Well, its 20 degree's out in the morning and my POS beater decided to stop heating the inside sometime during the summer. The one hour ride to work is so cold i might as well put the a/c on to warm the car up. My question is, assuming the thermostat is working which it seems to be doing, and i have coolant (my buddy's heat went out once he kept driving turned out he ran out of coolant and locked his block), what else could be wrong? It feels like the flap that opens to the heater core is moving when you switch the car to heat, and the compresser is definately not running. I mean this thing is ice cold. Very seldom do i get any heat out of it at all, except when the car is sitting in traffic @ 220 degrees i get a smudge. Help a brother out...

Matt

 

A couple things you might want to check. Water pump could be going out and your loosing circulation. Fell the heater hose at the heater near the core to feel if its getting warm, it could be a plugged heater core. One will eliminate the other.

 

how do you know the thermostat is working? that would be my guess, sounds like it is open all the time if you get some heat at lights. other wise the above post is allways a good start

what eng?

 

I have a 91 grand am beater with the quad 4 or whatever...car NEVER gets over 160...whats up with yours?? You sure the heater core hasnt been bi passed by someone at one time??

 

The car may have a hot water control valve as part of the system, like the later ThirdGens and many other cars have.

 

It might. I cant remember we had to change the heater core in it last winter and it sucked. I cant remember if there is a heater control valve or whatever on it or not. I will check it out later. All I know is mine is a POS and gets worse gas milage then my camaro.

 

a stuck thermostat could be causing a few problems, first it won't let the engine heat up which will cause you not to get any heat in the car and it won't let the computer take over the engine which will make it run very rich all the time, could be causing your bad gas milage. as cheap as thermostats are I would change it just for kicks and giggles. can't hurt.

 

thats why I asked what eng. too mine never gets above 150 and is also a quad 4.

did you figure it out yet?

 

Your problem is most likely a stuck or improper temp thermostat.

 

no! mine is fine just he said his got so hot yet no heat

 

I'm going to look at it today, The thermo stat is definately working because the temp gauge goes up and down in the normal fashion. Its definatley got to be either a heater control valve, the heater core, or like what you guys said the water pump. I'll keep you guys posted. POS cars.

Matt

 

Well I started taking it apart to get to the heater core but didn't finish. I noticed a peculiar thing tho, the pig has heat when the fan is on low for about 10 minutes after teh car starts up and then reverts back to no heat. How would I be able to check the water pump? Have you guys ever seen anything like this??

Matt