Heater Issues.

[Plattsy]

hey gents, noticed today (its bloody cold in melbourne) that my heater is pants. its takes ages to get warm and even then its not 32 like is says on the air con.

also when i press the auto button the ac is not making it get any warmer any quicker!

i know the heater works because before the radiator replacement it was red hot! any ideas?

94 r33 gtst.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

how's your thermostat? does the engine temp pop up above the C character within 5 minutes? if not time to replace your thermostat and while you're at it, bleed your system too.

[milanr34]

Hey bud,

I've had a similar problem where it took so long to get the heat, but also even if i was to put it to 28degrees it didn't feel like it. I had to replace the waterpump, after that everything worked fine. But as John said make sure you bleed your system.

[Plattsy]

yea the engine is warming up fine. had a new radiator put in about 3 weeks ago. because the car was overheating.

so your saying bleed the cooling system? i know the thermo is good it was changed about 15 days ago lol.

right to bleed i usually put a bottle in the neck of the radiator to get the level above the bleed screw on the intake manifold. i then unscrew the bleed screw and poor water/coolant in to the bottle until it pours out of the bleed screw is this correct?

Hey bud,

I've had a similar problem where it took so long to get the heat, but also even if i was to put it to 28degrees it didn't feel like it. I had to replace the waterpump, after that everything worked fine. But as John said make sure you bleed your system.

ive got a new water pump to be fitted when i have my timing belt and tensioners changed. just gotta fin someone to do it.

[milanr34]

I'll tell you how I bleed it as that is how I did it on my 31, 32 and my BMW 320i. (ASK AROUND JUST TO BE SURE HOW OTHERS DO IT)

- Car is cold, open radiator cap and turn car on.

- Wait couple of minutes and put the heater on hot and full blast

- You will see bubbles coming out of the radiator - rev engine slightly once or twice (only by 500rpm)

- Wait until no more bubbles are coming out put radiator cap on

See if you can have somebody look at the water pump asap, because i've had a similar problem then water pump was completely gone then radiator started overheating

[mad082]

the r33 has a bleed screen near the intake plenum. it's on the drivers side of the engine at the front of the plenum. it has a 10mm bolt at the top of it which you open to bleed the system. this is the best way to do it.

as for the heater, as above, make sure the temp gauge is reading in the middle of the gauge. for best results with the heater, don't turn it on until the engine is up to temp otherwise the car will take much longer to warm up because it has to heat up much more coolant, plus the fact that the heater works a little bit like a radiator, so it actually cools the engine a little bit. the heater core also takes a little bit of time to properly heat up, so it should pump out some warm air pretty much straight away (if the engine is warm) and should get hotter as time goes on.

also for best results, turn the AC off when using the heater (just have the fan going) as the AC will cool the air a little bit.

if it was working super well before the radiator change, but not after, then that may be because of 2 things. 1: air in the system, however just driving around with the heater on should bleed it out of the heater system and into the greater cooling system, so the heater should work fine. 2: the thermostat is making the engine run much cooler with the new radiator. if the old radiator was making the car run hot then any issue with the thermostat may have been masked. so just make sure that the car comes up to temp quickly.

it may also be that the heat tap isn't opening properly (but because the car was running so hot the hotter coolant made the heater core heat up enough), or the water pump is on its way out.

[GoHard]

Wasnt a trident thermostat was it? Heard bad things about them from new. Could be stuck open? Usually temp goes up from air locks, not down?

[mad082]

air locks make the engine temp go up, but if the air is in the heater core then it won't get hot becuase there is no hot coolant getting in there to heat it up, but an air buble shouldn't just stay in the heater when the engine is running

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Remember to install it properly, the little metal wobbly bit needs to be up top to allow bubbles to flow through, the original Nissan one has the markings, but aftermarket ones don't. They assume you know what you're doing.

[StevenCJR31]

check that you have good coolant flow through the heater core itself ie core not blocked?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

check that you have good coolant flow through the heater core itself ie core not blocked?

True that, mum's car was farked... new themostat, new water pump but still no heat, turns out the heater core had like algae or some alien life form in it. I popped off one end, and hose clamped down the garden hose. Pumped it's mum out, there were chunks of gooey shit.

Heater now is good.

[Plattsy]

anyone got a quick way to flush the heater core? its just feckin wierd that it was hotter than the sun on the old rad and thermo and now on the new rad and thermo its colder than michael jackson!

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

anyone got a quick way to flush the heater core? its just feckin wierd that it was hotter than the sun on the old rad and thermo and now on the new rad and thermo its colder than michael jackson!

disconnect both hoses from the firewall, connect a garden hose to one end, pump it's mum out?

[Plattsy]

righto should just be a case of finding them then.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

righto should just be a case of finding them then.

behind the dump, next to the 02 sensor passenger side

[Plattsy]

nice one brother! should i be expecting to lose a lot of coolant out of this? the sneak barsteward who replaced it when he changed my rad didnt tell me what type to put in! i quote "might need to top her off in a couple of k's just put some water in."

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

you will, just hit up supercheap $10 premix coolant is better than tap water

[Plattsy]

but wouldnt i have to change the whole lot in that case?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

there's not much to begin with anyways

doesn't hurt to dump it all and add in new stuff

[Plattsy]

heres a question.......

once all the coolant is flushed out with water. how do you get the water out!?

always wondeed this about cooling systems.

i hate them. im a pretty decent mechanic engine wise, but i effing hate cooling systems.

(im a generator mechanic and they where mostly aircooled!)