heater question.

[BLK95TA]

so for the last few years my heater hasn't worked very well. it would let out lukewarm air unless the air temp outside was like 65 or higher in which case i wouldn't be using the heater anyway..it would sometimes blow warm air but only for like 10 secs or so then you could turn it off and turn it back on and it would do the same.

it was actually kind of cool today (43) and when i took the car for a spin around the block (in a tshirt and shorts, lol) i decided to try the heater and to my amazement its blowing hot air now all the time.

could i have had a clogged cooling system or something causing this? i had the heater core checked once last fall and they said it was fine and the car was stored all winter and then in the spring i had to have the radiator replaced due to a pinhole leak. could the radiator have been clogged or something to where it wasn't allowing the heater to work and now that the radiator is brand new, it works fine?

just curious as to what would have caused the heater to not work but now blow warm air like its supposed to when i never had the heater serviced.

[Green96Z]

It was probably just clogged up and by changing the coolant you flushed it out. It's very common for a heater core that is 10+ years old to get clogged up.

[BLOWNDFIZ]

My heater did the same thing. The heater core was clogged. I tried flushing it, but ended up replacing the entire thing. It's really not that hard to do. Pretty sure the Dexcool GM put in these cars from the factory caused many the same problem.

Only thing I can think is they did a cooling system flush when they replaced the rad. A good shop would do a flush at the same time. Actually I bet that is exactly what happened. They flushed all the crap out of the lines. Good deal for you! Fixed two problems with one repair.

[BLK95TA]

yeah i'm not complaining, i was just curious as to why the heater didnt work very well for the last few years (and even then i think i had the coolant changed at one point due to it looking dirty) and that didnt change anything. Its not like i'll use the heater that much since its getting to the point where i am probably gonna put the car away in a few weeks... i'll drive it as long as there is no snow or salt on the ground. and i dont really drive it in the rain either. Come to think of it, i myself don't even venture out of the house very often these days, maybe once or twice a week, lol

[BLOWNDFIZ]

Yeah, changing it really won't do anything. If the new coolant can't get through the clog into the heater core you will have no heat. They had to at least flush the system otherwise I'd say you would still have no heat.

If it goes away on you, you can remove the coolant lines going into and out of the heater core and try flushing it yourself, or I'd just replace the heater core. It really isn't that difficult.

[BLK95TA]

Yeah, changing it really won't do anything. If the new coolant can't get through the clog into the heater core you will have no heat. They had to at least flush the system otherwise I'd say you would still have no heat.

If it goes away on you, you can remove the coolant lines going into and out of the heater core and try flushing it yourself, or I'd just replace the heater core. It really isn't that difficult.

yeah i doubt they "flushed" the system the first time since it was at this circle car wash place in Phoenix that does the $59 coolant change or whatever, which ended up being free along with 2 car washes because they lost the bleeder screw for the coolant and had to jerry rig it so i could drive the car home (shove a larger screw in there to keep it from leaking) since it was on a saturday afternoon and no dealer was open. then that monday they had me come back so they could replace the whole bleeder assembly and then they washed the car again. so at least they paid for their mistake unlike another car wash out there in AZ (the idiots that damaged my car's bumper)

oh and at the time the coolant was changed i also found i had a hose leaking so i had to have that replaced later by a shop.

I see your in indiana as well. when do you put your car(s) away? do you drive the camaro on the bottom year round? they use way too much salt up here in the winters and since my car came from the south and has never seen a northern winter, i figure why start now? i'd like to keep it rust free underneath

[BLOWNDFIZ]

I see your in indiana as well. when do you put your car(s) away? do you drive the camaro on the bottom year round? they use way too much salt up here in the winters and since my car came from the south and has never seen a northern winter, i figure why start now? i'd like to keep it rust free underneath

I pretty much drive the truck all winter. The car on the bottom was originally from California and even though it has 134K compared to 40K on the other, the bottoms of the cars look almost the same. I bought the bottom car from a guy that moved to Michigan from California and needed to buy a 4x4 for the snow. I will take it out as long as the roads are absolutely dry. It takes very little salt to do a ton of damage as you well know.

[BLK95TA]

I pretty much drive the truck all winter. The car on the bottom was originally from California and even though it has 134K compared to 40K on the other, the bottoms of the cars look almost the same. I bought the bottom car from a guy that moved to Michigan from California and needed to buy a 4x4 for the snow. I will take it out as long as the roads are absolutely dry. It takes very little salt to do a ton of damage as you well know.

yeah my 93 tbird SC had a lot of rust under it. the TA has no rust other than the rust color of the rear end which i'm pretty sure they ALL have that. last winter i did have it out in march and then put back away once it started snowing again and then after the next rain i had it out but i guess teh roads were still slightly salt covered because i got a slight bit of dusting around my fenders so i got a wet rag and wiped them all down and then it rained really good the next day (which i didnt drive in) i took the car to the car wash and got high end wash with underspray and such (one of the higher end places that washes the car and hand dries it) so that i wouldnt have any salt left under there.. plus i had my 5W30 rustproofing from my leaking intake, lol.

when we were doing the intake as a matter of fact the guy doing the oil pan commented on how clean the underbody of my car is. it too is higher mileage (123k) and looks newer underneath than most cars. heck last spring when i had the car out in march it was because i took it to the body shop to have the ram air hood put on/painted and there was a black 01-02 WS6 at the shop for osmething and the body shop owner commented o the fact that the underside of my car was cleaner than his.

what i find disgusting is seeing people drive around in newer cars with that salt slush stuck to the underside of their car, that can't be good for the body. that shit is nasty!

[BLK95TA]

i just snapped a few pics of the underside of the car and with the exception of a slightly bent frame rail (because of a jack i'm sure, and most people probably have similar) i think it looks pretty clean for 123k miles and 14 years old (late 94 build date)