Your Heater

[Timbo]

Hey lads,

Just a quick question.. How long, from a cold start, does it take for your heater to heat the cabin up? Just to take the chill off..

I dunno if there's something wrong with mine or not.. after I took all of the dash and heating unit out and put it back in, it seems a little lacking... but then again, I cant remember what it was like before the accident.

From dead cold, it takes about 15mins for my heater to start blowing warm air, and on the feet setting, I can still feel a slight coolness in the blown air.. it's not "hot" if you get me.

What's your heater like?

[DX grunt]

Mine takes a bit to crank up, but not 15 mins.

[patch697]

Mine takes about 5 min to star getting warm & by the time 10 min as passed im sitting in a toaster.... Its nothing short of Bloody fantastic

[Maxhead]

Yep, mine's around 5 minutes as well to get warm and a sauna after 10 min

[YNOT]

My heater starts warming up as soon as the temperature gauge gets to about a quarter, 5 to 10 minutes.
You could have a blocked heater core, internally or externally. Or it could be something as simple as the heater just needing to be bled. With the radiator cap off, turn the temp control to full hot and run the engine until the thermostat-assuming you have one fitted, opens (you'll feel the radiator warm up suddenly).
Alternatively, move to Queensland, where it rarely gets cold enough to need the heater!!!

Tony

[Timbo]

Well I haven't fitted one personally... shouldn't that be on the GU from factory?

[patch697]

Well I haven't fitted one personally... shouldn't that be on the GU from factory?

Yes but if your thermostat has been removed at some stage prier to you owning it or is not working correctly this can affect the heat coming out of your heater.

How long does it take for your engine to get up to running temp? & how well does your heater work when its at running temp?

Now that we have bragged about how well our heaters work....lol... its only fair we help you try & get yours doing the same.......

Cheers
Paul

[Timbo]

haha thanks Paul

Car reaches operating temp in about 5-10 mins of driving I'd say, and at that time, the heater blows out warm air, but I wouldn't call it hot air by any means. It probably takes a further 10mins to actually circulate and warm the cabin up. I'm not sure If im just expecting it to be a lot warmer or what..

I live exactly 3.7km's from where I work. There's hardly any point in my using the heater because it's only really getting warm when I rock into the car park.

The heater itself works. I used it for a few hours on a drive on Saturday night. The car was hot enough that I was sweating, but that was over hours.

I'm concerned about how long it takes from cold. Obviously the car has to be warm, and the engine is definitely warm after 5-10mins of driving which I think is normal. But the air from the heater is still really only luke-warm at this point. I would have thought it'd be as warm as the engine and im pretty sure I wouldn't want my face put on the motor after 10mins :P

[patch697]

Then I'd say you have a restriction in the flow to you heater somewhere & now its time to find it.....

What are you like at doing some DIY?

[Timbo]

did everything but weld the roof on the car when i rolled it so im pretty confident :)

Being confident and having the time/motivation is another thing. In a perfect work, I'd pull the dash out completely, again, take a proper look at everything, try to fix it, find the rattle in the dash, fix that too and build a second glovebox in the compartment that doesnt have the airbag.

Then there's the problem of me wanting to do many many DIY things to the 4wd, but I don't want to do it to a 2.8.. i'd rather a 4.2, a V8 or the fuel guzzling big 6. But I digress.

I read something about a heater resistor.. not sure where it is but apparently its common in a lot of cars to die and screw with the heater.
It could very well be blocked somehow.. Fan setting 1 and 2 are pretty piss poor in terms of "strength".. where as fan setting 3 and 4 are a lot stronger, but don't have a huge difference between them.

The position control knob, where you can select window fan, feet fan, face fan etc.. when i turn it all the way to the right, it doesn't seem to go all the way and is a bit stiff. The light globe also randomly goes out on that knob too and i have to tap the plastic around it to light it back up. lol... drives me nuts on bumpy roads.

/sigh it's a nightmare job working with the heater.

[MudRunnerTD]

I reckon you should be starting with a system bleed as mentioned by others early.

use a cut off coke bottle as a funnel and some electrical tape around the throat and firmly place it into the top of your radiator, fill it up and leave the engine running for an hour with the heater going flat out, go have a coffee or a beer and come back later. after that check for kinked hoses then the thermostat.

Good luck mate

[Timbo]

I've checked for "diversion flap" problems this morning before work. Although the selector knob isn't exactly correct in it's selections, all modes work and no air is coming out of areas that it isn't supposed to. ie; air coming out of feet vent when selected on windscreen. (unless you goto those halfway modes, in which case it does what it's supposed too)

I'll try this system bleed on saturday I think. I have to go and get some lights (another thread) so while i install them the car can cool down and i can bleed from a cold start.

Will let ya's know what happens. I'll take a photo if I end up with a face full of coolant.

[Timbo]

Ok, I have an update.

It's pretty obvious and really simple now that I know the problem!

The middle selector for the hot/cold setting had something wrong at the other end. When you turn those knobs, a thin metal rod pushes and pulls a lever which opens/shuts a flap which re-directs air. What happened what, the metal rod was hanging down underneath the lever. Now, I always had the selector on "hot" but in reality, because nothing was attached, it was probably in reality on "warm" or halfway. Hence, it took quite a while (in my opinion) to heat up.. and the cool/cold selection never worked.

I couldn't figure out how it connected properly because it isn't an easy position to get into under the dash like that.. there wasn't a lot of light.. and I was in a hurry (trying to wire in spotties).. so anyway, I just jammed it together the best I could, just to see if it works. I'll look at it again another weekend.

The difference is.. HOT AIR... holy crap that shit almost burns my hands if I cover a vent with my palm. It's putting out hot air within 5 mins now, like it should. Also, the cool setting works too which is great.

So that's a problem fixed.

ps. Don't you hate it when you're doing one problem, then all of a sudden you decide to look at something else and end up fixing that?

[patch697]

Ok, I have an update.

It's pretty obvious and really simple now that I know the problem!

The middle selector for the hot/cold setting had something wrong at the other end. When you turn those knobs, a thin metal rod pushes and pulls a lever which opens/shuts a flap which re-directs air. What happened what, the metal rod was hanging down underneath the lever. Now, I always had the selector on "hot" but in reality, because nothing was attached, it was probably in reality on "warm" or halfway. Hence, it took quite a while (in my opinion) to heat up.. and the cool/cold selection never worked.

I couldn't figure out how it connected properly because it isn't an easy position to get into under the dash like that.. there wasn't a lot of light.. and I was in a hurry (trying to wire in spotties).. so anyway, I just jammed it together the best I could, just to see if it works. I'll look at it again another weekend.

The difference is.. HOT AIR... holy crap that shit almost burns my hands if I cover a vent with my palm. It's putting out hot air within 5 mins now, like it should. Also, the cool setting works too which is great.

So that's a problem fixed.

ps. Don't you hate it when you're doing one problem, then all of a sudden you decide to look at something else and end up fixing that?

Cheers G thanks for the update it may very well help out someone one day.