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Heater not working

After rear ending someone who's trailer ball punched through my radiatior, I have taken advice from everyone (much appreciated) and my car is now running. There was some confusion as to how to add the coolant on my part, so here is what I did: I adding coolant directly to the upper radiator hose, but I took the hose off of the radiator, not the engine, which seemed to work. After all is said and done, I have emptied about 1.5 gallons of coolant into the system, which is what it should hold. The resevoir is staying at normal levels now, and after running the car for 15 minutes the engine temp stayed within oe specs.

Two problems I ovbserved.

1) My car won't blow out hot air from the vents. 2) The fan did not once turn on (perhaps it just wasn't hot enough yet). I felt the upper radiatior tube, which was quite warm, so the system is obviously doing something.

Now, pardon me, but a "heater switch" was mentioned, I missed this post before I added the coolant. I am not familiar with this switch, it's not mentioned in my Chilton's guide either.

I should mention that I was forced to drive this car home (about 6 miles) without any coolant in the radiator after the accident, which obviously drained all of the coolant from my radiator.

Could I of possibly destroid my heater core in that short trip? Is it a concearn (other than me freezing during the winter) that the vents are not blowing out hot air?

Thanks,

Chrispy

Reply to
Chris Perry
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Chris , I couldn't find where you posted your first info on your car and I don't remember what the year / make of yours. Older water cooled vw's had a valve ( operated by the temp lever control on the dash ) which stopped the flow of hot coolant through the heater core. Newer ones didn't have that valve and the temp. control lever opened/closed a door in the air box allowing air flow over the heater core which had coolant always flowing though it. What is the temp. of both your heater hoses? If your vw has air conditioning you can turn that on to 'see' if the rad. fan works. ( Rad. fan turns on with 'on' of the a/c ) My guess , you didn't allow your car to heat-up to the point where it needed the rad. fan to kick on.

Reply to
samstone

Like others have said................posting the specs on the vehicle will help us help you! ;-)

Year Model Engine type Transmission type Even stating if it has air conditioning will help in your case. (I like this info in the Subject area so it does not get forgotten)

Well if the system was not full yet that could explain the NO HEAT from the heater. You might have air still in the system and hopefully when you run your vehicle longer than 15 minutes you will notice that the radiator will start to get hot in all four corners, the temperature gauge will rise and fall and rise again until it reaches a "stable" point as the coolant flows through the system. It ain't right until you hear that fan cycle on & off at least a couple of times and the fluid is flowing through that expansion bottle getting it hot too. Level has to be within min and max.

I usually squeeze the radiator hose to help burp the air out of the cooling system. It takes a little while but eventually that air will come out. You need coolant in the radiator so some people pour the coolant in there first, and then in the bottle. I have found when you add coolant to the bottle it will go into the engine. ;-)

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

Reply to
Chris Perry

Make sure that little hose from the cylinder head to the expansion bottle is not clogged. I have found 2 with clogs at the cylinder head.

I still think you have air in there!

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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