No Heat

Joe F

Joe F

Hi Miles, Lo Maintenance
Ahhh, spring is in the air.:thumbsup:

On my first ride in to work this year in my X, all was running fine until...

Being 30 degrees here in New England, I had my heat on. Suddenly, I noticed no heat blowing from the vents and the engine temp rising slightly. This kept happening on and off, but never to alarming proportions.

Opinions? My first thought was T-stat. I have a new one, just have'nt the time to install it yet, but I am trying to figure out why a sticky t-stat would do this.

Thanks in advance for any $.02
 
Couple of thoughts...

Bad or broken valve arm (under the dash). maybe the cable fell off.
Stuck thermostat.
Air in the system.
Low coolant.
Kinked heater hose.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

BTW, the engine tray's installed Joe! Thanks!
 
Not the T-stat...

If it was a stuck T-stat, and it was stuck closed, then water would never circulate to the radiator and your engine would overheat quickly, even in 30 degree weather.

If it was stuck open, you would experience a very slow engine warmup, and in fact it might never completely warm up. So you would have no heat, or slowly get heat. It would not cycle on and off.

Are any of the HVAC controls on an X vacuum-operated? If so I'd look at a leak in one of the vacuum lines, or more likely, one of the vacuum actuators going bad.

It's been so long since I tore one apart tho, I don't remember. It may be all cable or manually operated.

Pete
 
Air in the system

You've got some large air pockets circulating around in there. Check the expansion tank, it's probably low.
 
I can't believe I don't know this..

But how full should the expansion tank be? :doh:

Right now, after sitting for most of the day, it's about 1/4 full.

I will add water to make it about 1/2 full and see what happens on the way home (I know air pockets do not just go away).

I agree with the air pocket assesments. Most eloquent solutions are simple.

Thank you all
 
Classic symptoms...

...of a sticky T-stat or low coolant level. Check/fill/blead the system, and if that doesn't do the trick, change the T-stat.

Good luck....
 
Bleed the cooling system

Sounds like you have air trapped in there. Bleed the air from the bleed screw in the top of the radiator and from the bleed screws on the block.

Dom.
 
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