have been or not, need help.

I was also thinking about removing the thermostat altogeter but cannot rememeber if this gives you heat all the time or no heat all the time,

Cold in WV need help.

 

It sure sounds like your hearer core is plugged. Try to remove both hoses going into the car(the one you cut the valve out of and its return). Jury rig a connector to one side so you can hook up a garden hose and turn on water and see if it comes out the other hose.
However doing this might dislodge a bunch of rust and scale and cause a leak in the heater core. But it might not.

 

yeah. i'm with michael van. your radiator is stopped up. have it boiled and rodded to clean it out. bottom hose is inlet from radiator and top(at thermostat) is return to radiator. bottom hose should be replaced.

 

If you are with van how come he says it is the heater core and you say it is the radiator?

 

A weeks worth of threads from about the 13th to the 20th disappeared off the board. Mods/administrator know.

Spring faces the engine-side.

Coolant is not circulating: Plugged up radiator, collapsed hose, plugged up galleries, water pump belt slipping, bad water pump impeller, backwards thermostat, and make sure cap is good (these are cheap enough.) (A good pressure cap with 50/50 coolant rasies boil temp of coolant to about 265.)



But are they both hot with the blower on full speed?


A worthwhile test, to find out if thermostat backwards, for starters. If it is NOT backwards, then remove it and just idle the car til it warms up. It will take extra long to warm up, but will warm up to some degree. (If you drive it in the cold, it will never warm up enough, from the cold air rushing through the radiator). So idle the car only and see if that helps you determine anything (circulation, the way the lower hose feels, heat at hoses, and out registers, etc.).

 

After the replacement of the top hose, everything has been OK with the car as far as it overheating. So with that said, I am assuming, that their really is nothing wrong with the radiator, since it is keeping the car at normal operating range I have a guage that proves this.

But the heater will only heat to a certain degree and that is just about warm. When on a trip to work in 35 degree weather I have the heat fan on high the whole way. About 1/2 hours after trip start the heater will become warm enough to make it almost compfortable, this is with a ten minute warm up at the house, I would normally be run aout of the car if it were operating right.,

I cannot take out the thermostat and run the engine, as the rubber gasket on the thermostat is the only thing stopping the water from escaping. Spring faces engine is no help as spring either faces fire wall or front ofcar unless this is what you mean.

I did try to put the thermostat in the other way but it seemed to be spring loaded and it made it very hard to do so I assumed i had it in the right way ther first time because when I took it out the thermostat did not spring out, but did fall out before I could notice its right postion.

Is the hose on the other side of the thermostat being cold, and seemingly with out much pressure or volume, the way it should be? If not why is the car not over heating, the gauge does not move at all, after reaching a certain point.

If the car is in no way overheating does this rule out the cap and the radiator as the source of the problem.

If I check the hoses while heat is on and then check the hoses while the heat is off, which would only be the fan in my case, as I have bypassed the inside connection, would their of should there be any difference.

The hose going in to the bottom of the radiator being very cold, is this because the heater hoses are connected directly together meaning the heat is always on or is this a problem, I do not recognize

 

The hose going in to the bottom of the radiator being very cold, is this because the heater hoses are connected directly together meaning the heat is always on or is this a problem, I do not recognize

Are you talking about the radiatior in the front? there is no way you can connect them togeather and not destroy the engine.
There are two hoses also going into the car that go to a heater core one is in one is out. One has a valve on it so you can let in a little or a lot hot water.
You can hook these togeather but you will have no heat. Water must flow into the heater core.

 

I took out the control valve between the heater hose deleted it and hooked that hose back together so that the heat would be going through the heater core all the time, no more adj. just pure heat all the time.

In doing this I was wondering if this is the reason that the bottom radiator hose is as cold as it is.

 

I'm getting from this you have the control valve going to the heater core taken out and you hooked the hose to the heater core back up. Now you have a direct flow into the heater without any control. If this is the case you would have the heat on in the cab all the time. That wouldn't affect anything else you've described.

If your engine temperature is in the normal range the thermostat/radiator is doing its job. You can raise the engine temperature = more heat in the cab by going to a hotter thermostat. I wouldn't raise it by more than 10 degrees though.

As far as your problem with the no heat in the cab, I would lean toward a plugged heater core (as mentioned before) or you could have some bad weather stripping on the doors that allows cold air to get in. The heater may not be able to keep up.

I would suggest doing the easiest first. Take the heater hose that had the valve in it and attach it to the other heater core fitting (the out side of the core) and attach the outbound line to the fitting that had the control valve in it. This would reverse the flow through the heater core and a lot of times will unplug them.

Hope this helps,

Bob

 

Thanks Bob I will try reversing as you have suggested. But if the heater core is stopped up how can I have heat on both the line in and the line out of the heater core? Does the heater core have some sort of by pass if it gets stopped up? Secondly if I reverse the hoses and I seem to be having the heat back, like I once had is their a need to change back the lines or will the system be OK hooked up in reverse?

And lastly I guess if this does not work, I will have to pull the heater core out.

 

It is about flow the water must flow thru the core. they sell a flush kit that you can tap into the hose. get one and hook up a gardrn hose. It does not matter what hose goes on top or bottom. The heater core is nothing more then a small radiatior like the one in front of your car and the electric blower moter blows thru the fins into the ducts. A small heat exchanger if you will.There is no bypass in the core if it is bad you will know it because it will either not flow or it will leak. If it leaks you will smell antifrezze and your windows will fog as well as you will have a wet floor under your glove box.

 

Personally, before I yanked a suspected plugged heater core, I would get myself a small circulating pump, ( I bought one from local hardware store pretty cheap, that worked off a drill) pour "C.L.R." into a pail, hook hose ( I used garden hose.) from pump to heater core fitting, other side of pump to hose in pail to suck out CLR, and piece of hose,back from core to pail. Circulate CLR through core, reverse hoses at core to reverse flow, and flush it through a few times & let it sit for a while in between flushings. If time allows, let core sit overnight with CLR in it, and give good flush again next day, and hook heater hoses back up & see what happens. Did this on 2 Caravans I had with poor heat, and it made big difference in heat, and saved me all that work of yanking core out.

Good Luck !!

 

The CLR trick sounds like a good idea cause heater core replacment is not a fun thing to do.

 

Thanks for all your help, I will try reversing the hoses. And then move on to the clr.

 

Sure saved me from a lot of cursin' & skinned knuckles, as well as standing on my head under the dash, I'm too old to bend like that anymore. ( ha-ha-ha) Mike.B