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.