Help, Car wont heat up <flushed system>

dirty slut · Dec 20, 2005

I just flushed the system, changed all the hoses, put a new Mr gasket 180* thermostat, and new radiator cap in. Now the car wont heat up. I drove it around for awhile and got out and there was no fluid in the upper hose, I could squeeze it together.

It wont go past 130 on the OEM gauge. I tested the thermostat prior to instalation but confused. Am i supposed to actually see it open or are bubble supposed to come out. The only other thing I could think of is the radiator, or something else is plugged up along the way:damnit:

A side note, I put a full gallon of distilled water in, then tried to put a gallon of antifreeze in but it would not take it, only took about half of it??

timeless2 · Dec 20, 2005

I remember your past post on this.
So you have replaced the thermostat and done a complete flush.

A clogged heater core, bypass hose, or even a defective radiator cap could be oustanding issues you may be having.

86bluecobra · Dec 20, 2005

maybe system still needs to be burped. lots of times there is a air pocket that wont allow coolant to flow properly.

dirty slut · Dec 20, 2005

when I squeeze the upper hose w/ the radiator cap off, it moves the fluid and garbles a little. Does that mean the sytem is burped? If not how do I do it.

86bluecobra · Dec 20, 2005

does your heater put out heat?

dirty slut · Dec 20, 2005

86bluecobra said:
does your heater put out heat?

Yes

(what does this do, eliminate the heater core???)

Iand · Dec 20, 2005

thermostat stuck open? in backwards? i dunno, not a pro with cooling systems just throwing my ideas out there.

bill302 · Dec 20, 2005

one way to check if thermostat is stuck open(won't work on system with degas container 1996+) is to remove radiator cap when engine is cold (after setting approx 6-8 hrs.). crank engine and rev engine while looking at fluid through filler neck if fluid is circulating (when engines cold) thermostat is open when it should not be (stuck) or there is no thermostat, but in your case you know it has a thermostat. could the guage be bad. the cooling system should remove air on its own after a few driving and cooling cycles. it usually won't do it on first drive unless you drive a long distance.

wythors · Dec 20, 2005

If you've got heat in the car, but the gauge reads low, I'd suspect you've got a bad temp sender or gauge. Check the temperature of the coolant with a thermometer when you're getting heat in the car. Betcha it's hotter than 130.

bill302 · Dec 20, 2005

wythors said:
If you've got heat in the car, but the gauge reads low, I'd suspect you've got a bad temp sender or gauge. Check the temperature of the coolant with a thermometer when you're getting heat in the car. Betcha it's hotter than 130.

i bet your right.

Black1987Stang · Dec 21, 2005

wythors said:
If you've got heat in the car, but the gauge reads low, I'd suspect you've got a bad temp sender or gauge. Check the temperature of the coolant with a thermometer when you're getting heat in the car. Betcha it's hotter than 130.

Ditto:Word:

90lx5.slow · Dec 21, 2005

my car wont heat up either, but I don't have heat
Could this be a clogged heater core?
Can I bypass it or fix it?

Black1987Stang · Dec 21, 2005

90lx5.slow said:
my car wont heat up either, but I don't have heat
Could this be a clogged heater core?
Can I bypass it or fix it?

With heater off feel ur 2 heater hoses coming out of the firewall they should both be pretty hot, if one is hot and one is alot cooler then i would say ur heater core is clogged. If it is You can backflush it with a hose to try and unclog any debris in there, You can bypass it if u want but it doesnt affect the cooling system in any way. youll just freeze ur a$$ off
How is the top radiator hose after like 10 minutes of driving? Not very hot, i would say no thermostat or one stuck open.

dirty slut · Dec 21, 2005

bill302 said:
one way to check if thermostat is stuck open(won't work on system with degas container 1996+) is to remove radiator cap when engine is cold (after setting approx 6-8 hrs.). crank engine and rev engine while looking at fluid through filler neck if fluid is circulating (when engines cold) thermostat is open when it should not be (stuck) or there is no thermostat, but in your case you know it has a thermostat. could the guage be bad. the cooling system should remove air on its own after a few driving and cooling cycles. it usually won't do it on first drive unless you drive a long distance.

Ok, the coolant dosent really circulate around but it does drop a couple of inches when I rev it and rises back to where it was when I stop.

wythors said:
If you've got heat in the car, but the gauge reads low, I'd suspect you've got a bad temp sender or gauge. Check the temperature of the coolant with a thermometer when you're getting heat in the car. Betcha it's hotter than 130.

How do I check the temperature when the car is already warmed up. The fluid will push out if I leave the cap on and Im not able to remove the radiator cap right after driving right?

90lx5.slow · Dec 21, 2005

87stangdiddle said:
With heater off feel ur 2 heater hoses coming out of the firewall they should both be pretty hot, if one is hot and one is alot cooler then i would say ur heater core is clogged. If it is You can backflush it with a hose to try and unclog any debris in there, You can bypass it if u want but it doesnt affect the cooling system in any way. youll just freeze ur a$$ off
How is the top radiator hose after like 10 minutes of driving? Not very hot, i would say no thermostat or one stuck open.

Ok, I just checked it out and turns out my heater core is bypassed
does this mean I have no thermistat because my car wont heat up?

bill302 · Dec 21, 2005

90 lx5.slow;
it means someone by bypassed it for a reason probably because you have a hole in your heater core, with the heater core bypassed hot antifreeze cannot circulate within the heater core. hot antifreeze passes threw the heater core the heater core is simply a small radiator. a fan (blower) blows air threw the heater core heating the air and thats what you feel at your vents. not having heat in your situation has nothing to do with thermostat

srothfuss · Dec 21, 2005

The thermostat is located in the front part of the engine. Where the top radiator hose goes into the block, there is a little metal housing.... This is where you will find (or not find) the thermostat.

The job of the thermostat: Slow the coolant down in the block for a quicker engine warm up time. Also, slow the coolant fluid down so it can spend more time in the radiator (heat exchanger.)

Without a thermostat your car will take a very long time to warm up. Compaired to the 10 minutes or so it takes my car to get up to operating temperature.

My method for bleading air out of the cooling system: With the motor cold, take off the radiator cap.
Start the engine and allow the motor to warm up.
If you have a thermostat, it will open after a couple of minutes and the fluid level will drop in the radiator.
Pour some mixed coolant into the radiator until it's full. Let the motor run a little bit more to ensure the new coolant is properly circulated and then recap the radiator.

Having the system uncapped gives the air pockets a place to escape to. This method works for me and plenty of other people do it differently so take my advice with a grain of salt.

dirty slut · Dec 21, 2005

Ok, I drove it to work today (10-15 minutes) getting on it a few times and it never warms up. When I got to work I left the car running and I checked the upper radiator hose, it was warm finally, but there still was no fluid in it, WTF? I can squeeze it completly together as if it were a straw.

srothfuss · Dec 21, 2005

dirty :taco: said:
Ok, I drove it to work today (10-15 minutes) getting on it a few times and it never warms up. When I got to work I left the car running and I checked the upper radiator hose, it was warm finally, but there still was no fluid in it, WTF? I can squeeze it completly together as if it were a straw.

As most people said in the thread... Those two issues are indicitave of no Thermostat in your cooling system.

Also, can you feel coolant running in the hose when you are holding it?

dirty slut · Dec 21, 2005

I have a thermostat in there b/c I just replaced it, as well as all the hoses, flushed the sytem, and a new radiator cap..

No I do not feel coolant flowing, if it were flowing It should be enough so that I can not squeeze the entire hose together right?

Help, Car wont heat up <flushed system>

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