# Heater Issues



## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

My heater sucks;it is never very hot. When it is on full blast with a warm engine, it is warm, but not very at all. I have a new thermostat and water pump on it, so is it the heater core? Thanks.


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## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

Oh yeah, my friend has a max that blows antifreeze fumes through the vents, does anyone know what would cause that (specifics would be nice, i know there is probably a leak somewhere)?


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## royson345 (Jan 14, 2005)

haha, I have the same problem. My heat is luke warm at best. I took it to the guy I got the car form and he claims to have fixed it. He replaced the radiator, all the vaccuum hoses and the thermostat.( funny because atfer he did that is when the rough idle problem occured.)

Not to mention, its takes damn near forever to get to it's great luke warm status. It takes me close to a half an hour just to defrost my windshield in the morning so I can go to work. The floor vents blow straight cold air even after it's been running for a while. Only place any kind of heat at all comes out is the defroster vents, and again, it's only warm at best.

I'm starting to really hate this damn car, nothing but problems and money that I dont have to fix it.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I can also smell antifreeze coming through the vents.


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## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

yeah...so my question was never really answered. Now it doesn't blow, so maybe a blower and something else (because it only gets lukewarm)?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

If you're smelling antifreeze in the vents, bypass the heater core or replace it NOW!!
The heater core is directly above the ECU, and it's possible to fry the ECU if you let it leak long enough.

The fun part is replacing the heater core- you must remove the ENTIRE dash to get to it. The only thing left in my car when I was done was the steering column and shifter. everything else has to come out. total PITA!!

Here's a link to a writeup done by an owner over in the UK.. same stuff, only the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. 
http://www.newshampark.org.uk/bignissansold/j30/articles/blownecufix.htm



as for you guys with cool/cold air, you have several issues possible.
1. low on coolant, or air trapped in the heater core. when bleeding the system, make sure your heater is set to full hot, and the front of the car is jacked up as high as you can safely lift it.


2. clogged heater core. this happens quite often- well, not often but it's common on old cars. Over years of use, these heater cores get lots of sludge and junk built up in them because there's not a lot of water flow through them, so they collect deposits and the efficiency goes to crap. In order to fix this, you need to pull the two hoses off the heater core at the firewall and shove your water hose on FULL BLAST into them... flush it backwards and forwards several times, until the water comes out clean. this can take 15-20 minutes sometimes just for the heater core itself.

replace the coolant hoses, refill the system and bleed it out, then see what happens.


3. full-cold valve stuck open/closed.. there's a vacuum actuated valve on the firewall on the incoming line of your heater core. When you set the temp slider at the dash to full cold, this valve is supposed to close and block water going through the heater core. Sometimes this thing fails and gets stuck closed or partially closed due to corrosion.. the easiest way to check it is to simply bypass it and see what happens. you can buy splices/fittings for the hose at any auto parts store for about $1, and just take the hoses off both ends of the valve and stick them together.. then go for a drive and see if you have more heat.





so try that stuff and let me know what happens.


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## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

The lack of heat and nonblowing is with my car, but my friend's car blows antifreeze fumes and in the summer right after the AC was turned off, white smoke, i think it was freon, would blow into the car, is that still the heater core? Thanks


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

If you had a visible freon leak, the AC wouldn't work at all.. the antifreeze smell is from the heater core.

replace it before he toasts the ECU by dripping coolant on it.


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## nismosleeper (Jan 16, 2005)

I ripped everything off of the car except the shifter and steering wheel, and found out that there was at least a cupfull of leaves and dirt clogging the AC thing, so i cleaned it out and removed it (i dont roll with AC, i like weight reduction and horsepower, windows down doin 60 is cool enough for me.) I then fabbed up a screen to keep out debree. It's blowing like a champ now. Thanks for the help.


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## Colfetski (Feb 17, 2005)

Yeah, I have the same problem with mine with a few twists on this theme. I have the same crap/slow/badly distributed heat problems. Thanks Matt for the advise on sorting this out.

But, also when the windshield heater is on, there seems to be aircon (i.e. freezing cold) coming out the cabin heating vents. I have to physically turn them off individually to stop from freezing!

The other, and possibly related issue is that none of the floor/foot heating options seem to be operational. The passenger far-side vent also will only blow cold air.

Any clues on the distribution probs?


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

Colfetski... 
First, make sure you don't have the fresh air vent turned on. there's a lever at the far side of your A/C controls that causes the system to always blow cool air out of the dash vents, supposedly to help keep the driver alert.

and the A/C comes on automatically whenever you select the defrost mode. it does that to remove the humidity from the air and help defrost the glass.

For the heat problems, pull your heater core hoses off at the firewall and force water through them to clean out the core of gunk.. see how that helps.
you can also pull the blower motor out of the dash and reach around into the heater box and se if it's full of leaves and junk.


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## shock211 (Feb 28, 2005)

I've done basically everything Matt has suggested and my heat still sucks. When I removed the heater core it was clogged with all this gasket maker stuff. I wasn't able to clean it with the chemicals I had on hand but i swear I'll never go through another Canadian winter without a proper heating system. This year I'm buying a brand new heater core!

As for the A/C mini condensor. Mine was all clogged up too. Unfortunately I didn't fab up a replacement screen so sometimes it snows inside my car with the heat on. :loser:


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## 89 SE Lover (Dec 26, 2005)

*Cold Air coming through AC Vents*

Have a problem and hubby, can't seem to figure it out. When the heater is on, the air that is coming out of my vents is pure cold. The window vent for defrosting is luke warm, but takes it for ever to even reach that temp. He has taken the hoses off at the firewall and that hasn't helped. Need help, tired of freezing my fanny off!!!!


Misty


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## bigern45 (Oct 25, 2005)

i think someone already mentioned it earlier, it could be that the fresh air vent is on, and you are unaware of it. i had similar problems, and stupid me checked everything possible to check on the hvac system, and i found nothing. i went all winter in my 94 gxe with out heat because of a little lever that i was ignorant of, and it controls the fresh air.. i think that it is located on the left side of your hvac controls, i think another guy on this thread is even more specific as to the location of it....


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