Coolant low, heater sucks, why?

[Killer50stang]

What does coolant have to do with your heater? I'm not stupid and I know the heater gets it's heat from the engine, but coolant cools and lubs. So when the coolant is low why does my heater not work?

Jason

 

[69Rcode_Mach1]

The reason the two correlate is because coolant goes into your heater core which is like a small radiator inside your car if you will, it circulates through it and when you turn on the blower motor, it blows air through it, in turn this heats the air up, making your heater functional. So if you have low enough coolant then your car is not circulating enough to the heater core to heat up the air. Make sense?

 

[Black1987Stang]

yea what he said

 

[88gt]

The reason the two correlate is because coolant goes into your heater core which is like a small radiator inside your car if you will, it circulates through it and when you turn on the blower motor, it blows air through it, in turn this heats the air up, making your heater functional. So if you have low enough coolant then your car is not circulating enough to the heater core to heat up the air. Make sense?

 

[Umby]

I think the better question here is why are you losing coolant

 

[sunil6784]

Yeah, chances are, if you find out whats happening to the coolant, it will also fix your heating issues.

 

[Killer50stang]

The reason the two correlate is because coolant goes into your heater core which is like a small radiator inside your car if you will, it circulates through it and when you turn on the blower motor, it blows air through it, in turn this heats the air up, making your heater functional. So if you have low enough coolant then your car is not circulating enough to the heater core to heat up the air. Make sense?

Makes total sense, I just didn't know the process and was curious. Found and fixed the problem today. Water outlet was broke and had a bad hose. Thanks for the info!

Jason

 

[86bluecobra]

it is also a kinda warning to pull over before you overheat. the heater core is actually higher then the top of the rad so when lvl starts to drop the coolant takes the path of least resistance and thats to the low spot the rad.