do our heaters suck? or just mine?

[pdub42]

My heater is terrible, is the heater in these cars just crappy or is mine going bad? I guess I just dont understand how a heater in a car can go bad when its just coolant going through the heater core, can they get clogged or something? My fan works fine, I drove the car for an hour today in 5 degree weather on the highway and had the heater set as hot as it will go and the inside of the car never got warm. The air blowing out was warm but not hot, not hot enough to warm up the inside of the car just warm if you put your hand right in front of it.

 

[nek]

My heater is terrible, is the heater in these cars just crappy or is mine going bad? I guess I just dont understand how a heater in a car can go bad when its just coolant going through the heater core, can they get clogged or something? My fan works fine, I drove the car for an hour today in 5 degree weather on the highway and had the heater set as hot as it will go and the inside of the car never got warm. The air blowing out was warm but not hot, not hot enough to warm up the inside of the car just warm if you put your hand right in front of it.

My 96 heats up super quick and hot, I usually have to turn it off half way through the ride . Not to familiar with the heating system but I would think as long as your car runs at a proper temp, so should your heat...

 

[brandon1239]

maybe your heater is bad, every dsm i've been in has had a great heater. mine heats up the whole car in about five mins. check your coolant level, hoses that go to the heater core and check the core out too.

 

[Rex2342]

The heater core can get clogged. An easy check is to touch the hoses going to the heater core. they both should be hot. If one hose is hot and the other cold or just warm you may have a clog. If thats the case try disconnecting the 2 hoses going to the core and flush water through the core to see if it helps. Also check that the thermostat is working as it should. It's also a possibility that there is too much water in your anti freeze and it had frozen due to the cold.

 

[pdub42]

Thats how my mustang is, I figured this car should be just the same, I wonder how big of an impact it would make if a previous owner had put a really low temp thermostat in there, I would thing it would still blow pretty warm though unless its like ridiculously low, my coolant gauge shows right in the middle between hot and cold

 

[97gst_spyder]

My heater is horrible. I've ran a flush through it, nogo. Brought it to a shop so they used a machine to flush it, nothing. Still takes about 25-30 for warm air to start oozing from the vents...

 

[pdub42]

how hard is it to take out the heater core? or is it easily flushable without removing it? could you just flush it with the lines on the drivers side of the engine that connect to the metal heater core tubes?

 

[dangler]

Mine practically melts my skin off if I leave on full blast for a few minutes. I'd make sure coolant going through it. You may have a flap problem, maybe a broken cable that doesn't move the flap to put air through the core.

 

[pdub42]

My heater is horrible. I've ran a flush through it, nogo. Brought it to a shop so they used a machine to flush it, nothing. Still takes about 25-30 for warm air to start oozing from the vents...

thats exactly how mine is, half way to school (1 hour drive) the semi warm air is coming out but it never heats up the inside of the car very much

 

[dangler]

Way to much work to pull the heater core unless you absolutely have to.

 

[jmerrill]

one thing that i have found with mine, is that when the heater wasn't working I was low on coolant. But not low enough for the light to come. Checking the level of your coolant might be your easy solution.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

Mine practically melts my skin off if I leave on full blast for a few minutes. I'd make sure coolant going through it. You may have a flap problem, maybe a broken cable that doesn't move the flap to put air through the core.

Ditto on that.

 

[pdub42]

i can hear it opening and closing when i flip my temp switch, I guess I will try to flush it out from the heater core hoses under the hood. Any special way to get any debris out or just run water through it over and over?

 

[black_gsx]

Yeah, mine is not the best either. I let the car warm up everymorning for about 10 mins, drive about 15 more minutes then it will start blowing out warm. And it does eventually get really hot, but just takes forever. I have done a complete flush and new thermostat but still crappy. Just figured they were bad in the DSM's... Maybe its time to check the heater core...

 

[kneipperk]

haha i thought i was the only 1 with this problem. all my other dsm's got really hot... now this 1 takes forever and then only blows mildy warm air.

 

[JusMX141]

My daily-driver '97 GS has an awesome heater once the engine reaches operating temp. It's hell for getting moisture inside the cabin during the winter months, though.

 

[falcon8r]

My 1G 92 model has the best heater of all my vehicles, I have 7. Kicks the crap out of my Audi A4 turbos' heater. I do work(ASE tech) on lots of GM products with Dexcool cloging up the cooling system. I had a Grand-am last week that had to be flushed 5 times to get all the sludge out. Green and red coolant mixed will clog an engine. It is possible this happened.

Back flush the heater core with a garden hose. The muni. water has a higher pressure..up to 60psi, so dont' pressureize the sealed system some how with it. Next check the airdoors under the dash. If you buy a $50 Infrared heat temp gun, you will have a tool that is invaluable.Get at any parts store . Can even use it for cooking, finding air leaks around windows, etc. This is an easy fix really. Just do your dectective work. Tres....

My daily-driver '97 GS has an awesome heater once the engine reaches operating temp. It's hell for getting moisture inside the cabin during the winter months, though.

Not to hijack, is the control on the inside/outside air working properly. When I am in recirc., it heats up quickest but moisture will build up fast. I don't have problems when the knob is -clockwise in the outside air positon, me the wife and some labrador retrievers will not overload it in the winter. Tres...

 

[Clinical]

all DSM's I've been in, including the two I've had (one being my TERRIBLY maintained 1.8L) had AMAZING heaters.. I've never been in a car with a better heater than my talon

 

[JusMX141]

Not to hijack, is the control on the inside/outside air working properly. When I am in recirc., it heats up quickest but moisture will build up fast. I don't have problems when the knob is -clockwise in the outside air positon, me the wife and some labrador retrievers will not overload it in the winter. Tres...

No shit? I'll have to try that one and see what happens. There have been mornings I've literally had to scrape frost off the inside of the windows, so I'd give anything a shot.

I always left it on recirc in the winter so the heater wouldn't have to work to warm up 20* air.

 

[NeMiZiS]

Probably a bad or clogged heater core.

 

[a95gsx]

On my 2g the cable housing was loose (at the temperature adjuster end) so even though it felt like you were doing something when you adjusted the heat setting the valve at the heater core wasn't actually being opened or closed. Got the same tiny bit of heat out of the thing all the time until I pulled it apart and found the problem. Acted like a clogged heater core but it was really the valve that wasn't being opened or closed.

 

[TURBD]

The 2g heaters work well. You have a problem. Thermastat or core or cables to your controller. Anyone who thinks a heater core is a too much trouble to change lives somewhere hot, and probably never scraped ice off the inside of their windsheild.

 

[knochgoon24]

No shit? I'll have to try that one and see what happens. There have been mornings I've literally had to scrape frost off the inside of the windows, so I'd give anything a shot.

I always left it on recirc in the winter so the heater wouldn't have to work to warm up 20* air.

The outside air is colder, but it's also dry. The dryness clears the window faster than the heat.

 

[joegamma1]

Any car with a recirc knob will fog up the windows in winter if it's not on the fresh/outside air selection, fact of life. recirc is for a/c.
OP; sounds like a clog and/or low coolant level as others have said, please keep us posted on your findings.

 

[shredwin]

I only had a heater problem once, the car had coolant and it would never get warm at all, it was always cold.. so decided to check out the thermostat, and yep that was it... It need it a new one cause the one it had was sideways leeting all the coolant flow through very fast like there was no thermostat , something in the thermostat was broken thats why this happened...Once I replaced it I had heat again
Im not saying thats your problem but it just may be