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89 Jetta Head Gasket? no heat after recent work.

I just bought an 89 Jetta GL for 200$ the Body was solid and it started up. It did however have a bolt broken where the Upper Radiator hose left the engine. It had a small coolant leak here. The car had heat at this time.

I had it fixed for 150$ They replaced the coolant sensor, housing, sensor 0-rings and the retaining clip, flushed and refilled the antifreeze.

After getting the car, it starts and runs fine, however the heat is barely warm now, a few degree?s warmer than outside. According to the temp gauge it doesn?t appear to be running any warmer than normal. I don?t notice any smoke while it?s running.

Is there some tests I can do? If I?m looking at a shotty head gasket what does that typically run nowadays? What else could cause this?

Thanks in advance :)

Reply to
vwiowa
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Is the system full of the proper mix of coolant and water? If not full then the heater is the first to not get coolant. You can also check the heater hoses to see if both are hot and still connected to the heater core.

I would take it back to that shop and ask them about the heat though. ;-)

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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Sounds like the cooling system is airlocked, when they refilled it they should have filled through the upper hose and also the corresponding fitting in the radiator. Since the thermostat is at the bottom of the engine and it's closed when the engine is cool (i.e. when you would be working on it) it sometimes gets a big slug of air behind it and it takes a while for things to start circulating properly. You really shouldn't drive it too much like this as you can locally overheat parts of your engine until everything works through.

nate

Reply to
N8N

Thanks Dave,

It looks like it was some air pockets in the system, i ran it with the radiator cap off till it got warm, shut it down, and put it back on and I had heat!

Thanks again

Reply to
vwiowa

thanks for the update and congrats that it is running well again with heat! lol

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

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