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.

 

[rEclipserGST]

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

I had a 100 degree thermostat in mine. Hoping that was the problem, we replaced it with a 180 degree one. A slight change, but not enough. We burped the system and blew thru it with air, still no change.

My next step is replacing the heater core assembly. Might as well get an alarm installed while im in there.

 

[turbotalon31]

every eclipse , talon ive ever had had blazing hot heat. check ## thermostat or u heater core. two possible thing to be bad.

also be careful flushing the core u take a chance of blowing it apart .

 

[gsxeclipse97]

I can roast marshmallos with my heat and make smores on a cold winter day with my heat on full blast. I have to turn my heat down right by the blue cause it's so hot. That is the only thing I love about my car right now.

 

[american-rice]

Mines is so hot, it'll about chase me out. As said before HEATER CORE!

 

[1stGenTSi]

Do the vents seem to be blowing out as much air as they should? Sometimes receipts and crap get sucked up in the blower motor and restrict airflow. I've also seen positive and negative connections to the blower motor reversed on a few cars (not dsm's) which causes very little air to come out the vents. If the air is blowing hard enough then do the feel test on the heater hoses.

 

[1997_GSX]

Mine was horrible when I had a 165 degree thermostat for the summer in my car. Air was only lukewarm, now it is super hot with the 192 degree thermostat.

Yours might be stuck open.

 

[EclipticalGS]

Take your heater hose supply, and heater hose return lines off, they're right next to eachother above the 420A exhaust manifold.

Take both of them off and see if you can even blow through both hoses.

I had the same problem, but a clogged heater core usually causes some overheating and boiling coolant, which i had.

I took off the 2 hoses and couldnt blow through it, i dumped some boiling water down there because it was actually frozen water in there. Then i blew on the hose again and voila, chunks of crud, dirt, ice, coolant came out the other hose.

Also i replaced the T-stat, after that i never had a problem.

 

[Insane Performa]

I have to agree with the above. My heats will run you out it gets so hot! Try flushing the core with a water house.

 

[dangler]

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.

Yep, Pretty much, lazy south people.

 

[pdub42]

lots of good info thanks guys! Ive had days where I scrape ice off my car then hop in it and take off down the road to realize that there is even more ice inside on the windshield but i always had it on recirc guess that is why haha, also I have one of the infra thermometers that I was actually using the other day on the hoses to check the thermostat and heater core hose temps, my thermostat opened up when it was about 185ish degrees, and after I drove the car for an hour on the highway the in line heater core hose was 200deg and the return line was 115deg that sound like a clogged core? I wouldnt think the drop would should be that big.

oh also I noticed when i come to a stop idling air gets much cooler, if i rev it up to 3k it gets back to being a little warmer, same as how it is driving on the highway, still not hot though. That because water pump is pumping harder? getting more coolant through a clog? haha I am wanting to try and flush it tommorow but not sure how I can being as it is 20 degrees outside and I cant use our hose :/

 

[TURBD]

I would just replace it if you can find it for a decent price. If not get a space heater and a extension cord to run when you park your car over night to prevent it from freezing. At the verry least you should be warm for awhile if you keep your windows up, and you won't have to scrape the outside or inside either

Then when it gets warm out, do a flush or replace it.

 

[EclipticalGS]

With my new car though, remote start, take shower, run out to car, be warm.

Edit/: When the cars running right^^^

 

[dsmfa9nutter]

lots of good info thanks guys! Ive had days where I scrape ice off my car then hop in it and take off down the road to realize that there is even more ice inside on the windshield but i always had it on recirc guess that is why haha, also I have one of the infra thermometers that I was actually using the other day on the hoses to check the thermostat and heater core hose temps, my thermostat opened up when it was about 185ish degrees, and after I drove the car for an hour on the highway the in line heater core hose was 200deg and the return line was 115deg that sound like a clogged core? I wouldnt think the drop would should be that big.

oh also I noticed when i come to a stop idling air gets much cooler, if i rev it up to 3k it gets back to being a little warmer, same as how it is driving on the highway, still not hot though. That because water pump is pumping harder? getting more coolant through a clog? haha I am wanting to try and flush it tommorow but not sure how I can being as it is 20 degrees outside and I cant use our hose :/

This sounds exactly like a clogged core. Try a flushing kit before you attempt a core replacement, it's pretty easy to do and the kit is less than $10.

 

[dannyd97gst]

Mine blows plenty of hot air it just takes a week to get hot. I've never been too hot in a vehicle during the winter.

 

[a95gsx]

Yep, Pretty much, lazy south people.

Now we ain't at all lazy when it comes to fixing the A/C.

Your post shows that there is some flow through the heater core.....The outlet temp is so low cause there is only a small amount. As everyone has said either the heater core is clogged or there is a problem with the valve. You can check the valve by removing the passenger side tunnel plastic cover. Stick your head in there (you can't see it unless you are on your back in the passenger footwell looking up) and you can see if the valve is being moved fully open to fully closed while you operate the temp dial. I've put up two pics so you can see the amount of cable travel. There are two white plastic levers that move when you adjust the temp - they are not the ones you want. You are interested in the metal lever buried up in the dash If the valve isn't opening and closing properly that's your problem - fix it. If the cable is working try to flush and then bite the bullet on a new core.

See pics below, cable extended is fully open, calbe retracted is fully closed.

 

[nightgamer]

my heats up just fine during idle but when i start driveing my temp gose way down and no heat

 

[steve]

my heats up just fine during idle but when i start driveing my temp gose way down and no heat

Thermostat stuck open or missing.

 

[bduran1220]

I have the same problem with my heater. Here in Vegas its been getting pretty cold at night and mornings, I gotta wake up 20 min earlier to warm up the ride. The car came from Ohio before I bought it real cheap. There is a Turbo lag but goes away once normal temp is reached. But my problem with my heater is lil heat even though its parked in a garage and not outside. So my question is which hose is the return and incoming on the gst I'm planning to do a flush on the core but I hate remove the instrument panel AGAIN after fixing a short circuit on the driver side around that area like 3weeks ago just to replace the heater core which I coulda done if I knew.......

So I just got to work and I decided to check the hoses the bottom is hotter then the top can anyone confirm this ###???

I just performed a flush of the entire system garden hose to both hoses and radiator now just waiting for it cool off