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Heater Problem (no warm air)


supra_ufo

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Evening folks,

 

History... my car has not been run properly for 6 years and I am currently getting the car fixed to get back on the road. I can not confirm whether this was putting out hot air before, previous owner does not remember.

 

Having recently changed the thermostat and coolant I noticed whilst running the car heaters on hot and full speed there was no hot air even with the thermostat coming up to temp.

 

Iky who is also a supra owner, pointed out that the pipe high lighted in the picture was not hot and should be hot with coolant where as the pipe above this is hot.

We took the pipe off and ran the car and there was no coolant coming out so there appears to be a block?

 

Could someone give some pointers / possible causes?

If possible I do not want to drain the car of coolant again lol

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=164304&stc=1&d=1360703329

NOHOTAIR.jpg

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I made this little T piece a few years ago when I had similar problems. I used to fill the system from the back to get the air locks out. I would put money on it being the matrix to be honest. This however improved my issues no end.

 

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/7008/pict1156.jpg

 

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4994/pict1160b.jpg

Edited by Havard (see edit history)
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Was it drained of fluid. It is a pita to get rid of any airlocks in the system. There is a thread on here somewhere about this.

 

I tried to follow this thread as best I could

http://mkiv.com/techarticles/coolant_flush/index.html

 

I didnt have the "One Prestone coolant flushing kit (without the system flush)"

 

So all I did was drain the system of coolant initially by taking the lower pipe off...whilst jacked then dropping it to get the remaining crap out.

 

Replaced lower and upper hoses with new ones, and installed new aftermarket thermostat 72c... added approx 6-7 litres of destilled water and a coolant flush from halfords. Ran the car with heaters on high until normal operating temp. (i wasnt paying attention to the heat at this point).

 

Drained the system again using the drain plug on the radiator, replaced plug (stuck it on) and added Toyota OEM coolant around 6-7 litres on cold (i know it should be 9 which is what I dont get) to the system, ran the engine until normal operating temp (again didnt check heat this time) with the rad cap off.

 

A few days later I Decided to replace the thermostat with an OEM 82c toyota one, so did the above process again but filtered the new coolant and popped it back in after I had replaced the thermostat. I even jacked the car up at the front and ran the engine with cap off to ensure it was getting to that part of the engine. At this point this is where we noticed the heaters weren't getting hot.

 

I would be far easier to diagnose if I had checked the heaters before but I did not. Now the car is from my uncle and he cant confirm whether it was working or not :-/

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I made this little T piece a few years ago when I had similar problems. I used to fill the system from the back to get the air locks out. I would put money on it being the matrix to be honest. This however improved my issues no end.

 

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/7008/pict1156.jpg

 

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4994/pict1160b.jpg

 

LMAO at that

Brilliant idea though.

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Are the heater control flaps working ?

 

There are threads on here about it and its quite common for the control rods

to come off thus not giving you any hot air.

 

If you have run the engine up to normal temp with the rad cap off and the stats open

then the system should bleed through without any dramas, no need for jacking the front

of the car up or parking on steep hills.

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Are the heater control flaps working ?

 

There are threads on here about it and its quite common for the control rods

to come off thus not giving you any hot air.

 

If you have run the engine up to normal temp with the rad cap off and the stats open

then the system should bleed through without any dramas, no need for jacking the front

of the car up or parking on steep hills.

 

 

Is that the twisty air things? Or are you referring to the buttons by the temp dial? All these appeared to be working, when I turned the temp to the left it felt colder however the garage was fookin cold anyway as was I :blink:

 

I have had the dash out whilst doing the vinyl but have connected everything back as it was.

 

Should the pipe with the pointy arrow above not have fluid inside/flowing, as I took this off to check it and also started the engine and ran the heaters but nothing came out (had the towels on the ready :) )

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=164307&stc=1&d=1360709551

IMG_8301.jpg

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I made this little T piece a few years ago when I had similar problems. I used to fill the system from the back to get the air locks out. I would put money on it being the matrix to be honest. This however improved my issues no end.

 

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/7008/pict1156.jpg

 

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4994/pict1160b.jpg

 

Havard, the pipe you cut, Is this the return pipe for the matrix?

We pulled this off whilst the car was running and at full temp, but NO fluid at all leaked out. Am I correct in assuming that there is a blockage in the matrix and NOT an airlock?

Is someone could confirm an airlock would still cause this, it would help avoid going through all the rigmarole of removing the dash to replace what could be a fine working matrix.

Edited by Iky (see edit history)
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The first thing you need to do is see if coolant is getting to

the heater matrix by disconnecting the water feed that goes

into it.

 

 

You can also check that this rod is connected in the

link below and moves when you operate the heater

 

 

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?49871-Heater-Maximum-Output-Temperature-Too-Low/page2

Edited by Dnk (see edit history)
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The first thing you need to do is see if coolant is getting to

the heater matrix by disconnecting the water feed that goes

into it.

