my heater doesnt blow hot

[bcrosby]

What would make my heater not blow hot? Now that its getting cold out ive noticed that my heater just doesnt blow hot. Could it be the thermostat? Any ideas would be appriciated.

 

[Defiant]

Probably just a weak spring in the fuse socket. Get a piece of toothpick, or (better) a bamboo skewer and reach in there and spring them back out a bit. If you have bamboo, it'll be stiff enough that you can polish off most of the corrosion with it.

 

[zalock]

97 eclipse GS, not sure what the problem is, the heater doesn't ever get that warm, even when motor is hot. It blows air fine when on the vent function, whever switched to defrost it blows a little air out of the defrost vents and then still a little air out of the vents like its not being completly transfered to the different vents. It will blow air out of the vents on any setting be it feet defrost or anyother one. Never getting that warm at all the air stays cool.

Is there a maybe a vacume line off somewhere or something like that?

Please help me
Zac

 

[Defiant]

No vacuum lines, just push/pull wires. Time to do some spellunking and find out what's disconnected or bent. DSMs also have no heater valves, they're regulated only by the air door. The core's full-hot, full-time.

 

[vtracer20]

So i've noticed that after driving the car for a while let's say 45min + my tempature gauge gets colder and so does my heat blowing into the car. then after i let the car sit for like 5 min the temps gets warmer agian...anyone have this happening to your car...should i be conserned about something?

 

[flytalon93]

Sounds like you need a new thermostat. Its signs of your t-stat stuck open.

 

[R3dR]

normally tstat leads to over heat if stuck open due to the fact that the water has no dead time to cool down in rad.

But check it to see if its ok.

Just pop it out and take it inside to your stove and put it on the burner, if it opens up on the heat ( set it on the stove coil or in a pan if its gas.

When it opens take it off the heat and it should slowly close.

If it has full range of motion opening all the way and closing ALL the way then its ok just wash it off and reinstall it.

We check all tstats b4 we put them in this way to make sure we do not get that fluke one that seems to hit you in the arse with the "its new it cant be bad issues we all have"

 

[Defiant]

Thermostats are too cheap to bother testing. Get a new one, throw the old one away.

Just a divergent opinion, nothing meant by it. I tested one, once. And then I threw it away.

 

[blackGSX2g]

normally tstat leads to over heat if stuck open due to the fact that the water has no dead time to cool down in rad.

But if you are driving, the radiator cools the coolant enough to keep temps down. Way down. My old car did that, thermostat went out and when I was driving, it would only get about a quarter of the way up on the gauge, but when it would idle in traffic, it would overheat badly.

 

[R3dR]

I agree that if you take the time to take out a tstat you should replace it but each person is there own wallet holder hehe

Also if its warm or HOT out a stuck open tstat will most likely over heat the car.
In some cases you can get away with it but not if its hot out.

 

[SpooledGSX98]

Ok, here's the deal. 98 GSX. Basic power upgrades and free mods.

This seems to happen on the initial start of the day, any start afterwards doesnt seem to have this problem, or so i think. I will start my car, and crank the heater up on full blast (either defrost, or not) and head back into the house while it warms both the engine and the interior. Only problem is, the interior doesnt seem to start to heat up until i actually start driving. I have just started noticing this, so it mustve happened recently.

Possibly vaccum leak or what? Anyone have similar problems or what? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Agent Ezzard]

It'll take a lot longer for coolant to heat up with no load on the engine (idling) then with a load (driving). I know when I wake up and it is a cool morning outside the car will take forever to heat up to 200 degrees if I just let it sit and idle. I'm talkin more than 10 minutes. I think the coldest my car has EVER seen were in the low 40s. Gotta love Florida!

 

[SpooledGSX98]

The car gets up to OT just fine, the interior heat doesnt warm up until i start driving.

Thanks though

 

[Defiant]

DSMs don't have a valve on the heater core. You have full-circulation all the time, and temperature is adjusted by air doors.

Check your coolant level.

 

[Doug99RS]

Yeah, what Defiant said. Also, could be an air pocket.
D

 

[tpimpracing]

If i let the car idle for a long time itll get super hot, if i drive it itll cool back down to normal.. and heat only comes out occasionaly untill i stop moving. Any ideas on what this could be?

92 awd

190 FUEL PUMP
HKS HYPER CAT BACK
3IN DP
PORTED POLISHED 2G EXAUST MAN
20G FORCED PERFROMANCE TURBO
BUSHARE FMIC SHORT ROUTE
RC 550 INJECTORS
SAFC 2
PORTED HEAD
AGX ADJ SHOCKS/STRUTS
LOWERED
CLUTCHMASTERS 2500 ( which is slipping already )
PALM PILOT POCKET LOGGER
K/N FILTERCHARGER
EXTREMLY HACKED MAS

 

[Defiant]

Water pump impeller rotted.

 

[shoguntalon]

hey this would be a non dsm question but i don't think it would vary form car to car much. but i got a cavalier and my heater does not get that warm in fact not really at all. It's not the core i don't think i aint leaking any fluids or nothing all i could think of was a thermostat but if anyone has any ideas let me know

 

[98eclipseRS]

You either have no coolant, no heater core, lines removed from the heater core, or a t-stat that is stuck open.

 

[femmeDSM]

On about 90% of the cases like this that I've seen, it's the thermostat. Cheap enough part to replace, but if you feel the need to test it, throw it in some hot water and see if it pops open.

If it was your heater core, you should be seeing/smelling coolant in the cabin, usually around the passenger side floorboard (at least on most cars -- not sure about a cavalier - what year, and I'll ask my friend who owns one). You would also probably have coolant coming out of your vents and fogging the crap out of your windshield.

 

[shoguntalon]

cool beans thats what i was thinking thanks guys! it's a 95 and it's right in the middle of the dash under the stereo

 

[Amazin' Wasian]

Also if you have lots of air in your coolant system this could cause your heater to not get as hot as normal.....try "burping" your coolant system.
Nick

 

[ittybittyt25]

Ok, so what are the chances that my heater core and its contents are frozen solid right now, the engine warms up fine, operating temp, the thermostat is new, and coolant level is nominal, water pump is working, lots of coolant flowing through the radiator hose so i know there is coolant movement. everything gets hot, except for the fact that the heater core is useless, it blows frozen air. i will admit my anti-freeze/water ratio is thin as hell, but seeing as how the rest of the coolant didn't freeze, why isn't there heat coming from core?
the ducts should be fine, as this worked fine the night before, and haven't shifted the ducts, so even if they did "break", they would be broken on the hot side.......worked GREAT last night, this morning...nothing...it got down to aproximately 8-10 degrees farenheit last night, so is it a real possibility there's frozen water in the heater core?

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

If you are running a high water to coolant ratio then yes it would have frozen in there but I would suspect it would have unfrozen since there is coolant flow and there can't be coolant flow if the heater core is frozen up. Eventually the warm coolant would melt the heater core in no time. I would drain all of your antifreeze and remix it to at least 50/50. If that stuff freezes up in your head or your block and expands, it's game over for your motor. That would be a pretty dumb reason to crack a head of block but I have seen it happen when I lived in Iowa in the winter. Easiest thing to do would be to drain all of the coolant and blow in one of the heater core hoses and see if it comes out the other one. If not it's plugged. If it does then there are other problems at hand.

 

[JayZDMX21]

Put new coolant in and change the thermostat.

 

[dyno_detour]

Thanks for reading. 95 GST. Usually my temp gauge is in the middle. Yesterday it started reading about 3/4 into the HOT. Also, the heater quit working. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks DSMers