 

 

You can also check that this rod is connected in the

link below and moves when you operate the heater

 

 

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?49871-Heater-Maximum-Output-Temperature-Too-Low/page2

 

Cheers Dunk, ill check it out.

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Reading this makes me not want to attempt my coolant and thermo change ....... even with it being the dirty colour that it is :(

 

It shouldn't be an issue and is a simple job, if your system is working correctly

then there's no reason you should have any problems

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It shouldn't be an issue and is a simple job, if your system is working correctly

then there's no reason you should have any problems

I had recently done my Celica and after draining and with the thermo out I connected the garden hose up to the top and pushed clean water through until it ran clear at the bottom then let all of that drain out, inserted new thermo followed by new coolant and all was fine ......Is this an acceptable method for the Supra ?

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I had recently done my Celica and after draining and with the thermo out I connected the garden hose up to the top and pushed clean water through until it ran clear at the bottom then let all of that drain out, inserted new thermo followed by new coolant and all was fine ......Is this an acceptable method for the Supra ?

 

Yep that's fine then just run it up to normal temp with the rad cap off

then pop the heater on max hot, you'll get air popping out the rad for

a while but usually once the heater blows nice and hot your pretty much

done, just top the rad up to the neck and fill the expansion tank approx

half full

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Yep that's fine then just run it up to normal temp with the rad cap off

then pop the heater on max hot, you'll get air popping out the rad for

a while but usually once the heater blows nice and hot your pretty much

done, just top the rad up to the neck and fill the expansion tank approx

half full

 

Thanks Dunk, you're an angel ;)

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Sorry for jacking the thread. Had similar problems. Got the radiator flushed and my heater started blowing hot and then stopped after a few days. Got it drained again today after trying to get the airlock out by stopping on a steep hill and running it as a lot of threads on here suggest. My mechanic then had a look today and said the thermostat doesn't open at all so that could be the problem. However, it blew warm for about ten miles, but as soon as I put my foot down and got into high revs it went back to being cold again. Not ice cold but not hot enough to be on cause it actually makes the inside colder. Mechanic suggested 3 things. Either the new thermostat will do the trick, previous mechanic poured radseal in so all the bits could've caused a blockage or the fanbelt is slipping a bit and the waterpump is not getting what it needs. He doesn't want to touch the matrix yet :( Any suggestions please?

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Havard, the pipe you cut, Is this the return pipe for the matrix?

We pulled this off whilst the car was running and at full temp, but NO fluid at all leaked out. Am I correct in assuming that there is a blockage in the matrix and NOT an airlock?

Is someone could confirm an airlock would still cause this, it would help avoid going through all the rigmarole of removing the dash to replace what could be a fine working matrix.

 

I am not sure if this was the flow or return to the matrix as I have never seen a schematic drawing of the system. I took a bit of a gambe and recognised this as the highest part of the system and more likely to get an air lock there. I work a lot with heating systems and used some of that logic with the NA.

 

I doubt that the matrix would be 100% blocked but also the water pump may not be man enough to shift the air out of the pipe (I find this surprising though).

 

H.

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Sorry for jacking the thread. Had similar problems. Got the radiator flushed and my heater started blowing hot and then stopped after a few days. Got it drained again today after trying to get the airlock out by stopping on a steep hill and running it as a lot of threads on here suggest. My mechanic then had a look today and said the thermostat doesn't open at all so that could be the problem. However, it blew warm for about ten miles, but as soon as I put my foot down and got into high revs it went back to being cold again. Not ice cold but not hot enough to be on cause it actually makes the inside colder. Mechanic suggested 3 things. Either the new thermostat will do the trick, previous mechanic poured radseal in so all the bits could've caused a blockage or the fanbelt is slipping a bit and the waterpump is not getting what it needs. He doesn't want to touch the matrix yet :( Any suggestions please?

 

Change the stat and fit a genuine Toyota one is the first thing to do if you

know its not opening

 

Why did it have radseal put in it, horrid stuff and if you have a leak you should

fix it properly as this junk just clogs everything up.

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I had the same problem with my jspec tt all i did was take the two pipes thet go into the bulkhead at the back of the engine off get a hose pipe and flush it out you will be supprised the amount of crap that builds up and blocks the heater once the eater is clear put everything back bleed the system by keeping heater on full and top up with mrt for life red coolent i hope that helps

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I made a video not sure how to embed though, checked the rods they seem fine to me...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIzp20kiiGM

 

 

My car has not been driven for ages, maybe it needs a quick blast to clear things up? I do know the water pump had been changed just before I got the car (mechanic did not put the clip on the lower rad pipe so coolant was leaking, all has been replaced now)

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